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Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life.

Each one of these passages is based on the 2000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

Don't wait. Get started now. This is that weird time of year where we start to think about how we want to fall in the year to go. We call them resolutions and they are promises we make to ourselves about what we're going to do in the next 12 months.

The habits we are going to quit, the skills we're going to learn, the standards we are going to hold ourselves to. On the one hand, it's wonderful and inspiring bit of reflection that the whole world basically comes together to do this at the same time.

It's excellent that everyone has finally decided to get in shape to stop smoking, to try to give back more, to commit to being a better friend or relative, or to read a certain number of books.

But it's strange that everyone puts it off for so long. We treat our self-improvement like it's a school project we hope just might complete itself, praying that maybe our parents or teacher will handle it for us.

Well, they won't.

Epictetus asked why it is that we wait to demand the best for and of ourselves. It's pretty crazy, but no matter because here we are today staring down the barrel of 2019, and while it would have been better to get started earlier, the second best time to improve is right now.

We can put that missed opportunity behind us and repeat this passage from epictetus. From now on, then resolve to live as a grown-up who is making progress and make whatever you think best a law that you never set aside.

And whenever you encounter anything that is difficult or pleasurable or highly or lowly regarded, remember that the contest is now. You are at the Olympic Games. You cannot wait any longer and that your progress is wrecked or preserved by a single day in a single event.

Can you do that? Can you start right now? No more putting stuff off. No more. I'll start on Monday. No more in the future. I'll do better and expect better. No demand the best for yourself now. It's what a grown-up does.

If you want to join us on the 14-day Stoic Challenge, New Year, New Year, you have basically three more days to sign up. Registration closes December 31st at 11.59pm. You can click to sign up at dailystoic.com slash challenge.

Thousands of people joined us for the challenge. We did in October and found it life-changing. Here's a few testimonials. Daniel said the challenge was awesome.

One of the things that really blew me away was just the interaction with the group. The overwhelming support in the Slack channel was amazing. And I felt like it was a quake towards sympathy.

Mark wrote in, I love the fact that the daily challenges engage not only your mind but your body and spirit. I'd highly recommend the challenge to others who are interested in deepening their understanding of Stoic writings.

But most importantly, how Stoic principles can be meaningfully applied to our daily lives. Sean wrote in, the 30-day Stoic Challenge helped really push me deeper into actual practice of Stoic principles aside from just doing daily readings and some journaling.

He says he still has the 30-day challenge hanging on his fridge because it serves as a reminder of what he wants to do.

And then Mary wrote in, the 30-day challenge kicked off an avalanche of change in my life. A wall of resistance crumbled during the challenge over and over and over again.

She heard that she can control the quality of her days and that her life was in her hands. But basically the challenge let her experience what those words meant.

She said it was a unique experience that has saved me a ton of money that would have gone to a shrink. So if that sounds like something you can use, you can sign up again dailystoic.com slash challenge.

There's not much more time to put it off because it starts on January 1st and will be closed then to any new entries. I hope to see you there. I think you'll have a great time. You won't regret it. It's awesome. I'm going to be doing it.

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