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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 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.

These are habits to avoid. Because of how stoicism survives to us mostly in the form of scraps and fragments and letters, we don't exactly have a list of do's and don'ts.

There are no ten commandments of stoicism, no definitive book of what they believed or didn't. But in those scraps and fragments, we do get plenty.

We know what Sennaka tried to do every night as he closed the day. We know what Marcus tried to think about in the morning. We know what Epictetus and Musonius Rufus said we ought to avoid doing.

And it's that latter category that's worth thinking about today. What habits did the stoic say we ought to cease? What vices should we avoid?

Don't be overheard complaining even to yourself. That's Marcus. Don't put on airs about your self-improvement. That's Epictetus. Don't overindulge in eating or drinking.

Musonius, don't speak more than you listen. Zeno, don't avoid difficulty. Sennaka, don't tie your identity to the clothes you wear or the things you own. Cato, don't conceal what you truly believe.

That's areas didimus. Don't go along to get along. That's a grippiness. Don't be all about business. Marcus, don't put off to tomorrow what can be finished today.

Sennaka, don't shun people you disagree with. Sennaka, don't sleep the day away. Marcus, don't neglect your friendships. Sennaka, don't waste time thinking you are going to live forever. That's all of them.

We could list more, but really the most important thing to the stoics as far as forming good habits and kicking bad ones goes. It's awareness.

Musonius, Rufus, believe that in too many circumstances, we do not deal with our affairs in accordance with correct assumptions, but rather we follow thoughtless habit.

And Marcus said that we should learn to ask of all actions. Why are you doing that? And he said, you must start with your own.

I really want to tell you about the Daily Stoke Habits course that we have. We're calling it Daily Stoke Habits for Success, Habits for Happiness.

It helps you do what the stoics are talking about, which is how to avoid bad habits, how to form better new habits.

I think it's one of the best things we've done. It's six weeks of habit formation, thinking about philosophy, applying it to your everyday life.

These are habits I try to apply in my life that Marcus and Seneca and Epictetus and Musonius and all the stoics we've talked about try to apply in theirs.

It's great stuff based on philosophy, psychology, research, history, and I think you're really going to get a lot out of it.

You can check that out at dailystoke.com slash habits or if you join Daily Stoke Life, which you can join at DailyStokeLife.com, you get that course and all our other ones for free.

So check both those out Daily Stoke Life and Daily Stoke Habits for Success, Habits for Happiness.

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