This week, I finally started reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. It’s an easy guess, I know—it’s one of the most widely referenced books on Stoicism. I’ve come across countless mentions of it in podcasts and talk shows, and I’ve tried picking it up before. But each time, I struggled to grasp its essence. Determined to give it another shot, I decided to take a different approach. This time, I paired my reading with YouTube videos from Ryan Holiday, the well-known Daily Stoic guy. His insights have helped me see the book from a fresh perspective. Marcus Aurelius, a Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, was also a Stoic philosopher. Interestingly, my first introduction to him wasn’t through history books but through the movie Gladiator . At the time, I had no idea that the wise old emperor in the film was the same Marcus Aurelius who penned Meditations . It turns out, his writings were never meant for publication—they were personal reflections, private notes to himself. And yet, centuri...
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