Say Hello

Stake Your Own Claim is a reminder that philosophy only matters when it becomes personal. In this episode of Navigate the Day, I reflect on Seneca’s challenge to stop living secondhand through borrowed ideas and begin taking responsibility for my own thinking, choices, and character. It’s easy to quote wise words, to journal about growth, or to admire great thinkers—but much harder to live in a way that proves those ideas have truly taken root.

This past week forced me to confront how little I trust myself and how often fear, regret, and self-doubt keep me stuck. I’ve spent a lot of time repeating insights without fully embodying them, waiting for clarity or confidence to arrive before taking action. Seneca makes it clear that this hesitation is its own kind of avoidance. Wisdom isn’t inherited or memorized—it’s earned through effort, mistakes, and ownership.

I talk honestly about feeling lost, about not knowing who I am or what I want, and about the frustration of trying to improve while still feeling stagnant. But I also recognize that waiting for perfect certainty has cost me time. Progress doesn’t come from having all the answers; it comes from choosing a direction and committing to it long enough to learn who I’m becoming along the way.

This episode isn’t about sudden transformation or grand declarations. It’s about reclaiming agency in small, deliberate ways—thinking for myself, acting with intention, and allowing my values to be shaped by lived experience rather than borrowed authority. If anything meaningful is going to come from my life, it won’t be because I repeated the right ideas—it will be because I finally took responsibility for making them my own.

Stake Your Own Claim is an invitation to stop waiting, stop hiding behind theory, and start becoming someone whose life speaks for itself.

Thank you for listening and joining me on my journey of self-discovery!

Mediations and Prompts influenced from The Daily Stoic Books

Please if you enjoy this content checkout Ryan's work

Say Hello

In this episode of Navigate the Day, I reflect on what it means to regain balance when life knocks us off course. Inspired by Marcus Aurelius’ reminder that losing composure is human—but staying lost is a choice—I explore the idea of rhythm: the steady inner cadence we return to again and again, even when circumstances are chaotic.

This past week made it clear to me that I don’t always struggle because things go wrong, but because I linger too long in disappointment, regret, and distraction. I talk honestly about drifting, about using avoidance and dopamine as substitutes for direction, and about the fear that keeps me from making changes I know I need to make. Still, there’s progress here too—sobriety held, old self-destructive habits resisted, and a growing awareness that recovery matters more than perfection.

Rather than demanding constant calm, this episode is about learning how to re-center—to return to reason, values, and steadiness after being shaken. Life doesn’t stop interrupting us. Seasons change, plans fall apart, emotions surge, and time keeps moving. Fighting that rhythm only deepens the struggle. Learning to move with it, even imperfectly, is where strength begins.

Keep the Rhythm is a reminder that you don’t need to have everything figured out to move forward. You just need to return—to your footing, your principles, and your intention—one small step at a time. Even after losing the beat, it’s never too late to find it again.

Thank you for listening and joining me on my journey of self-discovery!

Mediations and Prompts influenced from The Daily Stoic Books

Please if you enjoy this content checkout Ryan's work

Say Hello

In this episode of Navigate the Day, I sit with Seneca’s reminder that life isn’t actually short—we just waste more of it than we’d like to admit. His words hit harder than I expected. Not because I’ve mastered any of it, but because I’m starting to recognize just how much of my own time I’ve let slip through my fingers. Not through anything dramatic—just distraction, regret, avoidance, and a kind of drifting that’s easy to fall into when life hasn’t turned out the way you hoped.

This past week, I’ve been wrestling with what it really means to value my time when I don’t feel all that hopeful about where my life is headed. I’m not living like today is my last day, and honestly, I’m not sure what I’d even do if it were. Some regrets can’t be undone, and some dreams feel too far out of reach to chase anymore. That makes it easy to believe that my actions don’t matter, or that it’s too late to change anything meaningful.

But Seneca’s challenge isn’t about grand gestures—it’s about intention. It’s about acknowledging the time I do have and how easily I let it slip away by giving my attention to the wrong things: old mistakes, impossible “what-ifs,” jobs I don’t care about, and opinions of myself that keep me stuck. I get overwhelmed by the big picture, but the Stoics keep pointing me back to something smaller and more manageable: the present moment, and what I choose to do with it.

I’m beginning to see that the only things truly mine—my choices, my judgments, my character—are exactly what I’ve been neglecting. I don’t trust myself the way I used to, but maybe part of valuing time is learning to rebuild that trust one small decision at a time. Even if the future I wanted is gone, I can still shape the day in front of me. I can still learn discipline. I can still try to face unpleasant truths instead of hiding from them. I can still choose to improve my situation in small, imperfect ways.

I don’t have all the answers. Most days I feel like I’m drifting more than living. But reflecting on time—how easily it’s wasted and how precious it actually is—makes me want to stop letting my days blur together. I may not be able to rewrite the past, but I can stop letting it write the rest of my life for me.

Be Stingy With Time is my attempt to step toward that: to be more intentional, more aware, and maybe a little more courageous with the hours I have left. Not because everything suddenly feels meaningful, but because I’m starting to understand that meaning is something I have to create through what I choose to do next.

Thank you for listening and joining me on my journey of self-discovery!

Mediations and Prompts influenced from The Daily Stoic Books

Please if you enjoy this content checkout Ryan's work