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by
Ryan Holiday
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November 25, 2016 - December 15, 2018
We want things to go perfectly, so we tell ourselves that we’ll get started once the conditions are right, or once we have our bearings. When, really, it’d be better to focus on making do with how things actually are. Marcus reminded himself: “Don’t await the perfection of Plato’s Republic.” He wasn’t expecting the world to be exactly the way he wanted it to be, but Marcus knew instinctively, as the Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper would later write, that “he alone can do good who knows what things are like and what their situation is.” Today, we won’t let our honest understanding of the
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“Indeed, how could exile be an obstacle to a person’s own cultivation, or to attaining virtue when no one has ever been cut off from learning or practicing what is needed by exile?” —MUSONIUS RUFUS, LECTURES, 9.37.30–31, 9.39.1
“At this moment you aren’t on a journey, but wandering about, being driven from place to place, even though what you seek—to live well—is found in all places. Is there any place more full of confusion than the Forum? Yet even there you can live at peace, if needed.” —SENECA, M
It’s far better that we become pragmatic and adaptable—able to do what we need to do anywhere, anytime. The place to do your work, to live the good life, is here
“You must stop blaming God, and not blame any person. You must completely control your desire and shift your avoidance to what lies within your reasoned choice. You must no longer feel anger, resentment, envy, or regret.” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.22.13
As one of his fellow prisoners, Neville Alexander, explained on Frontline, “He [Mandela] always made the point, if they say you must run, insist on walking. If they say you must walk fast, insist on walking slowly. That was the whole point. We are going to set the terms.”
That self-assurance is yours to claim as well. No matter what happens today, no matter where you find yourself, shift to what lies within your reasoned choices. Ignore, as best you can, the emotions that pop up, which would be so easy to distract yourself with. Don’t get emotional—get focused.
“The more you say,” Robert Greene has written, “the more likely you are to say something foolish.” To that we add: the more you say, the more likely you are to blow past opportunities, ignore feedback, and cause yourself suffering.
The inexperienced and fearful talk to reassure themselves. The ability to listen, to deliberately keep out of a conversation and subsist without its validity is rare. Silence is a way to build strength and self-sufficiency.
“Apply yourself to thinking through difficulties—hard times can be softened, tight squeezes widened, and heavy loads made lighter for those who can apply the right pressure.” —SENECA, ON TRANQUILITY OF MIND, 10.4b
It’s that kind of energy and creativity and above all faith in yourself that you need right now. Defeatism won’t get you anywhere (except defeat). But focusing your entire effort on the little bit of room, the tiny scrap of an opportunity, is your best shot. An aide to Lyndon Johnson once remarked that around the man “there was a feeling—if you did everything, you would win.” Everything. Or as Marcus Aurelius put it, if it’s humanly possible, you can do it.
Lincoln was all the things he was—compassionate, deliberate, fair, open-minded, and purposeful—while being a politician. He was what we admire in a profession we believe to be filled exclusively with the opposite of that type of person.
“Do now what nature demands of you. Get right to it if that’s in your power. Don’t look around to see if people will know about it. Don’t await the perfection of Plato’s Republic, but be satisfied with even the smallest step forward and regard the outcome as a small thing.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 9.29.(4)
not to become trapped by idealism.
“As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be—it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be.”
Don’t excuse yourself from doing them because the conditions aren’t right or because a better opportunity might come along soon. Do what you can, now. And when you’ve done it, keep it in perspective, don’t overblow the results. Shun both ego and excuse, before and after.
“Don’t tell yourself anything more than what the initial impressions report. It’s been reported to you that someone is speaking badly about you. This is the report—the report wasn’t that you’ve been harmed. I see that my son is sick—but not that his life is at risk. So always stay within your first impressions, and don’t add to them in your head—this way nothing can happen to you.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.49
What a philosopher also has is the ability, as Nietzsche put it, “to stop courageously, at the surface” and see things in plain, objective form.
Yes, Stoics were “superficial,” he said, “out of profundity.”
while other people are getting carried away, that’s what you’r...
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A kind of straightforward pragmatism—seeing things as their initial i...
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“We don’t abandon our pursuits because we despair of ever perfecting them.” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 1.2.37b Psychologists speak of cognitive distortions—exaggerated thinking patterns that have a destructive impact on the life of the patient. One of the most common is known as all-or-nothing thinking (also referred to as splitting). Examples of this include thoughts like: If you’re not with me, you’re against me. So-and-so is all good/bad. Because this wasn’t a complete success, it is a total failure. This sort of extreme thinking is associated with depression and frustration. How could it not
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although theories are clean and simple, situations rarely are.
I’ll tell you how people can prove their words to be their own—by putting into practice what they’ve been preaching.” —SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 108.35; 38
real philosophers weren’t concerned with authorship, only what worked. More important, they believed that what was said mattered less than what was done.
The way to prove that you truly understand what you speak and write, that you truly are original, is to put them into practice. Speak them with your actions more than anything else.
“You’ve endured countless troubles—all from not letting your ruling reason do the work it was made for—enough already!” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 9.26
Ben Franklin’s proverb put it: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
“Philosophy
It shapes and builds up the soul, it gives order to life, guides action, shows what should and shouldn’t be done—it sits at the rudder steering our course as we vacillate in uncertainties. Without it, no one can live without fear or free from care. Countless things happen every hour that require advice, and such advice is to be sought out in philosophy.”
As Seneca said, philosophy is not a fun trick. It’s for use—for life.
You become the sum of your actions, and as you do, what flows from that—your impulses—reflect the actions you’ve taken. Choose wisely.
just as nature turns to its own purpose any obstacle or any opposition, sets its place in the destined order, and co-opts it, so every rational person can convert any obstacle into the raw material for their own purpose.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.35
Could this approach not be useful in your life? What things do you think have been holding you
do this to itself.
If we would lean this way whenever we fail, and would blame only ourselves and remember that nothing but opinion is the cause of a troubled mind and uneasiness, then by God, I swear we would be making progress.” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.19.2–3
can make it a whole day laying it all on your reasoned choice. If you can’t make it for a day, see if you can make it for an hour. If not for an hour, then for ten minutes. Start where you need to. Even one minute without playing the blame game is progress in the art of living.
For the only contest the good person enters is that of their own reasoned choice. How can such a person not be invincible?” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.6.5–7
One of the most fundamental principles of martial arts is that strength should not go against strength. That is: don’t try to beat your opponent where they are strongest.
Since the vast majority of our words and actions are unnecessary, corralling them will create an abundance of leisure and tranquility. As a result, we shouldn’t forget at each moment to ask, is this one of the unnecessary things? But we must corral not only unnecessary actions but unnecessary thoughts, too, so needless acts don’t tag along after them.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.24
The key to accomplishing that is to ruthlessly expunge the inessential from our lives.
What vanity obligates us to do, what greed signs us up for, what ill discipline adds to our plate, what a lack of courage prevents us from saying no to. All of this we must cut, cut, cut.
outward transformation—in our clothes, in our cars, in our grooming—might feel important but is superficial compared with the inward change. That’s the change that only we know about.
“It’s ruinous for the soul to be anxious about the future and miserable in advance of misery, engulfed by anxiety that the things it desires might remain its own until the very end. For such a soul will never be at rest—by longing for things to come it will lose the ability to enjoy present things.” —SENECA, M
definition, the waiting means it hasn’t happened yet, so that feeling bad in advance is totally voluntary.
Why? Because something bad might occur soon.
The pragmatist can’t worry about every possible outcome in advance. Think about it. Best case scenario—if the news turns out to be better than expected, all this time was wasted with needless fear. Worst case scenario—we were miserable for extra time, by choice.
“It is essential for you to remember that the attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to its worth, for then you won’t tire and give up, if you aren’t busying yourself with lesser things beyond what should be allowed.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.32b
the quote above. They both say the same thing: don’t spend your time (the most valuable and least renewable of all your resources) on the things that don’t matter. What about the things that don’t matter but you’re absolutely obligated to do? Well, spend as little time and worry on them as possible.
You’ve made them important by the life you’ve spent on them. And sadly, you’ve made the important things—your family, your health, your true commitments—less so as a result of what you’ve stolen from them.
