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by
Ryan Holiday
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February 2, 2021 - January 30, 2022
The person you’d like to be, or the person you see yourself as—how closely do your actions actually correspond to him or her?
Our ambition should not be to win, then, but to play with our full effort.
Sustained execution, not shapeless epiphanies.
HOW YOU DO ANYTHING IS HOW YOU DO EVERYTHING
There is no prize for having read the most books before you die. Even if you were the most dedicated reader in the world—a book a day, even—your collection would probably never be bigger than a small branch library. You’ll never even come close to matching what’s stored in the servers at Google Books or keep up with the hundreds of thousands of new titles published on Amazon each year. What if, when it came to your reading and learning, you prioritized quality over quantity? What if you read the few great books deeply instead of briefly skimming all the new books? Your shelves might be
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So, what should each of us say to every trial we face? This is what I’ve trained for, for this my discipline!”
Today—this day—will achieve what no tomorrow will fail to speak about. I will lay siege to the gods and shake up the world.”
As he says, by pouring ourselves fully and intentionally into the present, it “gentle[s] the passing of time’s precipitous flight.”
Don’t spend much time thinking about what other people think. Think about what you think. Think instead
about the results, about the impact, about whether it is the right thing to do.
One does not magically get one’s act together—it is a matter of many individual choices. It’s a matter of getting up at the right time, making your bed, resisting shortcuts, investing in yourself, doing your work. And make no mistake: while the individual action is small, its cumulative impact is not.
Don’t get upset. Do the right thing.
Succumbing to the self-pity and “woe is me” narrative accomplishes nothing—nothing except sapping you of the energy and motivation you need to do something about your problem.
“get active in your own rescue—if you care for yourself at all—and do it while you can.”
Discipline Fortitude Courage Clearheadedness Selflessness
let it find us prepared and active:
“The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close up.”
“We should take wandering outdoor walks, so that the mind might be nourished and refreshed by the open air and deep breathing.”
and you find at the very core of it, people want freedom, they want happiness, and they want the respect of their peers.
Is there any reason to fight about this? Is arguing going to help solve anything?
No need to be too hard on yourself. Hold yourself to a higher standard but not an impossible one. And forgive yourself if and when you slip up.
“While it’s true that someone can impede our actions, they can’t impede our intentions and our attitudes,
But a Get To Do list sounds like a privilege—all the things we’re excited about the opportunity to experience.
“On those mornings you struggle with getting up, keep this thought in mind—I am awakening to the work of a human being.
“Character,” Joan Didion would write in one of her best essays, “the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life—is the source from which self-respect springs.”
“In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.51
So why on earth do you need thanks or recognition for having done the right thing? It’s your job.
“To what service is my soul committed? Constantly ask yourself this and thoroughly examine yourself by seeing how you relate to that part called the ruling principle.
Just as you must not abandon your new path simply because other people may have a problem with it, you must not abandon those other folks either. Don’t simply write them off or leave them in the dust. Don’t get mad or fight with them. After all, they’re at the same place you were not long ago.
So if you need an extra boost to get out of bed this morning, if you need something more than caffeine can offer, use this. People are depending on you. Your purpose is to help us render this great work together. And we’re waiting and excited for you to show up.
But you are a human being, not a human doing.
you? That’s Stoic joy—the joy that comes from purpose, excellence, and duty.
DON’T GO EXPECTING PERFECTION
Nothing can prevent us from learning.
The place to do your work, to live the good life, is here.
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.
Perfectionism rarely begets perfection—only disappointment.
Our pursuits should be aimed at progress, however little that it’s possible for us to make.
You become the sum of your actions,
Since the vast majority of our words and actions are unnecessary, corralling them will create an abundance of leisure and tranquility.
ruthlessly expunge the inessential from our lives.
don’t spend your time (the most valuable and least renewable of all your resources) on the things that don’t matter.
The ones who pioneered these paths aren’t our masters, but our guides. Truth stands open to everyone, it hasn’t been monopolized.”
If you start something and right away feel yourself getting lazy and irritated, first ask yourself: Why am I doing this? If it really is a necessity, ask yourself: What’s behind my reluctance? Fear? Spite? Fatigue?
Be as forgiving of them as you are of yourself.
We can’t do this life thing halfheartedly. There’s no time off. There aren’t even weekends. We are always preparing for what life might throw at us—and when it does, we’re ready and don’t stop until we’ve handled it.
Your hidden power is your ability to use reason and make choices, however limited or small.
The Stoics give us a marvelous concept: the Inner Citadel. It is this fortress, they believed, that protects our soul.
Anyone can get lucky. There’s no skill in being oblivious, and no one would consider that greatness.
For this reason, the Stoic does two things when encountering hatred or ill opinion in others. They ask: Is this opinion inside my control?
