Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control (The Stoic Virtues Series)

by Ryan Holiday

For Hercules, the choice was between vice and virtue, the easy way and the hard way, the well-trod path and the road less traveled. We all face this choice.

In the ancient world, virtue was comprised of four key components. Courage. Temperance. Justice. Wisdom.

Four books.[*] Four virtues. One aim: to help you choose . . . Courage, bravery, fortitude, honor, sacrifice . . . Temperance, self-control, moderation, composure, balance . . . Justice, fairness, service, fellowship, goodness, kindness . . . Wisdom, knowledge, education, truth, self-reflection, peace . . .

These are the key to a life of honor, of glory, of excellence in every sense. Character traits that John Steinbeck perfectly described as “pleasant and desirable to [their] owner and makes him perform acts of which he can be proud and with which he can be pleased.”

Aristotle described virtue as a kind of craft, something to pursue just as one pursues the mastery of any profession or skill.

Would you have a great empire? Rule over yourself. Publilius Syrus

I really need to improve/work on improving my self-discipline.

Freedom, as Eisenhower famously said, is actually only the “opportunity for self-discipline.”

We must keep ourselves in check or risk ruin. Or imbalance. Or dysfunction. Or dependency.

We must master ourselves unless we’d prefer to be mastered by someone or something else.

Self-discipline—the virtue of temperance—is even more important, the ability to keep your ass in line. The ability . . . . . . to work hard . . . to say no

. . to practice good habits and set boundaries . . . to train and to prepare . . . to ignore temptations and provocations . . . to keep your emotions in check . . . to endure painful difficulties.