Ryan Holiday

To argue, to complain, or worse, to just give up, these are choices. Choices that more often than not, do nothing to get us across the finish line.

Just because you’ve begun down one path doesn’t mean you’re committed to it forever , especially if that path turns out to be flawed or impeded. At that same time, this is not an excuse to be flighty or incessantly noncommittal.

Epictetus told his students, when they’d quote some great thinker, to picture themselves observing the person having sex. It’s funny, you should try it the next time someone intimidates you or makes you feel insecure. See them in your mind, grunting, groaning, and awkward in their private life — just like the rest of us.

It may take some hard work.But the more you say no to the things that don’t matter, the more you can say yes to the things that do.

discipline means being disciplined in all things, especially little things.

For all species other than us humans, things just are what they are. Our problem is that we’re always trying to figure out what things mean — why things are the way they are. As though the why matters. Emerson put it best: “We cannot spend the day in explanation.” Don’t waste time on false constructs.

You must practice seeing yourself with a little distance, cultivating the ability to get out of your own head. Detachment is a sort of natural ego antidote. It’s easy to be emotionally invested and infatuated with your own work. Any and every narcissist can do that. What is rare is not rawtalent, skill, or even confidence, but humility, diligence, and self-awareness.

There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.

Vires acquirit eundo (We gather strength as we go).

It’s very rare that someone does not become better by surrounding themselves by great people. Socially. Professionally. Spiritually. It’s very common that a potentially great person is ruined by not-so-great influences.

In every situation, life is asking us a question, and our actions are the answer.

Were you to live three thousand years, or even a countless multiple of that, keep in mind that no one ever loses a life other than the one they are living, and no one ever lives a life other than the one they are losing. The longest and the shortest life, then, amount to the same, for the present moment lasts the same for all and is all anyone possesses. No one can lose either the past or the future, for how can someone be deprived of what’s not theirs?” — MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 2.14

Aspiration leads to success (and adversity). Success creates its own adversity (and, hopefully, new ambitions). And adversity leads to aspiration and more success. It’s an endless loop.

Focus on the present moment, not the monsters that may or may not be ahead.

Greatness comes from humble beginnings; it comes from grunt work. It means you’re the least important person in the room — until you change that with results.