Ryan Holiday

5 Habits That Are Killing Your Productivity:

1. You don’t wake up early (Marcus Aurelius)
2. You focus on what’s outside your control (Epictetus)
3. You don’t know how to say “no” (Seneca)
4. You’re in the wrong crowd (Marcus Aurelius)
5. You think you’ll live forever (Seneca)

Failure shows us the way — by showing us what isn’t the way.

Keep strong, if possible. In any case, keep cool. Have unlimited patience. Never corner an opponent, and always assist him to save face. Put yourself in his shoes — so as to see things through his eyes. Avoid self-righteousness like the devil — nothing is so self-blinding.

A degree on a wall means you’re educated as much as shoes on your feet mean you’re walking. It’s a start, but hardly sufficient.

We should take learning seriously, but never ourselves.

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

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

What matters most is not what these obstacles are but how we see them, how we react to them, and whether we keep our composure.

Knowledge — self-knowledge in particular — is freedom.

Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what’s left as a bonus and live it according to Nature. Love the hand that fate deals you and play it as your own, for what could be more fitting?” — MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 7.56–57

We forget: In life, it doesn’t matter what happens to you or where you came from. It matters what you do with what happens and what you’ve been given.

When we remove ego, we’re left with what is real. What replaces ego is humility, yes — but rock-hard humility and confidence. Whereas ego is artificial, this type of confidence can hold weight. Ego is stolen. Confidence is earned. Ego is self-anointed, its swagger is artifice. One is girding yourself, the other gaslighting. It’s the difference between potent and poisonous.

Almost universally, the kind of performance we give on social media is positive. It’s more “Let me tell you how well things are going. Look how great I am.” It’s rarely the truth: “I’m scared. I’m struggling. I don’t know.

All you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment; action for the common good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way.

The future bears down upon each one of us with all the hazards of the unknown.” The only way out is through.