Year read: 2016
How strongly I recommend it: 10/10
(See my list of books I've read, for more.)Go to the Amazon page for details and reviews.
Ego – an unhealthy belief in our own importance
You’re never done being a student.
The people most idolize (Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, John D. Rockefeller, etc.) do their best work in the moments when they fought back against these impulses, disorders, and flaws.
Avoid chasing your ‘passion’. Passion is developed through expertise. Passion is too often associated with foolish behavior.
Anteambulo – one who clears the path
There is no victory without pain. This is applicable throughout life with exercise, learning, parenting, etc.
Do not allow yourself to become complacent. Complacency kills growth. Fixed vs Growth mindset. The more one learns, the more one learns how little they know. As Ryan writes, “if you’re not still learning, you’re already dying.”
This moment is not your life but a mere moment in your life.
Alive time and dead time. Make every minute count.
Do not allow your mind to prevent you from acting on your ideas.
Do not boast.
Do not become complacent.
Do not focus on the story you tell yourself, focus on the work at hand. The story will take care of itself.
Set your standards higher than others – only fight and claw to meet your own standards, not others.
Anyone can imagine – taking action is what matters.
Quotes
- “The only relationship between work and chatter is that one kills the other.” – Ryan Holiday
- “It’s about the doing, not the recognition.” – Ryan Holiday
- “Practice self-control.” – Demonicus
- “Be affable in your relations with those who approach you, and never haughty; for the pride of the arrogant even slaves
- can hardly endure.” – Demonicus
- “Be slow in deliberation, but be prompt to carry out your resolves.” – Demonicus
- “Best thing which we have in ourselves is good judgement.” – Demonicus
- “Constantly train your intellect for the greatest thing in the smallest compass is a sound mind in a human body.” – Demonicus
- “When student is ready, the teacher appears.” – old proverb
- “Purpose is about pursuing something outside yourself as opposed to pleasuring yourself.” – Ryan Holiday
- “Great passions are maladies without hope.” – Goethe
- “The person who clears the path ultimately controls its direction, just as the canvas shapes the painting.” – Ryan Holiday
- “Those who have subdued their ego understand that it doesn’t degrade you when others treat you poorly; it degrades them.” – Ryan Holiday
- “A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts, so he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusion.” – Alan Watts
- “Keep your eyes open. Don’t lose your balance.” – John D. Rockefeller
- “Man is pushed by drives, but he is pulled by values.” – Viktor Frankl
- “We can’t keep learning if we think we already know everything.” – Ryan Holiday
- “As we first succeed, we will find ourselves in new situations, facing new problems.” – Ryan Holiday
- “As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.” – John Wheeler
- “Always stay a student.” – Frank Shamrock
- “The future bears down upon each one of us with all the hazards of the unknown.” – Plutarch
- “Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of the self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” – John Wooden
- “We cannot be humble except by enduring humiliations.” – Reverend William A Sutton
- “The only real failure is abandoning your principles.” – Ryan Holiday
- “People learn from their failures. Seldom do they learn anything from success.” – Harold Geneen
- “See much, study much, suffer much, that is the path to wisdom.” – old Celtic saying
Excerpts
- “Every time you sit down to work, remind yourself: I am delaying gratification by doing this. I am passing the marshmallow test. I am earning what my ambition burns for. I am making an investment in myself instead of in my ego. Give yourself a little credit for this choice, but not so much, because you’ve got to get back to the task at hand: practicing, working improving.” – Ryan Holiday
- “They cannot degrade Frederick Douglass. The soul that is within me no man can degrade. I am not the one that is being degraded on account of this treatment, but those who are inflicting it upon me.” – Frederick Douglass
- “My friend the philosopher and martial artist Daniele Bolelli once gave me a helpful metaphor. He explained that training was like sweeping the floor. Just because we’ve done it once, doesn’t mean the floor is clean forever. Every day the dust comes back. Every day we must sweep.” – Ryan Holiday
Go to the Amazon page for details and reviews.