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04064c3
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The first product of self-knowledge is humility," Flannery O'Connor once said. This is how we fight the ego, by really knowing ourselves."
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humility
self-awareness
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Ryan Holiday |
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c5f343b
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It's not with ideas, my dear Degas, that one makes verse. It's with words." - the poet Mallarme to Degas"
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work-ethic
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Ryan Holiday |
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b2f6c11
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Is it ten thousand hours or twenty thousand hours to mastery? The answer is that it doesn't matter. There is no end zone. To think of a number is to live in a conditional future. We're simply talking about a lot of hours - that to get where we want to go isn't about brilliance, but continual effort. It means it's all within reach - for all of us, provided we have the constitution and humbleness to be patient and the fortitude to put in the ..
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patience
work-ethic
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Ryan Holiday |
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4c86675
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When children stick their hand down a narrow goody jar they can't get their full fist out and start crying. Drop a few treats and you will get it out! Curb your desire--don't set your heart on so many things and you will get what you need." --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.9.22"
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Ryan Holiday |
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554d4ad
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The soul is like a bowl of water, and our impressions are like the ray of light falling upon the water. When the water is troubled, it appears that the light itself is moved too, but it isn't. So, when a person loses their composure it isn't their skills and virtues that are troubled, but the spirit in which they exist, and when that spirit calms down so do those things." --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.3.20-22"
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Ryan Holiday |
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1a104a8
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When our cause is young, we feel so intensely that it seems wrong to take it slow. This is our inability to see that burning ourselves out isn't going to hurry the journey along. The critical work that you want to do will require your deliberation and consideration. Not passion. Not naivete. It'd be far better if you were intimidated by what lies ahead - humbled by its magnitude and determined to see it through. Leave passion for the amate..
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purpose
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Ryan Holiday |
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e03795f
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In the chaos of sport, as in life, process provides us a way. It says: Okay, you've got to do something very difficult. Don't focus on that. Instead break it down into pieces. Simply do what you need to do right now. And do it well. And then move on to the next thing. Follow the process and not the prize. The road to back-to-back championships is just that, a road. And you travel along a road in steps. Excellence is a matter of steps. Excel..
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Ryan Holiday |
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f71dbe1
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Find canvases for other people to paint on. Clear the path for the people above you and you will eventually create a path for yourself. 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.
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humility
work-ethic
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Ryan Holiday |
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c492d14
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Our own path, whatever we aspire to, will in some ways be defined by the amount of nonsense we are willing to deal with. It doesn't matter how talented you are, how great your connections are, how much money you have. When you want to do something - something big and important and meaningful - you will be subjected to treatment ranging from indifference to outright sabotage. Those who have subdued their ego understand that it doens't degrad..
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humility
patience
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Ryan Holiday |
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1ea657f
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The economics of the internet are exploited to change public perception--and sell product.
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Ryan Holiday |
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1304d0f
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The great psychologist Viktor Frankl, survivor of three concentration camps, found presumptuousness in the age-old question: "What is the meaning of life?" As though it is someone else's responsibility to tell you. Instead, he said, the world is asking you that question. And it's your job to answer with your actions. In every situation, life is asking us a question, and our actions are the answer. Our job is simply to answer well."
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Ryan Holiday |
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f436d16
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Practice self control. Abhor flatterers as you would deceivers; for both, if trusted, injure those who trust them.
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Ryan Holiday |
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1016367
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When, as the football coach Bill Walsh explained, "self-confidence becomes arrogance, assertiveness becomes obstinacy, and self-assurance becomes reckless abandon." This is the ego, as the writer Cyril Connolly warned, that "sucks us down like the law of gravity."
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Ryan Holiday |
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8694f23
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The performance artist Marina Abramovic puts it directly: "If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity."
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Ryan Holiday |
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92eb1f2
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Strength is the ability to maintain a hold of oneself. It's being the person who never gets mad, who cannot be rattled, because they are in control of their passions--rather than controlled by their passions.
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Ryan Holiday |
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6e1cc59
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Bill Walsh says, "Almost always, your road to victory goes through a place called 'failure."
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Ryan Holiday |
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68cfcd7
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Diogenes of Sinope said we sell things of great value for things of very little, and vice versa." --DIOGENES LAERTIUS, LIVES OF THE EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS, 6.2.35b"
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Ryan Holiday |
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d62f535
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What principles? Those to do with good and evil, indeed in the belief that there is no good for a human being except what creates justice, self-control, courage and freedom, and nothing evil except what destroys these things." --MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.1.(5) What's the meaning of life? Why was I"
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Ryan Holiday |
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8c3a55f
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Why bother getting mad at causes and forces far bigger than us? Why do we take these things personally? After all, external events are not sentient beings--they cannot respond to our shouts and cries--and neither can the mostly indifferent gods.
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Ryan Holiday |
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4571a9f
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Unhelpful perceptions can invade our minds -- that sacred place of reason, action and will -- and throw off our compass.
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Ryan Holiday |
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5021540
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We might not be emperors, but the world is still constantly testing us. It asks: Are you worthy? Can you get past the things that inevitably fall in your way? Will you stand up and show us what you're made of? Plenty of people have answered this question in the affirmative. And a rarer breed still has shown that they not only have what it takes, but they thrive and rally at every such challenge. That the challenge makes them better than if ..
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obstacle
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Ryan Holiday |
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397d728
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Those who receive the bare theories immediately want to spew them, as an upset stomach does its food. First digest your theories and you won't throw them up. Otherwise they will be raw, spoiled, and not nourishing. After you've digested them, show us the changes in your reasoned choices, just like the shoulders of gymnasts display their diet and training, and as the craft of artisans show in what they've learned." --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3..
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Ryan Holiday |
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b8fd6d3
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Many of the Stoic aphorisms are simple to remember and even sound smart when quoted. But that's not what philosophy is really about. The goal is to turn these words into works. As Musonius Rufus put it, the justification for philosophy is when "one brings together sound teaching with sound conduct." Today, or anytime, when you catch yourself wanting to condescendingly drop some knowledge that you have, grab it and ask: Would I be better say..
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Ryan Holiday |
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45d9468
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Character is a powerful defense in a world that would love to be able to seduce you, buy you, tempt you, and change you. If you know what you believe and why you believe it, you'll avoid poisonous relationships, toxic jobs, fair-weather friends, and any number of ills that afflict people who haven't thought through their deepest concerns. That's your education. That's why you do this work.
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Ryan Holiday |
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dcb4d06
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You know you're not the only one who has to accept things you don't necessarily like, right? It's part of the human condition. If someone we knew took traffic signals personally, we would judge them insane. Yet this is exactly what life is doing to us. It tells us to come to a stop here. Or that some intersection is blocked or that a particular road has been rerouted through an inconvenient detour. We can't argue or yell this problem away. ..
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Ryan Holiday |
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8557031
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," Emerson said, "adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."
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Ryan Holiday |
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318fa95
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This is the true athlete--the person in rigorous training against false impressions. Remain firm, you who suffer, don't be kidnapped by your impressions! The struggle is great, the task divine--to gain mastery, freedom, happiness, and tranquility." --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.18.27-28"
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Ryan Holiday |
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9478f88
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Florida Scott-Maxwell's Stoic diary during her terminal illness, The Measure of My Days, is one. Seneca's famous words to his family and friends, who had broken down and begged with his executioners, is another.
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Ryan Holiday |
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6943f43
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Serenity Prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
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Ryan Holiday |
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895883a
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Failure and adversity are relative and unique to each of us.
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Ryan Holiday |
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eccdffc
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Whenever you get an impression of some pleasure, as with any impression, guard yourself from being carried away by it, let it await your action, give yourself a pause. After that, bring to mind both times, first when you have enjoyed the pleasure and later when you will regret it and hate yourself. Then compare to those the joy and satisfaction you'd feel for abstaining altogether. However, if a seemingly appropriate time arises to act on i..
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Ryan Holiday |
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958700a
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It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
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Ryan Holiday |
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b154911
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Reminding ourselves each day that we will die helps us treat our time as a gift.
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Ryan Holiday |
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561644b
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When I see an anxious person, I ask myself, what do they want? For if a person wasn't wanting something outside of their own control, why would they be stricken by anxiety?" --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES,"
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Ryan Holiday |
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9bcf830
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to be a philosopher in all that you do, and if you wish also to be seen as one, show yourself first that you are and you will succeed.
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Ryan Holiday |
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08d2fad
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First off, don't let the force of the impression carry you away. Say to it, 'hold up a bit and let me see who you are and where you are from--let me put you to the test' ..." --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 2.18.24"
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Ryan Holiday |
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90ff080
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Napoleon had the words "To Destiny!" engraved on the wedding ring he gave his wife. Destiny was what he'd always believed in, it was how he justified his boldest, most ambitious ideas."
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Ryan Holiday |
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4193e9d
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Let's be clear: competitiveness is an important force in life. It's what drives the market and is behind some of mankind's most impressive accomplishments. On an individual level, however, it's absolutely critical that you know who you're competing with and why, that you have a clear sense of the space you're in.
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Ryan Holiday |
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7ec02b2
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Only you know the race you're running.
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Ryan Holiday |
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3e4dca5
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Our soul is sometimes a king, and sometimes a tyrant. A king, by attending to what is honorable, protects the good health of the body in its care, and gives it no base or sordid command. But an uncontrolled, desire-fueled, over-indulged soul is turned from a king into that most feared and detested thing--a tyrant." --SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 114.24"
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consort
west-march
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Ryan Holiday |
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8b420da
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As the Haitian proverb puts it: Behind mountains are more mountains. Elysium is a myth. One does not overcome an obstacle to enter the land of no obstacles. On the contrary, the more you accomplish, the more things will stand in your way. There are always more obstacles, bigger challenges. You're always fighting uphill. Get used to it and train accordingly. Knowing that life is a marathon and not a sprint is important. Conserve your energy...
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Ryan Holiday |
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11e0daa
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If we ever do want to become wise, it comes from the questioning and from humility--not, as many would like to think, from certainty, mistrust, and arrogance.
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Ryan Holiday |
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8ca30be
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Today I escaped from the crush of circumstances, or better put, I threw them out, for the crush wasn't from outside me but in my own assumptions." --MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS,"
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Ryan Holiday |
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c5634b9
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Keep constant guard over your perceptions, for it is no small thing you are protecting, but your respect, trustworthiness and steadiness, peace of mind, freedom from pain and fear, in a word your freedom. For what would you sell these things?" --EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.3.6b-8"
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Ryan Holiday |