Lesson 2: We can only be happy when we practice restraint, and it’s a lifelong job to moderate our minds.

The women in this parable are Vice and Virtue, and I’m sure you can guess which path Hercules chose, given how awesome he became. Has this story ever happened? Probably not. But is it still important? Yes, because it’s a story...

"You don't know have to always be amazing. You do have to show up. What matters is sticking around for the next at bat."

-Ryan Holiday

Holiday’s writing style is conversational. He draws on a wide range of examples, and the chapters are manageable, engaging, and make clear points. I’ve been a fan of Holiday’s work for years, and Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Sel...

The 15-year-old high school student who struggles with constant distraction, the 34-year-old waiter who feels lost in her career, and anyone who enjoys modern takes on Stoic philosophy.

Covering the 3 areas in which we need discipline — body, mind, and spirit:

1. Controlling your body is the first step of mastering self-discipline, and it can happen in many small ways.
2. Only a moderate mind can be happy, and directing your brain is a lifelong job.
3. Discipli...

The reason discipline is most easily built by starting with small, physical challenges is that you can feel your body’s responses to those challenges. When you work out, you feel the result the next day. When you sleep early, you feel more rested. That’s a great way of ...

Holiday mentions Lou Gehrig as an example, a legendary baseball player who played over 2,000 games straight without missing a single one. Did he not feel well during some of them? For sure. But he showed up regardless, and, in the long run, that made all the difference.

Spiritual discipline is about staying calm, doing the work, and steering the course without alienating others. When you fail to get to work on time, keep cool. When you feel groggy, just try to get through the day. And when others don’t understand why you’re doing things the way ...

Standing at a literal fork in the woods, Hercules sees two women, each pleading with him to take her path. One is beautiful beyond belief, half-naked, and offers him a life full of pleasure and completely devoid of pain. The other is also pretty but dressed more conservatively. She tells him the ...

The highest level of discipline happens on the plane of the spirit, according to Holiday, who mentions ancient Roman charioteers — competitive horse carriage riders — as a prime example. Having to balance many activities and roles at once...

While Holiday suggests a variety of things, from eating lean to strenuous activities, like taking cold showers, working out, or walking the long route to work, to sleeping early, the most important is this: Show up. When it comes to physical discipline, doing a little every day will have ...

When you order pizza every time you feel like it, you’ll get health problems. When you rage quit at work whenever your boss makes a snide comment, you’ll never build a meaningful career. And so on. Everything becomes meaningless when you do it all the time, so we need restraint t...

The Buddha was born in a palace, yet he still felt miserable. The poverty he later experienced outside wasn’t any better. It was only once he learned to practice patience, to sit with suffering, and to not lose it when things went a...

When Stoic philosopher Cleanthes walked down Athens’ streets one morning, he bumped into a man yelling at himself for some mistake. “Remember, you’re not talking to a bad man,” he told him, according to Holiday. So yes, show o...

This book is a follow-up to Courage Is Calling , the second of four books Ryan Holiday is penning on the cardinal Stoic virtues. The virtues are courage, temperance, justic...

Most of us know Hercules as this legendary, super-strong, club-whipping guy who fights lions before lunch and can defeat nasty, multi-headed hydras all day long. Long before he became “Hercules” in bold letters, however, everyone’s favori...