10 Lessons From Discipline Is Destiny - Ryan Holiday
Quotes from Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday is an American New York Times best-selling author. Some of the books Ryan has written include: The Obstacle Is the Way, Stillness is the Key, Ego Is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic and Discipline is Destiny (which we are covering today). Ryan is without a doubt one of my favourite authors. All of his books are brilliant, and I’m yet to read one where I haven’t improved as a person by the time I have finished it.
I think out of the Ryan Holiday books I have read so far, Discipline is Destiny has been my favourite. The book covers many of the problems as to why we struggle to maintain discipline in this modern un-disciplined world, and uses countless examples throughout history to demonstrate what discipline really is and how we can attain it. I’d say it’s one of the most impactful books I have read this year. I’d recommend it to anyone.
So, here are 10 Lessons From Discipline Is Destiny….
1. “Someone else's lack of self control is not a justification for abandoning our own. Nor is it a good lick or a recipe for success and achievement.”
Most people aren’t disciplined and they don’t have self control, but that’s no excuse for abandoning your own discipline. You’re your own person and you shouldn’t follow the crowd, especially if it’s an undisciplined crowd. Instead, try your best to remain on due course, stick to the plan, keep the end goal in mind and maintain discipline when no-one else does. If you can maintain your discipline when others struggle to do so, just think how far ahead of the pack you’ll be.
2. “Most people don’t even show up. Of the people who do, most don’t really push themselves. So to show up and be disciplined about daily improvement? Your are the rarest of the rare.”
Showing up is the hard part and it’s the part that most people fail to do. You don’t always have to be amazing and you’ll probably have more bad days than good days, but you always have to show up. The more you show up, even when you really don’t feel like it, and give it your 100%, the more likely you are to reach your goals and the better person you’ll become along the way.
3. “Greatness is not just what one does, but also what one refuses to do. It’s how one bears the constraints of their world or profession, it’s what we’re able to do without limitations — creatively, consciously, calmly.”
Discipline isn’t about doing anything and everything. Discipline is partly about distinguishing what you should say yes to and what you should say NO to. You can’t be everywhere at once, there comes a time and place where you need to narrow your focus and concentrate your forces towards the things that are important and matter the most to you.
4. “We don’t get anywhere in this life without work. But we can get somewhere magical when we do the kind of work that doesn’t even feel like work. When we follow the excitement that get’s us into the harness, that get’s us on the fields, when we follow the urge to get moving and get at it.”
There isn’t a single successful person who hasn’t worked their ass off to get to where they are today. It’s literally impossible to attain success without putting in the hours, days, months and/or years worth of work in beforehand. Successful people harness their passion, they follow what they love. If you can follow what you love, you’ll thrive on the challenges that lie ahead.
5. “Discipline is how we free ourselves. It is the key that unlocks the chains. It is how we free ourselves. We choose the hard way because in the long run, it’s actually the only way.”
Discipline gives you freedom, and the more discipline you have, the easier your life will be. To remain disciplined is hard, very hard. If it was easy to remain disciplined everyone would have it an abundance, but they don’t. To have discipline in such a distracted, some would say, soft world, is a superpower. In the end, discipline is the only way to set yourself free. It always has been and always will be.
6. “We don’t rise to the occasion, we fall to the level of our training.”
If you don’t train and prepare properly and don’t put in the work required to reach where you want to be, forget it, you’ll fall at the first hurdle. The training you put in, no matter what you’re goals are, is going to get boring and monotonous, but you just have to keep chipping away. It’s discipline that’ll help you stay on course, ride the bad times and lead you to the good.
7. “Everyone, no matter how powerful, has some bad habit they’re wrestling with, but also that it’s never too late to come back and beat it.”
EVERYONE has some form of bad habit, no matter how disciplined or successful they are, never believe otherwise. We’re all human. But what separates great from the average is that the great will always be trying to for improve, they’ll always be striving to make there weaknesses into strengths.
8. “You have to do your best whilst you still have the chance. Life is short. You never know when the game, when your body, will be taken away from you. Don’t waste it!”
To procrastinate on life and not give it your best is both ignorant and arrogant. By doing so you’re assuming that there will be a later, but the harsh truth is: later may never come. Now is the time, it’s the only time. Life is short, it passes so quickly, so all you can do is give life your best shot whilst you still have the chance.
9. “Just trying to escape our own faults is hard enough work to keep us busy for a lifetime. None of us are so perfect that we can afford to spend much time questioning other people’s courage, nit picking their habits, trying to push them to reach their potential. Not when we have further to go ourselves.”
Other people are running their own race, they’re trying there best and trying to make the most from what they have been given. Don’t judge them. Try to realise that other people haven’t trained like you, not everyone has the level of knowledge you have, nor do they have the same willpower or commitment you do. What other people decide to do is not in our control. The only thing we can control is our own actions, so instead of focusing too much on others, we should focus on conquering ourselves first. Understand that you can’t force other people to live in the same manner we do. As Marcus Aurelius said “Be tolerant of others and strict with yourself.”
10. “No amount of money is ever going to truly free you. But being less dependent and caring about money? That will free you right now.”
Yes, money can go a long way to solving some of life's problems, but if you let it control you and take over your life, you’ll never be free. Money might bring some form of happiness, but it will only ever bring you so much joy. It’s there to serve you when you need it, not for it to control you.
See you next time,
Yours sincerely,
Tom