The Discipline Expert: 2,000 Years Of Research PROVES Successful People Do One Thing! - Ryan Holiday

I can help you get more of what you want, create the highest form of discipline, how not to care about what other people think. That's the meaning of life right there. So... Ryan Holiday. The modern-day philosopher king. Whose books have sold more than four million copies all across the world. Helping people- To live better, more meaningful lives. We live in a time where we procrastinate. It's totally screwed up. Why do we not prioritize our health? Why do we not do the stuff that we know we should do? It's 'cause we think we have forever. But the reality is, you do have a terminal diagnosis, and to live in rejection of that fact is to waste your life.

So, how do we change that?

It takes a lot of courage, and, and it takes a lot of discipline. Discipline is the ability to do hard stuff that you don't wanna do for benefits way down the line. And there's almost no one who is successful in life who does not have that form of discipline. Like, if you can cultivate that, you're gaining freedom that a lot of people have never even tasted. But it's very hard to be disciplined as you're stuffing your face or if you feel like garbage. You need struggle, so do something physically difficult every day. A strong mind and a strong body - you have to have both.

So, what do you say to those people that find themselves completely absent of apparent discipline?

It's such a critical thing that you need, 'cause otherwise, somebody else determines whether you're good or not, and that's not how you wanna go through life. So, here's a set of strategies that will help you whatever life has in store for you. First would be-

Quick one. This is really, really fascinating to me. On the back end of our YouTube channel, it says that 69.9% of you that watch this channel frequently over the lifetime of this channel haven't yet hit the subscribe button. I just wanted to ask you a favor. It helps this channel so much if you choose to just subscribe. Helps us scale the guests, helps us scale the production, and it makes the show bigger. So, if I could ask you for one favor, if you've watched the show before and you've enjoyed it and you like this episode that you're currently watching, could you please hit the subscribe button? Thank you so much, and I will repay that gesture by making sure that everything we do here gets better and better and better and better. That is a promise I'm willing to make you. Do we have a deal? Ryan, how would you summarize what you do and why you do it?

Why I do it is much easier for me to articulate, which is that I get better for doing it. Like, we tend to think of philosophy as this thing that you consume, that you read or listen to, but it's, it's actually more of, like, a discourse. It's a conversation. And so the process of writing about and talking about, and researching the Stoics, like, it has made me a better person, uh, because I've, I've been actually... That is what Stoicism is. It's this process of, uh, reading, writing, and debating these ideas, and that's how they sort of get into your bloodstream and, and... and then hopefully, in actual situations in your life, you apply them, right? So, why I write about philosophy is, to me, much clearer. What I would define the philosophy that I talk about as, that's a little tougher. Uh, I, I write about an obscure school of ancient philosophy called Stoicism. Maybe people have heard of Marcus Aurelius or Seneca or Epictetus. It's the, those are the big three that we call them. But basically, starting in ancient Greece and making its way to ancient Rome, there was this practical philosophy for life. So, not theoretical or abstract ideas, sort of unanswerable questions or paradox. That's kind of what we tend to think of philosophy as. Stoicism was like, "How should a person live," right? What is the good life? How do I deal with my temper? How do I deal with the fact that I'm afraid of death? How... What kind of job should I have? Like, what are my obligations to other people? Philosophy, uh, in the Stoic sense was, was designed to be this sort of guide to living, and what I do is I, I, I am continuing and popularizing that conversation, which has been going on for something like 22, 23 centuries.