“Show up…
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 44)
…when you’re tired
…when you don’t have to
…even if you have an excuse
…even if you’re busy
…even if you won’t get recognized for it
…even if it’s been kicking your ass lately.
Once something is done, you can build on it. Once you get started, momentum can grow. When you show up, you can get lucky.”
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
Gustave Flaubert, via Discipline Is Destiny (Page 42) | Read Matt’s Blog on this quote ➜
“For very few of us—no matter the profession—’When are you at your best?’ is answered with ‘When I am drowning in paperwork, dirty dishes, half-empty water bottles, and floors that haven’t been swept.’ The session in the weight room goes better when the weights are stacked and the dumbbells are in the right place. The craftsman is safer when the workshop is tidy. The team plays better when the locker room is kept up. The meetings run tighter when the conference room is fresh and sparse. The general ensures troop discipline by keeping their own quarters spartan and spotless. The space where great work is done is holy. We must respect it.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 41)
“I tell my students, one of the most important things they need to know is when they are their best, creatively. They need to ask themselves, What does the ideal room look like? Is there music? Is there silence? Is there chaos outside or is there serenity outside? What do I need in order to release my imagination?”
Toni Morrison, via Discipline Is Destiny (Page 40)
“I would die without my [insert luxury item], we’ll say in jest. How can anybody live like this? we’ll ask not so rhetorically. The answer? They’re stronger than you. ‘The more a man is,’ the editor Maxwell Perkins had inscribed on his mantel, ‘the less he wants.’ When you strip away the unnecessary and the excessive, what’s left is you. What’s left is what’s important.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 36)
“A person who lives below their means has far more latitude than a person who can’t. That’s why Michelangelo, the artist, didn’t live as austerely as Cato but he avoided the gifts dangled by his wealthy patrons. He didn’t want to owe anyone. Real wealth, he understood, was autonomy.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 35)
“There’s something sobering about moments when mortality decides to pull up a chair and join you for a chat. It doesn’t matter who you are, how much kale you’ve eaten, or whether you can still squeeze into your high school jeans on your 60th birthday. (Spoiler Alert: I cannot). Mortality reminds us that we’re all just passing through, and none of us gets to skip the check-out line. Death doesn’t discriminate. But here’s the twist: Mortality isn’t here to ruin the party. It’s here to remind us to live.”
Craig Misewicz
