“There is no vice which lacks a defense, none that at the outset isn’t modest and easily intervened—but after this the trouble spreads widely. If you allow it to get started you won’t be able to control when it stops. Every emotion is at first weak. Later it rouses itself and gathers strength as it moves along—it’s easier to slow it down than to supplant it.”
Seneca, Moral Letters, via The Daily Stoic (Page 175)
“The greatest portion of peace of mind is doing nothing wrong. Those who lack self-control live disoriented and disturbed lives.”
Seneca, Moral Letters, via The Daily Stoic (Page 145)
“A dog that’s allowed to chase cars will chase cars. A child who is never given any boundaries will become spoiled. An investor without discipline is not an investor—he’s a gambler. A mind that isn’t in control of itself, that doesn’t understand its power to regulate itself, will be jerked around by external events and unquestioned impulses.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 101)
“If a person gave away your body to some passerby, you’d be furious. Yet you hand over your mind to anyone who comes along, so they may abuse you, leaving it disturbed and troubled—have you no shame in that?”
Epictetus, via The Daily Stoic (Page 78)
“If someone sends you an angry email but you never see it, did it actually happen? In other words, these situations require our participation, context, and categorization in order to be ‘bad.’ Our reaction is what actually decides whether harm has occurred. If we feel that we’ve been wronged and get angry, of course that’s how it will seem. If we raise our voice because we feel we’re being confronted, naturally a confrontation will ensue. But if we retain control of ourselves, we decide whether to label something good or bad.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 64)
“Circumstances are incapable of considering or caring for your feelings, your anxiety, or your excitement. They don’t care about your reaction. They are not people. So stop acting like getting worked up is having an impact on a given situation. Situations don’t care at all.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 63)
“Oddly, counterintuitively, in our culture of individualism and self-centered valour, it is by surrendering that we can begin to succeed. It is by ‘admitting that we have no power’ that we can begin the process of accessing all the power we will ever need.”
Russell Brand, Recovery (Page 27)
“Who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice.”
Epictetus, via The Daily Stoic (Page 44)
Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions [Book]
Book Overview: With a rare mix of honesty, humor, and compassion, comedian and movie star Russell Brand mines his own wild story and shares the advice and wisdom he has gained through his fourteen years of recovery. Brand speaks to those suffering along the full spectrum of addiction―from drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and sugar addictions to addictions to work, stress, bad relationships, digital media, and fame. Brand understands that addiction can take many shapes and sizes and how the process of staying clean, sane, and unhooked is a daily activity. He believes that the question is not “Why are you addicted?” but “What pain is your addiction masking? Why are you running―into the wrong job, the wrong life, the wrong person’s arms?”
Buy from Amazon! Listen on Audible!
Great on Kindle. Great Experience. Great Value. The Kindle edition of this book comes highly recommended on Amazon.
Post(s) Inspired By This Book:
“We would never let another person jerk us around the way we let our impulses do. It’s time we start seeing it that way—that we’re not puppets that can be made to dance this way or that way just because we feel like it. We should be the ones in control, not our emotions, because we are independent, self-sufficient people.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 42)
Brian Tracy Quote on Delaying Gratification and How It’s An Indispensable Prerequisite for Success
“The ability to discipline yourself to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term is the indispensable prerequisite for success.”
Brian Tracy
Beyond the Quote (339/365)
The ability to delay gratification—to resist an immediate reward in preference for a greater future reward—has been proven to be an accurate predictor of a person’s long-term success. In other words, it’s almost always a good idea. After all, a greater reward sounds better than a smaller reward, even if it is a little later, eh? But, at the same point, should gratification always be delayed? Wouldn’t pushing what you desire out into the future cause you a certain level of discontent/ unhappiness, too? How does that discontent/ unhappiness in the short-term measure up?
Read More »Brian Tracy Quote on Delaying Gratification and How It’s An Indispensable Prerequisite for SuccessQuote from The New Mutants Movie on the Two Bears Inside (and How To Control The Evil Bear In You)
Excerpt: ‘Inside every person there are two bears, forever locked in combat for your soul. One bear is all things good, compassion, love, trust. The other is all things evil, fear, shame, and self-destruction.’ — This quote from The New Mutants Movie lays the foundation for a deeper discussion about what’s going on inside of ourselves. Enjoy!
Read More »Quote from The New Mutants Movie on the Two Bears Inside (and How To Control The Evil Bear In You)
Kobe Bryant Quote on Keeping Calm and Centered in Basketball and in Life
“The game is full of ebbs and flows—the good, the bad, and everything in between. With all that was going on around me, I had to figure out how to steel my mind and keep calm and centered. That’s not to say my emotions didn’t spike or drop here or there, but I was aware enough to recalibrate and bring them back level before things spiraled. I could do that in a way others couldn’t, and that was really key for me.”
Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 175)
Beyond the Quote (226/365)
And so it is for life, eh? The game of life is full of ebbs and flows—the good, the bad, and everything in between. I think 2020 highlights that in more intense ways than in many years of recent past—especially for Kobe—may he rest in peace. And while it’s natural to hope that things go back to “normal” and that the ebbs and flows “level out” so that they may be more easily managed—it would be unrealistic and naive to expect it to actually happen. The ebbs will continue to ebb and the flows will continue to flow, like they always have and like they always will. So, what then are we to do?
Read More »Kobe Bryant Quote on Keeping Calm and Centered in Basketball and in LifeTony Robbins Quote on Focus and How Questions Are One Of The Most Powerful Tools To Utilize
“The most powerful way to control your focus is through the use of questions.”
Tony Robbins
Beyond the Quote (225/365)
Distracted? It’s because you’re asking yourself the wrong questions: Am I missing out on any new posts on the socials? I wonder what he/she is doing right now? I wonder how much it would cost to buy a new kayak? How come I always get so distracted? Why is life always so unfair to me? What am I going to eat for dinner? How can I get rich, quick? What shortcut can I take for better health? Why is my dog so cute? You get the idea.
Read More »Tony Robbins Quote on Focus and How Questions Are One Of The Most Powerful Tools To UtilizeJames Allen Quote on The Portals To Heaven and The Kind Of Strength That Will Take You There
“To live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy, is to be confined in a self-made prison hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all – such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor.”
James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
Beyond the Quote (190/365)
The people who put you through hell aren’t strong—they’re weak. And this isn’t an attack on their character, per se. They may be weak through no fault of their own—they might be a product of their environment. After all, if you grow up in hell how does one not carry feelings of hell with them? It is no easy feat to make your way from hell to heaven—but, that’s the point. It’s hard. It requires deliberate daily effort. It requires strength. People who are in heaven and treat others in “heavenly ways”—they are the ones who are strong.
Read More »James Allen Quote on The Portals To Heaven and The Kind Of Strength That Will Take You There“Very few go astray who comport themselves with restraint.”
Confucius, via Stillness is the Key (Page 163)
“To have an impulse and to resist it, to sit with it and examine it, to let it pass by like a bad smell—this is how we develop spiritual strength. This is how we become who we want to be in this world. Only those of us who take the time to explore, to question, to extrapolate the consequences of our desires have an opportunity to overcome them and to stop regrets before they start.”
Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 118)