Discipline Is Destiny

The Power of Self-Control
by Ryan Holiday | Portfolio © 2022 · 352 pages

This is our sixth note on one of Ryan Holiday’s books and this is the second book in Ryan Holiday’s virtue series. We covered the first one, Courage Is Calling and now we'll explore the second: Discipline is Destiny. This book has three parts: In Part I, we explore discipline of The Exterior (The Body). In Part II, we explore discipline of The Inner Domain (The Temperament). In Part III, we explore discipline of The Magisterial (The Soul). It’s packed with Big Ideas. Courage is calling. Discipline is destiny. Let’s go, Hero!


Two words should be taken to heart and obeyed when exerting ourselves for good and restraining ourselves from evil—words that will ensure a blameless and troubled life: persist and resist.
Epictetus

“Name someone truly great without self-discipline. Name one calamitous undoing that was not, at least in part, rooted in a lack of self-discipline.

More than talent, life is about temperament. And temperance.

The people we admire most and will explore in this book—Marcus Aurelius, Queen Elizabeth II, Lou Gehrig, Angela Merkel, Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington, Winston Churchill—inspire us with their restraint and dedication. The cautionary tales of history—Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, King George IV—stun us with their self-inflicted destruction. And because each of us contains multitudes, sometimes we see both excess and restraint in the same person and can learn from both.

Freedom requires discipline.

Discipline gives us freedom.

Freedom and greatness.

Your destiny is there.

Will you grab the reins?”

~ Ryan Holiday from Discipline Is Destiny

This is the second book in Ryan Holiday’s virtue series.

We covered the first one, Courage Is Calling—which was THE very first book I bought after rebooting the PhilosophersNotes series. Ryan and Penguin Random House sent me a copy of this book as it was coming out. (Thank you, RH/PRH.)

I started reading it the day it arrived. And, here we are.

It’s classic Ryan Holiday—an inspiring distillation of ancient (Stoic!) wisdom brought to life through a broad range of ancient and modern heroes. I loved it. I highly recommend it. (Get a copy of the book here.)

If you haven’t checked out our collection of Notes on Ryan’s other great books, I think you’ll enjoy those as well: The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego Is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic and Stillness Is the Key.

As with most of Ryan’s books, this one has three parts. In Part I, we explore discipline of The Exterior (The Body). In Part II, we explore discipline of The Inner Domain (The Temperament). In Part III, we explore discipline of The Magisterial (The Soul).

As you’d expect, the book is packed with Big Ideas. I’m excited to share some of my favorites, so let’s jump straight in!

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About the author

Authors

Ryan Holiday

NYT Bestselling Author of The Obstacle Is The Way & more.