"But not all reading is created equal. As Epictetus said, “I cannot call somebody ‘hard-working’ knowing only that they read.” He needed to know what and how they read too."

"“Far too many good brains,” Seneca said, “have been afflicted by the pointless enthusiasm for useless knowledge.”"

"To be a great reader, it is not enough that you read, it’s also how you read."

"1. Stop reading books you aren’t enjoying"

"Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy reading. My rule is 100 pages minus your age — so if you’re 30 years old and a book hasn’t captivated you by page 70, stop reading it."

"2. Keep a commonplace book"

"In his book Old School, Tobias Wolff’s semi-autobiographical character takes the time to type out quotes and passages from great books to feel great writing come through him."

"In 2010, when the Reagan Presidential Library was undergoing renovation, a box labeled “RR’s desk” was discovered. Inside it were the personal belongings that Ronald Reagan kept in his office desk, including a number of black boxes containing 4×6 note cards filled with handwritten quotes, thoughts, stories, political aphorisms and one-liners. They were separated by themes like “On the Nation,” “On Liberty.” “On War,” “On the People,” “The World,” “Humor” and “On Character.”"

"As Seneca advised, “We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching and the spirited and noble-minded sayings which are capable of immediate practical application — not far far-fetched or archaic expressions or extravagant metaphors and figures of speech — and learn them so well that words become works.”"

"3. Reread the masters"

"As Seneca put it, “You must linger among a limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind.” Because the world is constantly changing and we are constantly changing, therefore what we get out of books can also change."

"4. Ask people you admire for book recommendations"

"Ralph Waldo Emerson’s line was “If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.”"

"If a book changed someone’s life — whatever the topic or style — it’s probably worth the investment."

"5. Don’t just learn from your own experience"

"“If you haven’t read hundreds of books,” General James Mattis said, “you’re functionally illiterate.” Humans have been fighting and dying and struggling and doing the same things for eons. To not avail yourself of their knowledge is arrogant and stupid."

"Too much depends on you for you to learn solely by experience — you must also learn by the experiences of others. Drink deeply from history, from philosophy, and more. Study the cautionary tales and the screw-ups, the failures and successes."

"If you don’t, it’s a dereliction of duty."

"6. Get out of a dry spell"

"But I’ve found I’m able to get out of it by rereading something that has really spoken to me in the past."

"“It was not merely a subject to write or argue about,” Hays writes, “but one that was expected to provide a ‘design for living’—a set of rules to live one’s life by.”"

"Which is great because, as Seneca wrote, “Life without a design is erratic.”"

"Put people first."

"This is the leader who sacrifices and struggles and puts their people ahead of their own comfort and needs. That’s what greatness is."

"Never be overheard complaining"

"When we make the distinction between what’s in our control and outside our control, we see very quickly that it is only our own decisions and actions and words and thoughts that are worthy of our attention."

"Do only what’s essential. This was Marcus’ simple recipe for productivity and for happiness."

"“If you seek tranquility,” he said, “do less.” And then he clarifies. Not nothing. Less. Do only what’s essential."

"Waste no time worrying about other people’s opinions."

"The fundamental Stoic principle is that we focus only on the things that are within our control. Other people’s opinions are not within our control. Don’t spend any time worrying about what other people think."

"Don’t suffer imagined troubles."

"Focus on effort, not outcomes. It’s a strange paradox. The people who are most successful in life, who accomplish the most, who dominate their professions—they don’t care that much about winning."

"Success, mastery, sanity, Marcus writes, comes from tying your wellbeing, “to your own actions.”"

"Ask this question. Marcus liked to filter his choices through the question, “You’re afraid of death because you won’t be able to do this anymore?”"

"Choose sympathy over outrage."

"“When people injure you,” he wrote, “feel sympathy rather than outrage or anger."

"Blow your own nose. Marcus noticed how often he found himself praying to get something. Wouldn’t it be better, he thought, to make yourself strong enough not to need whatever you were hoping the gods would grace you with?"

"Think progress, not perfection."

"That’s one of the ironies about perfectionism: it rarely begets perfection—only disappointment, frustration, and of course, procrastination."

"Let go of anxiety."

"Do the more difficult thing. Whenever we come to a little crossroad—a decision about how to do things and what things to do—Marcus said to default to the option that challenges you the most."

"In matters big and small, courage is choosing the more difficult option."

"Iron sharpens iron, after all."

"Wake up early."

"Because Marcus knew that winning the morning was key to winning the day and winning at life."

"Be strict with yourself and tolerant of others"

"Your standards are for you."

"Don’t be afraid to ask for help."

"If you need to lean on someone or something, do it."

"Treat success and failure the same."

"The key, Marcus said, is to assent to all of it. Accept the good stuff without arrogance, he writes in Meditations."

"Be free of passion and full of love."

"They loved their fate (amor fati), they loved other people, they loved every minute they were alive. Love, love, love. That’s what you replace it all with."

"The obstacle is the way."

"The impediment to action advances action, Marcus famously wrote. What stands in the way becomes the way."

"Always do the right thing."

"Lay Out Your Supplies"

"The main thing is that we stop expecting this to simply happen."

"In one of the best passages in Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations (check out this awesome leatherbound edition), Marcus tells himself to stop hoping and “be his own savior while he can.” It’s great advice—advice we should follow this year."

"Think Small"

"An atomic habit is a small habit that makes an enormous difference in your life."

"That sounds small, but Clear emphasizes that repetitive actions accumulate and add up in a big way over time."

"And easier is what we’re after when it comes to getting started. Because once you get started, you can build."

"Lengthen Your Timeline"

"One of the most important habits, the habit that makes all other habits possible, is patience."

"It always takes longer than you think it’s going to take. That’s Hofstadter’s law."

"See Everything as a Challenge"

"Do The Important Things First"

"Well-intentioned plans fall apart. Our willpower evaporates. So it’s key that we prioritize the important things and we habitualize doing them early."

"Set a Bedtime"

"All the other habits and practices listed here become irrelevant if you don’t have the energy and clarity to do them."

"We only have so much energy for our work, for our relationships, for ourselves. A smart person understands this and guards their sleep carefully."

"The greats—they protect their sleep because their best work depends on it."

"The philosopher and writer Arthur Schopenhauer used to say that “sleep is the source of all health and energy.”"

"Say No To Say Yes"

"His secretary wrote to ask whether they needed to start saying no to things with all the demands he had on his schedule."

"What’s at stake is my finite resources. So are yours!"

"Discipline Now, Freedom Later"

"The famous line from Musonius Rufus was that labor passes quickly but the fruit of labor endures."

"When you’re on the fence about going for a long run or working on a big project, remind yourself: discipline now, freedom later. The labor will pass, and the rewards will last."

"Create Positive Peer Pressure"

"“If you dwell with a lame man, you will learn how to limp.”"

"It’s a pretty observable truth."

"”One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior,” Clear writes."

"“Your culture sets your expectation for what is ‘normal.’ Surround yourself with people who have the habits you want to have yourself. You’ll rise together.”"

"Keep Coming Back"

"The path to self-improvement is rocky, and slipping and tripping is inevitable."

"No one is perfect. We all have bad days. It’s okay to feel a little discouraged. But to give up? To not even try? That is criminal. “Disgraceful,” Marcus Aurelius would say, “for the soul to give up when the body is still going strong.”"

"You’ll have a better group of harmony if you keep on going back to it.”"

"In other words, when you mess up, come back to the habits you’ve been working on. Come back to the ideas here in this post."

"From now on, then, resolve to live as a grown-up who is making progress, and make whatever you think best a law that you never set aside. And whenever you encounter anything that is difficult or pleasurable, or highly or lowly regarded, remember that the contest is now: you are at the Olympic Games, you cannot wait any longer…"

"The good news is that real philosophy is the opposite of that nonsense. The truly wise philosophers didn’t waste time with those questions. They were real people, in the real world, trying to make their lives better."

"“To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school. […] It is to solve some of the problems of life, not theoretically, but practically.”"

"Because so much is out of our control"

"Epictetus, the slave-turned-philosopher, said that the first job of the philosopher was a simple one: to separate and distinguish between what is in our control and what isn’t."

"But they do control their own choices and their own responses to all those things that are out of their control. Everything else they ignore."

"In this way, philosophy is not just a form of wisdom but a resource allocation hack."

"“To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control.”"

"Because we want to know how to live"

"“Would you really know what philosophy offers to humanity?” Seneca asks in his Moral Letters, “Philosophy offers counsel.” It gives us advice. It consoles us. It explains."

"We must live by principles."

"Most philosophy, particularly ancient philosophy, arrives at the same moral conclusions as all the world’s religions"

"“Those [principles] to do with good and evil. That nothing is good except what lead to fairness, and self-control, and courage, and free will. And nothing bad except what does the opposite.”"

"Because we need to know how to act (in the moment)"

"For Aristotle, the key was knowing how to do the right thing, in the right way, in the right situation, and in the right amount."

"“Virtue is the golden mean between two vices, the one of excess and the other of deficiency.”"

"In other words, we should look at every situation and split the difference."

"“I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law.”"

"Because it’s practical"

"The point is, philosophy at its best is practical, not theoretical."

"Because we want to feel balanced"

"Basically every school of philosophy and religion has its own word for stillness — and teaches its own ways to be steady while the world spins around you."

"What is the fruit of these teachings? Only the most beautiful and proper harvest of the truly educated — tranquility, fearlessness, and freedom. We should not trust the masses who say only the free can be educated, but rather the lovers of wisdom who say that only the educated are free. — Epictetus, Discourses 2.1.21–23a"

"Instead, it’s about filtering the outside world through the straightening of our judgment."

"That’s what studying philosophy — reading and meditating on the wisdom of great minds — does. It strengthens our ability to remain steady in the chaos and rush of life. It takes the crooked, confusing, and overwhelming nature of external events and makes them orderly."

"Because we need to zoom out"

"When you zoom out far enough, almost everything becomes absurd. Think about it: We are monkeys living on a space rock."

"That’s why Marcus Aurelius talks about taking Plato’s view, of zooming way, way out and looking at things from above — how it was pacifying and edifying."

"Because we are part of a larger whole"

"The Stoics word for this is “Sympatheia” — a connectedness with the cosmos. They believe we are all part of a larger whole. We all play an important role (even if that role seems small, even if it’s not the role we chose)."

"Further, to harm someone else, or to abdicate our role, is a betrayal of our philosophical and human duties."

"It is imperative that we treat everyone we encounter with respect and kindness, whether they are a janitor or a billionaire. It means we must work to do good for other people… because to do good for them is to do good for ourselves."

"The most important characteristic of the Eastern world view — one could almost say the essence of it — is the awareness of the unity and mutual interrelation of all things and events, the experience of all phenomena in the world as manifestations of a basic oneness."

"Because it challenges you"

"Because it values the right thing"

"Philosophy might be simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. In fact, it’s supposed to be really tough."

"The answer is virtue. If we act virtuously, as Aristotle, the Stoics, and even the Epicureans believed, everything else important could follow: Happiness, success, meaning, reputation, honor, and love."

"The alternative — taking the easy route or the shortcut (whether or not it was ethical or moral was beside the point) — was considered only by cowards and fools."

"“Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter.”"

"Because we all suffer"

"But, he also believed that humans have the power to find meaning in that suffering"

"For, if not, then ultimately there is no meaning to survival; for a life whose meaning depends on such a happenstance — as whether one escapes or not — ultimately would not be worth living at all.”"

"Because life is unpredictable"

"“Rehearse them in your mind: exile, torture, war, shipwreck. All the terms of our human lot should be before our eyes.”"

"By accepting some level of powerlessness over fate, but never ceding our power to respond to fate, we are always prepared. Never surprised. And always ready to move forward."

"Because humility is key"

"Philosophy, like science, is moved forward only by the admission of ignorance. By accepting what we don’t know, we can learn and discover."

"Because we’re doing the best we can"

"True happiness, I think, is the meaningfulness that gratuitously happens, shows up, is revealed, or by grace discovered when we fully enter the project of directing our thoughts, words, and deeds toward the good and the worthy. It is in doing this clumsily, fallibly, and without a compass, but just doing the damn best we can that, in certain moments when our minds and hearts are not defended, we experience love, order, sense, beauty, justice, and all the other ineffable good stuff."

"The humility that comes from knowing that we are flawed but trying to get better not only keeps our ego at bay, it also helps us understand and be more tolerant of others."

"If you can keep your eyes open, remember that most people are trying their best, and be willing to forgive? You’ll find the world is not too bad a place."

"Because it helps you find meaning"

"“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering,” wrote German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche."

"And more generally, if we have purpose in our lives, suffering will be more endurable in the first place."

"Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”"

"Because we live in a material world"

"“If my wealth should melt away it would deprive me of nothing but itself,”"

"“but if yours were to depart you would be stunned and feel you were deprived of what makes you yourself. With me, wealth has a certain place; in your case it has the highest place. In short, I own my wealth, your wealth owns you.”"

"What does having all these things teach, Seneca wonders, concluding that, “All you learn from this is how to desire more stuff.”"

"Because shit happens"

"Nietzsche’s recipe for greatness can be described as “amor fati,” a love of one’s fate."

"“That one wants nothing to be different,” he explained, “not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it… but love it.”"

"I didn’t choose this, which means it was chosen for me."

"“a blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.”"

"Because we are afraid"

"“fear shouldn’t pin us down, it should free us.”"

"There is a possible taming of fear by welcoming it. When one admits their fear, their finitude, a confidence can be reborn from this vulnerability."

"“We are more often frightened than hurt, and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”"

"Because we want to enjoy life"

"But Epicurus’s life was actually quite simple. What he mastered was the art of finding pleasure in the ordinary and the accessible — time with friends, the beauty of an evening in the garden, a great conversation, and gratitude for being alive."

"“It is impossible to live the pleasant life without also living sensibly, nobly, and justly and conversely it is impossible to live sensibly, nobly and justly without living pleasant.”"

"Because you’re going to die (memento mori)"

"It was Cicero who said that to philosophize is to learn how to die. But if that sounds dark, consider the flip side — to know how to die is to know how to live."

"“What’s fated hangs over you. As long as you live and while you can, become good now.”"

"Life is brief. Existence is fragile. But we are here right now, so let’s make the most of it. Let’s be the best people we can while we still have the chance."

"Do not fear death — it is outside your control. Instead, embrace it. Use it to create urgency, gratitude, and most of all, meaning."

"Philosophy is for life. It’s for helping you live the good life. Not in the future, not in ideal conditions, but right now. Today. Before it’s too late."

"Philosophy isn’t a parlor trick or made for show. It’s not concerned with words, but with facts. It’s not employed for some pleasure before the day is spent, or to relieve the uneasiness of our leisure. It shapes and builds up the soul, it gives order to life, guides action, shows what should and shouldn’t be done — it sits at the rudder steering our course as we vacillate in uncertainties. Without it, no one can live without fear or free from care. Countless things happen every hour that require advice, and such advice is to be sought out in philosophy."