Summary of Discipline Is Destiny
Original book by Ryan Holiday
In Discipline Is Destiny, Ryan Holiday examines the power of discipline through the lens of the ancient Greek
philosophy of Stoicism. Holiday argues that your ability to practice discipline—one of the four cardinal
virtues of Stoicism—determines how successful you are (aka your destiny). This is because discipline
dictates whether you work consistently and avoid the temptations that prevent you from attaining or
maintaining success.
Holiday is a modern-day Stoic philosopher who’s written or co-written several best-selling books on
Stoicism, including The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego Is the Enemy, and The Daily Stoic. Published in 2022, Discipline
Is Destiny is the second book in his four-part series highlighting each of the four cardinal virtues of Stoicism.
(Courage Is Calling was the first.)
In this guide, we’ll explain what discipline is and why it matters. Then, we’ll describe how to practice
discipline throughout various stages of your life. Along the way, we’ll compare Holiday’s ideas with those of
other self-help experts.
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Summary: Discipline Is Destiny
1-Page Summary
In Discipline Is Destiny, Ryan Holiday examines the power of discipline through the lens of the ancient Greek
philosophy of Stoicism. Holiday argues that your ability to practice discipline—one of the four cardinal
virtues of Stoicism—determines how successful you are (aka your destiny). This is because it dictates
whether you work consistently and avoid the temptations that prevent you from attaining or maintaining
success.
Holiday is one of the most well-known modern-day philosophers. He has written and co-written several
best-selling books on Stoicism, including The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy. Published in 2022,
Discipline Is Destiny is the second book in his four-part series highlighting each of the cardinal virtues of
Stoicism. (Courage Is Calling was the first.)
In this guide, we’ll explain what discipline is and why it matters. Then, we’ll describe how to practice
discipline throughout various stages of your life—for instance, by regularly depriving yourself of pleasure.
Along the way, we’ll compare Holiday’s ideas with those of other self-help experts.
What Is Discipline?
Holiday asserts that discipline is the ability to restrain your baser urges in pursuit of what’s best for you.
When you’re disciplined, you act with moderation, and you prize your ability to have total control over
yourself. Like all humans, you face temptations, but you can resist these temptations when you need to—
and if you do choose to indulge in them, you do so with restraint.
(Shortform note: In The Power of Discipline, Daniel Walter agrees that discipline is the ability to fight
temptations and instant gratification and ultimately act in your best interests. However, his definition of
discipline doesn’t include the ability to indulge in temptations with restraint; it also doesn’t include a sense
of self-satisfaction that stems from having self-control. Additionally, Walter suggests that we struggle with
discipline due to four biological tendencies: resisting change that makes us uncomfortable, overestimating
our abilities, procrastinating, and setting unrealistic expectations.)
Holiday asserts that discipline matters for four reasons. First, discipline prevents you from taking the
four cardinal virtues of Stoicism (courage, wisdom, justice, and temperance or discipline) to
extremes and turning them into flaws. For example, extreme courage might also be characterized as
recklessness. Since discipline is predicated on practicing moderation, it prevents you from taking the
cardinal virtues too far and thus not living a good life.
(Shortform note: It’s clear how too much courage can harm you, but how can you take being just or wise too
far? Holiday doesn’t specify, but other experts explain that the Stoic virtue of justice involves honesty, so
you might be unvirtuous if you’re unnecessarily honest with someone and hurt their feelings for no reason.
However, it’s not clear how being too wise can become a flaw.)
Second, discipline leads to a good life. Holiday explains that when you’re disciplined, you make better
choices with your time: You regularly work to fulfill your purpose (which we’ll discuss in detail later) rather
than wasting time with less important endeavors, such as watching Netflix every evening. The more time
you spend working on your purpose, the more likely you are to fulfill it—and thus reap the benefits of doing
so.
(Shortform note: Unless you develop discipline, you may never achieve your best life. In The Power of
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Summary: Discipline Is Destiny
Discipline, Walter argues that not making good choices with your time (by wasting it on unimportant
endeavors) is not only undisciplined, but it can also reduce your levels of self-discipline and make you even
less likely to spend time on and fulfill your purpose than you already were. He argues that self-discipline is a
skill that takes practice to develop. So the more you procrastinate (a form of instant gratification that’s the
opposite of self-discipline), the more habitual the procrastination becomes, and the weaker your ability to
make productive choices becomes.)
Third, Holiday asserts that discipline lets you keep your good life because it stops you from allowing your
emotions or baser urges to take control. When you’re disciplined, you take a moment to actively choose how
to react to any situation that you face. As a result, even if you feel powerful emotions, they don’t dictate
your actions and cause harmful consequences. For example, despite your fury at your boss, you listen
quietly to her scolding and choose to look for another job on your own terms rather than exploding at her
and getting fired.
(Shortform note: Not everybody agrees that you’re able to choose how to react in any situation. In Thinking,
Fast and Slow, psychologist Daniel Kahneman argues that automatic (fast) impressions arise from our
senses and feelings (he calls this the mind’s “System 1”). Like Holiday, he acknowledges that these
impressions can lead us to make poor choices that cause harmful consequences. But he believes it’s not
feasible to always check them through our disciplined rational mind (“System 2”) because it’s too slow. He
suggests a compromise: Be aware of situations where System 1 thinking might lead to errors, and avoid
those errors when the stakes are high by using System 2.)
Lastly, Holiday argues that discipline makes you self-aware. You’re able to recognize when you risk
overindulging in something potentially harmful and thus stop yourself from doing so. This is true both of
physical pursuits, like food or alcohol, and of certain character traits. For example, you may be ambitious,
but you don’t take it to the extreme of constantly pursuing power and ignoring other things that matter, like
your relationships.
(Shortform note: In 10% Happier, Dan Harris agrees that being self-aware can make you more thoughtful
and intentional in your approach to everyday life. However, he calls this self-awareness “mindfulness” and
argues that it comes from regularly practicing meditation—not discipline. Meditation teaches you to notice
and accept your feelings—like your desire for more food or alcohol or power—and then choose how to
respond to them. Harris learned from his mentor that if you try to ignore these feelings, you just give them
more power and influence over your actions.)
How to Practice Discipline
Now that you know what discipline is and why it matters, we’ll discuss how to practice it. In this section, we’ll
first discuss why identifying your purpose is essential to practicing discipline. Then, we’ll discuss how
discipline helps set the stage for tackling your purpose and helps you actually fulfill it. Finally, we’ll discuss
how practicing discipline can help you effectively face the hardships you encounter—and maintain any
success you achieve.
Identify Your Purpose
Holiday argues that to practice discipline effectively, you must first identify your purpose. Discipline
requires that you work consistently toward a purpose and avoid temptations that distract you from that
purpose. This is impossible if you don’t know what your purpose is. Holiday describes purpose as work that
is inherently enjoyable and not something you do in pursuit of external rewards. Truly loving your work is
what will allow you to keep doing it despite the many challenges you may face—because while doing the
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Summary: Discipline Is Destiny
work is hard, not doing this work is unimaginable.
(Shortform note: Holiday’s definition of purpose has similarities to the Japanese concept of ikigai. In their
book Ikigai, authors Héctor García and Francesc Miralles explain that ikigai is a person’s reason for existing
or life purpose. Your ikigai keeps you going in life, and you pursue it throughout your whole life—not just
when you’re getting paid for it—despite any setbacks you may face. However, unlike Holiday’s idea of
purpose, you can have more than one ikigai. To find yours, ask yourself what activities you enjoy so much
that they make you forget about everything else, including your worries and the passage of time. The
answer to this question points toward your ikigai.)
Set the Stage
Once you identify your purpose, you must set the stage to tackle it by preparing your body and
environment.
Holiday asserts that taking care of your body ensures you’re healthy enough to pursue your purpose.
So eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and rest adequately. Eating well supports your health and lets you
practice resisting temptation. Exercising regularly and pushing through physical challenges fortifies your
ability to push through mental challenges. Getting enough rest provides your body with a chance to restore
itself; working excessively to the point of ignoring your body’s needs is not discipline and will likely backfire
eventually. And sleeping well improves your ability to make hard decisions.
(Shortform note: In High Performance Habits, Brendon Burchard agrees that maintaining your health is
essential to pursuing your purpose. But while Holiday speaks of maintaining your health in general,
Burchard argues that different habits support different areas of health—physical, mental, and emotional—
and thus provide different benefits. Eating well, exercising regularly, and getting adequate rest improve
your physical health and as such give you energy and mental clarity, and release brain chemicals that help
with emotional management. Good mental health enables you to pace yourself, which helps you stay ontask, while good emotional health helps you relate to others and effectively handle stress.)
Holiday also recommends that you straighten up your workspace and your appearance—both of which
also set the stage for you to tackle your purpose. He argues that organizing your workspace frees up the
mental energy you need to focus on your purpose and reduces the feeling of overwhelm from the massive
amounts of information you encounter in your daily life—whether in emails or physical clutter. (Shortform
note: Having an organized workspace may not improve your ability to work if your problem is not that
you’re overwhelmed or tired but that you can’t be creative. Some studies suggest that being in a messy
environment improves creativity.)
Similarly, straightening up your appearance puts you in a better mindset to work than being unkempt.
Moreover, your appearance affects how positively others perceive you and whether they want to work with
you. While excessively focusing on fashion is undesirable, dressing well may allow you to connect with
people who are essential to your work.
(Shortform note: Scientists agree that your clothing affects your self-perception, which changes how you
work—a theory known as “enclothed cognition.” Notably, it’s not just what you wear, but how you perceive
what you wear that affects how you see yourself and how you work. In the 2012 study that introduced the
term enclothed cognition, students were recruited to wear white lab coats. The students who were told that
these were “medical doctor’s coats” were more able to sustain their attention than those who were told that
they were “artistic painter’s coats.” This indicates that it was the value the students assigned to the lab coats
—not the lab coats themselves—that affected the students’ focus.)
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Summary: Discipline Is Destiny
Fulfill Your Purpose
Practicing discipline doesn’t just help you identify your purpose and prepare you to tackle it; it also helps
you fulfill that purpose by leading you to prioritize your purpose and behave appropriately when you’re
working toward it.
Holiday explains that when you’re disciplined, you prioritize your purpose by regularly refusing potential
opportunities that would divert your attention from what matters most. Set clear limits regarding what
you’re willing to do and with whom you’re willing to speak, and avoid people who try to cross those limits.
But don’t try to do it all yourself: Willingly accept or pay for any help that buys you time to reflect on whether
you’re doing what’s most important and to actually do that work.
(Shortform note: Holiday’s approach to prioritizing your purpose aligns with the essentialist philosophy that
Greg McKeown discusses in Essentialism. Essentialists prioritize their purpose by refusing opportunities that
divert their attention from it. Essentialists set clear limits and avoid people who try to cross them; if
someone repeatedly distracts them, they plan how they’ll deflect her, such as by making a list of the types
of requests from her that they’ll refuse. Essentialists also create space to escape and think, which helps
them determine what their purpose is and explore how to fulfill it. And if they also follow the ideas in
McKeown’s Effortless, they embrace anything that makes their lives easier instead of overexerting
themselves.)
Prioritizing your purpose also requires that you design your schedule around your purpose. Wake up
early so that you can focus on the most important work. Doing what matters first not only ensures that
you’re not distracted by others’ demands (since they’ll still be asleep), it also ensures that you actually do the
thing you want to do instead of procrastinating—and potentially never getting around to doing it. Once you
set this schedule, stick to it every day—even on the days when it’s difficult to do so. Most people struggle to
remain consistent. So if you can master consistency, you’ll steadily improve—and ultimately, grow more
than those who don’t do it every day.
(Shortform note: Other authors elaborate on why consistency is important. In How to Become a Straight-A
Student, Cal Newport explains that being consistent turns doing this work into a habit. Once it becomes a
habit, you’ll be less likely to procrastinate on it, and you’ll put in more hours, which means you’ll get better
at it, as Malcolm Gladwell points out in Outliers.)
Work When You Can Focus
Waking up early, as Holiday suggests, may not help you focus on the most important work. Even if
others are asleep when you awaken, distractions can come from other sources—for example, if you
check your phone in the morning, you may be waylaid by messages and emails you received
overnight.
Moreover, you may struggle to focus in the early morning because, as When author Daniel Pink
explains, we all have different biological clocks and so feel energetic at different times. Pink
recommends doing your most important work when you feel most energetic—whatever that time
may be.
How to Work Well
Holiday adds that when you’re disciplined, you figure out how to do your work most effectively. Start by
mastering the fundamentals. Many people want to tackle the harder stuff first, but not mastering the
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Summary: Discipline Is Destiny
fundamentals leaves you vulnerable to bigger problems down the line. For example, if you don’t understand
factoring (an algebra concept), you’ll struggle to complete calculus problems (which require factoring). So
practice these fundamentals until you can do them in your sleep.
(Shortform note: Holiday highlights the necessity of mastering the fundamentals of what you want to learn.
But in Ultralearning, Scott Young proposes an alternate first step: Before starting to learn something, figure
out how you’re going to learn it. Try breaking your topic down into information (what you simply need to
memorize), ideas (what you need to understand at a deeper level than facts), and processes (what you need
to practice to understand), and list everything relevant to learn in each category. Then, use this information
to identify critical areas of focus for your learning.)
As your skills progress, refocus your attention on improving incrementally: You should always see some
improvement from the day before. As long as you prioritize improvement, you’ll retain the discipline to
continue working—whether you’re performing well or poorly. Don’t get caught up in the idea that you have
to do something perfectly, which can prevent you from working at all out of a fear that you’ll never achieve
perfection. It’s most important that you finish your projects.
(Shortform note: In The Bullet Journal Method, Ryder Carroll also recommends focusing on continual
improvement and warns that chasing perfection can lead you to sabotage your potential because you can’t
meet your impossibly high standards. To fight this mindset, track your progress in a journal; regularly note
what you’ve accomplished and learned, decide how you can improve going forward, then record new goals
and tasks based on your reflection.)
Figuring out how to do the work also involves knowing how to behave at each work session. Holiday
emphasizes the importance of intense focus: When you’re working, pay attention exclusively to what you’re
doing without allowing yourself to get distracted. Always put your best foot forward. As long as you do, you
won’t become overly complacent if you do well (because you’ll keep putting your best forward despite
external praise) nor devastated by unfavorable outcomes (because you know you gave it your all).
What Other Experts Say About Practicing Well
Intense focus and always putting your best foot forward are both features of deliberate practice,
which Peak author Anders Ericsson agrees are essential to building your skills. But deliberate practice
also includes other features; for example, it involves objective ways to evaluate your performance,
and it’s usually done under the tutelage of coaches.
That said, always putting your best foot forward may not be enough to keep you practicing. In
Mindset, Carol Dweck explains that if you have a fixed mindset—and thus believe that your talent is
innate—you likely won’t push yourself when you succeed (because you feel superior) and you’ll be
discouraged by defeat (because you see it as a sign you’re not good enough). To keep working no
matter what, you need a growth mindset—a belief that people can change and improve the abilities
they’re born with.
Additionally, push yourself to take action and work hard, even when you don’t feel like it, but also learn to
recognize when waiting to act is the better option. For example, if you want a promotion at your job, work
hard even when you’re not in the mood to do so. But if your company then goes through layoffs, wait to ask
for a promotion until your company’s financial situation has improved.
(Shortform note: In 168 Hours, Laura Vanderkam agrees that timing is everything when deciding how to act.
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However, rather than focusing on when you should wait to act, she highlights the necessity of being as
prepared as possible so that you’re able to take advantage of any opportunities that do arise. To do so,
Vanderkam recommends working for 30 focused hours each week on your purpose and regularly trying
new things so you can encounter potential opportunities.)
Deal With Hard Times
As you go through life, you’ll inevitably encounter hardship. However, Holiday asserts that practicing
discipline can help you deal with three types of hardship: pain, negativity, and failure.
Deal With Pain
To deal with pain, Holiday asserts that you must practice discipline by learning to tolerate pain. You must
fight through your hardships (which are inevitable) if you want to have any chance of success. These
hardships may seem impossible to overcome, especially if you’re experiencing significant physical pain or
major mental health issues. However, Holiday insists that you must find a way to keep going despite this
pain, whether that’s by finding an effective way to deal with it (such as by working through trauma) or by
choosing to ignore it so you can work.
(Shortform note: If you’re struggling to tolerate and fight through pain, consider playing a sport. Although
the research is inconclusive, some studies suggest that regularly experiencing the pain induced by training
for and playing a sport may increase your tolerance for physical and mental pain. Scholars have different
theories as to why: Some suggest that it’s because exercise increases endorphins, while others suggest that
it’s because athletes instinctively use strategies for coping with pain.)
Deal With Negativity
To deal with negativity, Holiday asserts that you must practice discipline by resisting the urge to fight
back. If someone behaves poorly toward you, you may understandably want to fight against them or
defend yourself. But doing so likely won’t improve the situation and may even worsen it. So it’s best to
choose not to engage with negativity—even when it seems impossible.
(Shortform note: Ancient Chinese philosophers agree with Holiday that you should avoid fighting. In the Tao
Te Ching, Lao Tzu argues that peace should always be your top priority as aggression only pushes people
away, and violence only makes you seem unstable or desperate. But if you do choose to fight back, The Art
of War’s Sun Tzu recommends that you do so only if you’re absolutely certain that you’re going to win.)
Deal With Failure
Holiday asserts that dealing with failure in a disciplined manner requires that you learn to handle it with
grace. In general, don’t treat failure as an excuse to stop; remain persistent and pursue your goals despite
the failure. Also, show yourself compassion: Instead of bombarding yourself with negative self-talk when
you fail, talk to yourself as you would a friend. That said, don’t prioritize persistence above all else. Pushing
forward is virtuous, but if you’re unable to admit that you need to stop because you’re not doing well, you’ll
keep going even when you shouldn’t—and ultimately encounter an even more agonizing defeat.
Other Ways to Handle Failure
In Dare to Lead, Brené Brown names the ability to recover and move on from defeat “failure
resilience,” and she asserts that it’s essential because you’re more likely to take risks and try new
ideas if you’re confident that you can recover from any setback. A key component of developing
failure resilience is questioning the story that you’re telling yourself about why you failed. This story is
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often driven by your own insecurities and so may lead you to beat yourself up unnecessarily or make
illogical leaps; questioning that story can help you realize what’s true and what’s an assumption.
Similarly, asking questions can help you decide when it’s time to quit. Specifically, experts
recommend asking yourself why you originally undertook the project (to see if it’s veered from its
original purpose), why you want to quit now, whether you’ve tried everything to make this pay off,
and what you’ll gain from quitting.
Maintain Your Success
Self-discipline isn’t just important in hard times—it’s also essential to maintaining your success in good
times. Holiday asserts that practicing discipline can help you with four things that come with success: ego,
pleasure, power, and money.
Handle Your Ego
Holiday asserts that to practice discipline well, you must first keep your ego in check. Your success with
self-discipline may make you a role model that other people want to follow, but don’t expect that others will
practice discipline just because you are doing so. Instead, focus your energies on your own behavior and let
others do what they will. Similarly, don’t let your ego convince you that you no longer need self-discipline.
The more successful you become, the greater the temptations you’ll face—but if you want to maintain that
success, you need to continue practicing the discipline that made you successful.
Additionally, don’t let your ego tie you to habits that no longer serve you. Holiday warns that you may grow
so attached to the habits that made you successful that you stick to them—even when they’re not having
the same impact they had before. Prevent this by regularly examining your routines and modifying them if
they’re no longer working. Otherwise, you won’t be able to keep up with the world as it changes.
Holiday’s Other Views on Ego
In Ego Is the Enemy, Holiday also warns that keeping your ego in check is essential to maintaining
success. But rather than focusing on how sticking to certain habits can destroy your success, he
focuses on how certain traits that brought you success can, if left unchecked, rob you of it.
To avoid this trap, Holiday advises looking out for certain feelings your ego might enhance. First, your
confidence may grow into hubris that convinces you that you’re entitled to the things you desire
(which, although Holiday doesn’t mention this, may also make you feel as though you deserve to
indulge in certain temptations). Second, you might start expecting everything to go your way, as if you
control the world—or the people around you. Holiday contends you can avoid this fate by
remembering that you don’t have a claim on anything that’s not already yours and by recognizing
that you’re not the center of the world.
Handle Pleasure
According to Holiday, another way to practice discipline when you’re successful is to look for opportunities
to make your life less pleasant, such as by immersing yourself in cold water. Regularly experiencing
displeasure will make you unafraid of living without the trappings of success, which may be an essential skill
if you ever lose your fortune.
(Shortform note: Regularly experiencing displeasure by immersing yourself in cold water may also improve
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your ability to handle stressors like potentially losing your fortune. This is because, as Wim Hof explains in
The Wim Hof Method, the cold causes a physiological response that’s identical to your response to emotional
stressors—so by training yourself to handle the cold through repeated exposure, you train yourself to
handle other kinds of stress, too.)
For example, the Roman philosopher Seneca possessed great wealth, but he regularly went without—for
instance, by sleeping on the ground—to remind himself that he could handle being poor and that losing his
wealth was not as terrifying as it seemed. This habit came in handy when he fell out of favor with the
emperor Nero: Seneca was able to willingly give Nero all his riches in exchange for his life because he was
unafraid of losing the trappings of success.
(Shortform note: By highlighting Seneca’s habit of going without, Holiday presents Seneca as a model of
Stoic philosophy and Nero as a clear villain. But the two had a complicated relationship: Seneca was
famously Nero’s tutor and at times supported Nero’s questionable behavior, such as by lying to the Roman
Senate that Nero’s mother was planning a coup after Nero tried to kill her.)
Handle Power
Holiday suggests that another way to practice discipline is by learning how to handle power. Contrary to
popular opinion, gaining power doesn’t give you extra perks; rather, power is the perk. Therefore, you ought
to do more than the people below you—not less, as most are wont to do. For example, when former
Defense Secretary (and then-Brigadier General) James Mattis encountered a soldier performing guard duty
on Christmas Day, he sent the soldier home to enjoy the holiday and worked guard duty himself—instead
of deciding that his holiday off was a perk of power.
(Shortform note: Holiday’s perspective on power aligns with that of Simon Sinek. In Leaders Eat Last, Sinek
argues that if you’re a leader, your primary responsibility is to prioritize your subordinates’ needs above
your own. By doing so, you prove that you see them as people—not as assets you can use. As a result, your
subordinates feel as though you support them, which makes them feel safe and thus more willing to
collaborate and take the risks necessary for success. Mattis made his soldiers feel that way both through his
actions (like working guard duty on Christmas) and through his words: One soldier praised Mattis for giving
a relatable speech during wartime, saying, “Mattis spoke like an enlisted man. He spoke to the enlisted
man.”)
Additionally, you must learn to give up power. The most self-disciplined people have control over
themselves; as a result, they don’t desire control over others. Moreover, they understand that having too
much power often leads to self-destruction—and so they’re willing to give it up. (Shortform note: In David
and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell proposes that having too much power leads to destruction: When you have
power, you forget that you only have as much power as your subjects are willing to give you. If you take an
action that your subjects deem unfair or unpredictable, or that makes them feel voiceless, they view your
power as illegitimate and grow defiant—which weakens your power and may lead to your destruction.)
Handle Money
Finally, Holiday argues that practicing discipline when you’re successful requires you to adjust your view of
money. Some people believe that if they make enough money, they’ll be able to do whatever they want.
They won’t need self-discipline because they can spend freely and ignore others’ opinions. But while money
can make your life easier, it can’t free you from all life’s worries; you’ll still need self-discipline to handle
them. So instead of needlessly striving for money that will let you do whatever you want, strive for an
amount that allows you to live in accordance with your purpose.
(Shortform note: In The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel also warns against relentlessly chasing money,
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explaining that if you always want more money, you might risk your existing wealth for additional wealth
you don’t even need. To stop striving for more, Housel recommends accepting that somebody else will
always have more money than you do. Otherwise, you’ll always compare yourself to others and never be
satisfied.)
Exercise: Work On Your Purpose
Holiday argues that working on your purpose is essential to the practice of discipline. Think of how you can
adjust your life to make working on your purpose easier.
What is your purpose? Recall that Holiday defines purpose as work that’s inherently enjoyable—not
something you do in pursuit of external rewards.
How much time do you spend working on your purpose daily?
What’s the biggest obstacle that prevents you from working on your purpose? For example, you might wish
to create music but struggle to do so because you lack energy after work.
Name three ways you could work around this obstacle. For example, you could stop eating junk food that
makes you feel sluggish.
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