PDF Summary:Discipline Is Destiny, 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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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 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. 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 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 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, 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.)