“Will you remain as you are? Or become what you’re capable of?”

“Will we be selfish or selfless? Brave or afraid? Strong or weak? Wise or stupid? Will we cultivate a good habit or a bad one? Courage or cowardice? The bliss of ignorance or the challenge of a new idea? Stay the same…or grow? The easy way or the right way?”

“Would you have a great empire? Rule over yourself.”

-Publilius Syrus

“Freedom is the opportunity for self-discipline.”

-Dwight D. Eisenhauer

“Life is not fair. Gifts are not handed out evenly. And the reality of this inequity is that those of us coming from a disadvantage have to be even more disciplined to have a chance. They have to work harder; they have less room for error. Even those with fewer freedoms still face countless daily choices about which urges to indulge, what actions they’ll take, what they’ll accept or demand from themselves.”

“Discipline, then, is both prescriptive and deterministic. It makes it more likely you’ll be successful, and it ensures, success or failure, that whatever happens, you are great.”

“Failing to realize your potential is a terrible punishment.”

“Greed moves the goalposts.”

“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.”

“When you love the work, you don’t cheat it or the demands it asks of you.”

“Gehrig, as it happened, continued to live with his parents for his first ten seasons, often taking the subway to the stadium. More than financially comfortable, he later owned a small house in New Rochelle. To Gehrig, money was at best a tool, at worst a temptation.”

“As the Yankees reigned over the game, the team was treated to an upgraded dugout, with padded seats replacing the old Spartan bench. Gehrig was spotted by the team’s manager tearing off a section. ‘I get tired of sitting on cushions,’ he said of the posh life of an athlete in his prime. ‘Cushions in my car, cushions on the chairs at home – every place I go they have cushions.’

He knew that getting comfortable was the enemy, and that success is an endless series of invitations to get comfortable. It’s easy to be disciplined when you have nothing. What about when you have everything?”

“Let the headlines go to whoever wanted them.”

“’I guess the streak’s over,’ a pitcher joked after knocking Gehrig unconscious with a pitch in June 1934. For five terrible minutes, he lay there, unmoving, dead to the world – death being a real possibility in the era before helmets.

He was rushed to the hospital, and most expected he’d be out for two weeks even if the X-ray for a skull fracture came back negative. Again, he was back in the batter’s box the next day.

Still, you might have expected a hesitation, a flinch when the next ball came hurtling toward him. That’s why pitchers will bean a batter from time to time – because it makes them cautious, the batter’s instinct for self-preservation causes them to step back, in a game where a millimeter may make all the difference.

Instead, Gehrig leaned in…and hit a triple. A few innings later, he hit another. And before the game was rained out, he hit his third…while recovering from a nearly fatal blow to the brain. ‘A thing like that can’t stop us Dutchmen,’ was his only postgame comment.”

“As the starting lineup was called over the loudspeakers to some twelve thousand people in Detroit, the announcer was just as stunned. For the first time in 2,130 games, Gehrig’s name was not to be called. Still, the announcer couldn’t help himself, ‘How about a hand for Lou Gehrig, who played 2,130 games in a row before he benched himself.’”

“Because yes, even the greats could have been greater.”

“Nearly half of young Americans are actually ineligible to join the US military for health or fitness reasons.”

“The only way to stop is to stop.”

“Show me a man who isn’t a slave.”

-Seneca

“Nothing is cheap if it is superfluous.”

-Cato the Elder

“Cato lived in a modest home, inspired by one of his heroes, Manius Curius. At the height of the great conqueror’s powers, some men were sent to bribe Curius but found him in his kitchen boiling turnips. In an instant, they knew their mission was futile. A man satisfied with so little could never be tempted.”

“The more a man is, the less he wants.”

-Maxwell Perkins

"Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

-Gustave Flaubert

“You don’t have to always be amazing. You do always have to show up.”

“Success breeds softness.”

“They refer now to the idea of sleep discipline. It’s something you not only have to do, but something you have to enforce in yourself – in terms of both quantity and quality. The higher the stakes, the more driven you are, the more stressful the situation, the more discipline sleep requires.”

“The best way to master the morning is to have mastered it the night before.”

“Discipline is how we free ourselves.”

“Greatness is not just what one does, but also what one refuses to do.”

“‘Most people have a job and then they go home,’ the Queen once reflected, ‘and in this existence, the job and the life go on together, because you can’t really divide it up.’ There is no better definition of the path of temperance. It’s an all-consuming, full-time thing. It’s the journey of a lifetime, one that gets more impressive (and rewarding) the longer you stay at it.”

“Washington wasn’t naturally Stoic; he made himself this way. Not permanently but anew every minute, every day, in every situation, as best he could.”

“Perhaps this is what makes an anecdote about General James Mattis from his time as secretary of defense so unusual. Mattis, notoriously private and duty-bound, was not interested in doing the rounds of Sunday-morning talk shows that Washington politicians usually line up for like hogs at the trough.

He didn’t care about his brand. He didn’t care about playing the game. No, he wanted to work. He wanted to actually get things done.

Begged, prodded, bothered, and then criticized by administration officials for not helping them get messages out, he finally called the media office and very calmly reiterated his ‘no.’ ‘I’ve killed people for a living,’ he explained. ‘If you call me again, I’m going to fucking send you to Afghanistan. Are we clear?’ And that was the end of that.”

“No one can say yes to their destiny without saying no to what is clearly someone else’s.”

“One cannot always create on the same level. The Sixth Symphony followed the Fifth, but without the Sixth, we could not have had the Seventh. One cannot know what one is leading into. Transitions are as important as achievements.”

-Louis Horst

“Perfect is not just the enemy of the good, as they say, but it’s the enemy of everything that might come after. If you get stuck, your potential does too. This is why finishing is itself an achievement, an act of monumental discipline that must happen.”

“You need to be able to stop yourself, to say, finally, this is done.”

“Anything you can do another day can be done now.”

-Michel de Montaigne

“He who postpones the hour of living right is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.”

-Horace

“You could be good now. Instead, you chose tomorrow.”

“The time to do it is now. The time to get started is now. The thing to start with is the hard part, the part you want to do the least. Not begrudgingly, but promptly and enthusiastically, with a body that’s been trained for hard work and a mind that’s sharp and focused.”

“Even the most cheerful, even the strongest, even the most self-disciplined of us will stagger under the weight of our circumstances or the consequences of our behavior.

We remember Viktor Frankl today as an unflagging optimist, the unwavering believer in human meaning despite the horrors he endured in the Holocaust. And yet, there is a note he sent to some friends in 1945, just after the war ended, that read:

‘I am unspeakably tired, unspeakably sad, unspeakably lonely…In the camp, you really believed you had reached the low point of life – and then, when you came back, you were forced to see that things had not lasted, everything that had sustained you had been destroyed, that at the time when you have become human again, you could sink into an even more bottomless suffering.’

It’s hard to blame him. It is also unfathomable to think of what humanity would have been deprived of if he had wallowed there, or, worse, given up.”

“Discipline is not a punishment, it’s a way to avoid punishment. We do it because we love ourselves, we value ourselves and what we do. And we find, conveniently enough, that it also heightens our enjoyment of things as well.”

“Seek yourself, not distraction.”

“Nearly every regret, every mistake, every embarrassing moment – whether it be personal or professional or historical – have one thing in common: Somebody lost control of their emotions. Somebody got carried away. Somebody was scared or defensive. Somebody wasn’t thinking beyond the next few seconds.”

“If you cannot rein in your impulses now, if you can be jerked like a puppet today, how do you think it will go when you reach the level you aspire to? When you have power, when you have people willing to make excuses for you, when you have resources? And, too, when the margin for error is much smaller? People who are doing less important things than you can get away with not being in control. You can’t.”

“An expert on speaking also knows when not to do so.”

-Archimedes

“Let them wish you talked more. Let them wonder what you’re thinking. Let the words you speak carry extra weight precisely because they are rare. You can answer the question with, ‘I don’t know.’ You can ignore the insult. You can decline the invitation. You can decide not to explain your reasons. You can allow for a pause. You can put it down in your journal instead. You can listen. You can sit with the silence. You can let your actions do the talking. You can listen more than you talk. You can speak only when you’re certain it’s not better left unsaid.”

“The poet Juvenal remarked that the whole world had not been big enough to contain Alexander…but in the end, a coffin was sufficient. And what had it all been for?”

“Marius commanded armies, ambition commanded Marius.”

“We don’t need accomplishments to feel good or to be good enough. What do we need? The truth: not much! Some food and water. Work that we can challenge ourselves with. A calm mind in the midst of adversity. Sleep. A solid routine. A cause we are committed to. Something we’re getting better at. Everything else is extra. Or worse, as history has shown countless times, the source of our painful downfall.”

“Poor people have poor-people problems and rich people have rich-people problems because people always have problems. You’re always going to be subject to the necessity of self-discipline. Or at least, you’ll never be immune from the consequences of ignoring it.”

“All you really need is enough money to be comfortable enough to politely say, ‘No, thanks. I’d rather not.’”

“We cannot remain as we are."

-Socrates

“Is it a little discouraging that we never seem to ‘arrive’? That our standards rise just out of reach of our abilities? Absolutely not! We move the goalposts so the game doesn’t get boring and, more importantly, so it never ends. Ultimately, this brings us more pleasure and more satisfaction. We reach heights we’d never have been able to see otherwise.”

“Each of us must know what an hour of our time is worth.”

“Take a minute to think about how you spent the last year, the last month, the last week, the last day. Think about how much of it was wasted, how much of it was half-assed, how much of it was spent in reaction to things out of your control. And even if you have decent results to show for this time, still, you could have done better. We all could have.”

“Most of the people doing important work are people you’ve never heard of.”

“If you’re not giving your best, why are you doing it at all?”

“Because soon enough, you will be truly tested – beyond the ordinary ways in which you have had to persist and resist on this journey toward your best self. Life will demand something greater, something bordering on heroic. Your body, your mind, your spirit will have to align so that you might discover that you are capable of more than you thought possible.”

“When we rule ourselves, we have the responsibilities of sovereigns, not of subjects.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

“The kind of character that Marcus Aurelius cultivated was such that it brought distinction to his position, rather than the position bringing honor to his person.”

“I am prepared to forgive everybody’s mistakes except my own.”

-Cato the Elder

“Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.”

-Ben Franklin

“It’s so hard to let people get away with things you’d never allow in yourself. To let them do things you know are bad for them, to let them slack off when you see so much more in them. But you have to. Because their life is not in your control. Because you’ll burn yourself out if you can’t get to a place where you live and let live.

Credit them for trying. Credit them for context. Forgive. Forget. Help them get better, if they’re open to the help. Not everyone has trained like you have. Not everyone has the knowledge you have. Not everyone has the willpower or the commitment you have.

Not everyone signed up for this kind of life, either! Which is why you need to be tolerant, even generous with people. Anything else is unfair. It’s also counterproductive.”

“The path that a great man follows becomes a guide to the world.”

-The Bhagavad Gita

“Happy is the man who can make others better, not merely when he is in their company, but even when he is in their thoughts.”

-Seneca

“For the people we love, we are strong enough to get through anything.”

“We do it because they’re watching – our kids, our followers, our students, the world at large. We not only don’t want to let them down, we want to inspire them, we want to show them what’s possible.”

“The leader takes the hit. Everything else is just semantics and titles.”

“The more you have, the more selfless you must be.”

“First in line for danger, last in line for rewards. First in line for duty, last in line for recognition.”

“What progress have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.”

-Seneca

“Precisely when we think we’ve earned the right to relax our discipline is exactly when we need it most.”

“It’s at the height of our powers that we need the clearest mind.”

“We have a choice. We choose between self-control and ill-discipline, virtue and vice. Self-control must be observed physically. It must be embodied mentally. It must be rendered magisterially when our moment comes. It’s our decision what this will look like. Not just once, but a thousand times in life. Not just in the past and the future but right now, today. What will it be? Dependence or independence? Greatness or ruin? Discipline is destiny. It decides. Will you choose it?”

“The call to stillness comes quietly. The modern world does not.”

“Always think about what you're really being asked to give. Because the answer is often 'a piece of your life', usually in exchange for something you don't even want."

“You can’t escape - with your body - problems that exist in your mind and soul.”

“Impose what you want on your brain: Discipline. Power. Positivity. Will. And use that Mind Control to move your life where you want it to be: stronger, faster, smarter, quicker, friendlier, more helpful, more driven. Don’t let your mind control you. Control your mind. And then you can: SET IT FREE.”

“Yes or no. This is not complicated. And sometimes you have to put yourself into this mode: Binary Decision-Making.

Are you going to be weak or strong? Are you going to be healthy or unhealthy? Are you going to improve your life? Are you going to make it worse? Are you going to sacrifice long-term success for short-term gratification?

You know the right answers. You know the right decision. Don’t overcomplicate. Binary Decision-Making. Make the right decisions.”

“And that is what aggression is to me: The unstoppable fighting spirit. The drive. The burning desire to achieve mission success using every possible tool, asset, and strategy and tactic to bring about victory. IT IS THE WILL. TO. WIN. And if that kind of internal, relentless aggression is your DEFAULT MODE – YOU WILL WIN.”

“The first and most fundamental threat to your Future Self is not having hope in your future. Without hope, the present loses meaning. Without hope, you don't have clear goals or a sense of purpose for your life. Without hope, there is no way. Without hope, you decay."

“You can expect the future to take a definite form or you can treat it as hazily uncertain. If you treat your future as something definite, it makes sense to understand it in advance and to work to shape it. But if you expect an indefinite future ruled by randomness, you will give up trying to master it."

“Anything that isn’t taking you toward your Future Self is a lesser goal."

“When you schedule something, you're making a commitment to yourself, sending yourself a tiny message that says: 'I'm going to do this.'"

“In reality, a structured day creates freedom. When you don't have a plan, you have to decide constantly what to do next, and you might get distracted thinking about all the things you should or could do.

But a completely planned day provides the freedom to focus on the moment. Instead of thinking about what to do next, you're free to focus on how to do it. You can be in the flow, trusting the plan set out by your past self."

“Despite the consequences, I am so much happier now. Dramatically, drastically happier. When I 'hit bottom,' I felt like I had lost control of my own brain. There is no social media meme or planning convenience that can compete with the feeling of having my mind back."

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

#1: "What's your one Definite Chief Aim? Do you have one? What are some smaller goals or priorities you're willing to sacrifice for the sake of this much larger goal?"

#2: "Think back to the last time you made significant progress on a goal that was important or meaningful to you. Do you remember how that progress felt? Were you inspired to take further action, to see how much further you could go?"

#3: "Of your three 'spheres' - physical, mental, and emotional - which of them is most developed? Have you been ignoring one of them more than the others? What could you do to get yourself back on track?"

#4: "Does your environment support your intention to become more disciplined? What kinds of positive or negative forces are influencing you each and every day, nudging you down one path or the other? What can you do to change that or double down on it?"

#5: "Whose personal example do you look up t when it comes to personal responsibility, self-mastery, and self-discipline? How long did it take them to develop those qualities? How could you start developing those qualities within yourself? And could you start today?"

"Judge a man by his questions, rather than by his answers."

“There was nothing they could take from him that he had not practiced going without.”

“The most surefire way to make yourself more fragile, to cut your career short, is to be undisciplined about rest and recovery, to push yourself too hard, too fast, to overtrain and to pursue the false economy of overwork. Manage the load.”

“It was because Marcus Aurelius had by his side the most beautiful model of a perfect life, and one whom he understood and loved, that he became what he was.”

"I hate to leave the gym knowing that I have...5 percent left."

"The path to success is to take massive, determined action.”