The body is a gift. Protect it.
Moderation. Being present. Knowing your limits. This is the key. The body that each of us has is a gift. Don’t work it to death. Don’t burn out. Protect the gift.
As we continue to explore concepts from Ryan Holiday’s Stillness Is the Key, today we explore the next five short chapters of Part III of the book which is focused on the Body. These five chapters cover pages 199 to 233 in the print edition.
***
BUILD A ROUTINE
One of the best ways to achieve stillness in the body is to build a routine. Holiday opens up this chapter by going through the very precise daily routine of one of America’s favorites, Fred Rogers. The entire opening of every single one of the episodes of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood showcased Fred Rogers going very slowly through the same set of habits as he entered his home on the set of the show. The real life Fred Rogers was just as habitual.
Some might find this routine boring, but it made for a life of stillness and productivity.
“The truth is that a good routine is not only a source of great comfort and stability, it’s the platform from which stimulating and fulfilling work is possible,” says Holiday. And when a routine is done long enough it becomes more than a routine — “it becomes ritual — it becomes sanctified and holy.”
For some, a routine can seem like it’s restricting our freedom because it’s keeping us very ordered to the same set of behaviors day in and day out. But Holiday gives us example after example of great people — including NBA star Russell Westbrook — who have very disciplined routines.
“The greats know that complete freedom is a nightmare,” says Holiday. “They know that order is a prerequisite of excellence. and that in an unpredictable world, good habits are a safe haven of certainty.”
Discipline is how we maintain that freedom.
Holiday says that a routine can be:
Time-based
Focused on order and arrangement
Built around a tool or sound or a scent
Can be religious or faith-based
Done enough times with sincerity and feeling, routine becomes ritual. And a cadence begins to build. When the body is busy with the familiar, the mind can relax. The monotony of a routine — of a ritual — becomes muscle memory.
Despite our habits, our routines, and our rituals, the world throws a lot of distractions at us all the time. These can be disruptive.
“Most people wake up to face the day as an endless barrage of bewildering and overwhelming choices, one right after another,” writes Holiday.
This can be exhausting.
But for the person who has discipline — and self-control — to stay in their routines, to keep their rituals as holy and sacred as possible — the world can spin and try to distract all it wants. The disciplined person sticks as much to their routines as possible and controls their own mind and body and soul.
Don’t be a slave to the demands of the world. Be the master of your domain.
“A master is in control. A master has a system. A master turns the ordinary into the sacred. And so must we.”
***
GET RID OF YOUR STUFF
Holiday reminds us that “mental and spiritual independence matter little if the things we own in the physical world end up owning us.”
In the quest to reduce our dependence on material things, Holiday says that “we don’t need to get rid of all of our possessions, but we should constantly question what we own, why we own it, and whether we could do without it.”
While I’ve gone through my apartment a few times in Marie Kondo style, constantly getting rid of stuff, nothing taught me this lesson more — of the importance of getting rid of stuff — than selling / donating many of my possessions, putting the rest in storage, and taking just two bags with me to Guatemala — for a year.
I remember about five weeks after living in Guatemala (in 2021), I was trying to think of all the things I put in my storage unit back in Orlando. What did I miss? I didn’t miss a thing. In fact, to some degree, I forgot most of what I even owned.
Over the past two years, I continued to reduce what was in my storage unit, continuing to downsize. Just a few months ago, I got rid of the storage unit altogether.
At 46 years old, I own fewer things today than I have my entire adult lifetime. But I feel more enriched by the many experiences that owning less stuff has allowed me to have. I feel freer than ever and I don’t miss all the possessions I used to own. In fact, I wish I had done all this sooner. Because there’s one thing no one — not even a thief — can take from me: my memories — which are built off of experiences (not stuff).
And as I sit here this week with one of my legs in a soft cast recovering from my Achilles tendon injury and surgery, I reflect on the many great travel experiences I had earlier this year — and during many years of my life. I may be immobile right now, but those experiences can’t be taken from me. I’m glad I took advantage of the ability to have the experiences when I had the ability to do so.
The lesson from this chapter of Holiday’s book: “Get out from under all your stuff. Get rid of it. Give away what you don’t need.” Amen.
***
SEEK SOLITUDE
We must begin with a reminder that solitude and loneliness are not the same. Solitude is that time we have to ourselves. And it’s also more needed than ever before. As our inboxes are more full and we are always reachable, as the world gets noisier and full of more distractions, we need to carve out time just for ourselves.
“Solitude allows you to reflect while others are reacting.”
And as time goes faster as we get older, in solitude time slows down.
We can find solitude in a myriad of ways. It could be reading a book. It could be through meditation. It might even be through some kind of exercise (walking, running, biking, hiking). It could simply be resting. But it must be time to ourselves — and time away from our devices.
This is also one of the reasons that about a month ago I decided to give up Facebook, Instagram, and X. I didn't deactivate my accounts. I will probably come back to them now and then in some other way, but I signed off, got rid of the apps, and really haven’t missed them.
Why? Because they were noisy distractions that was leaving me exhausted. I’ve noticed screen time on my phone has been reduced by about 40% ever since. That is time back in my pocket for more important things, including solitude.
There are moments we sometimes get by accident that bring us moments of silence, moments of solitude. We often cherish these little moments throughout the day. But what if we were more intentional about creating periods of time for quiet and for reflection? How would that enrich our day? How could that bring us more stillness?
“The wise and busy also learn that solitude and stillness are there in pockets, if we look for them,” writes Holiday. “Grab these moments. Schedule them. Cultivate them.”
***
BE A HUMAN BEING
In this chapter Holiday shows us how most of us work too hard. Work ethic is great. But being a workaholic is dangerous. It’s a reminder that any virtue done to excess could become a vice.
So many people work hard, wear themselves out, and just end up having to work more to repair the damage they did when they did not have proper rest. People also bring on diseases and stress to their body when they work too hard, too often.
“The main cause of injury for elite athletes is not tripping and falling. It’s not collisions. It’s overuse.”
I was not overusing my legs on the tennis courts this year or the past few years. In fact, even though I played a lot more tennis these past two months (maybe once a week) on top of almost daily workouts, I can tell you that I actually was being very careful not to overdo it. But it’s hard not to look at the many years I put on the tennis court (about 5-6 days a week for 10 years of my life between ages 8 and 18; not to mention many more days of running and tennis over the past two decades) and not realize that the Achilles tendon was probably ready to go at any moment.
A lifetime of overuse finally caught up to me.
A person like me that likes constant action, both physically through exercise and through many experiences like travel, is now being forced to sit, rest, and reflect for the next 4-6 weeks. And there won’t be any tennis for at least 6 months.
The body keeps score.
“Pacing is something athletes are often forced to come to terms with as they age, while young athletes needlessly burn themselves out because they think they have a bottomless well of energy,” writes Holiday.
This was one reason I didn’t continue on to play college tennis. Between ages 8 and 18, I burned myself out. Pacing would probably have helped then.
We can look at the rest of life — including our work and careers — much the same way athletes look at their enthusiasm for sport. Yes, more practice and more time on the court and playing more matches will get you better. But too much may burn you out. Too much may put too much stress on your body.
In this day and age, work is endless. It’s easy to get a text from someone at 8:00 PM at night and feel the need to respond or even to jump online and send that email. But it can wait for the morning. It really can. This takes discipline.
“Work will not set you free,” says Holiday. “It will kill you if you’re not careful.”
Plus, “good decisions are not made by those who are running on empty. What kind of interior life can you have, what kind of thinking can you do, when you’re utterly and completely overworked?”
Take time to carve out time for growth, for reflection, and simply for rest. Your body needs it. Life is a marathon not a sprint.
Holiday reminds us we are called “human being, not human doing, for a reason.”
Moderation. Being present. Knowing your limits. This is the key. The body that each of us has was a gift. Don’t work it to death. Don’t burn out. Protect the gift.”
***
GO TO SLEEP
This chapter is worth reading simply for the story of American Apparel founder Don Charney, who is an example of someone who burned himself out. He was a victim of his own success. His company ended up bankrupt, he ended up in debt, and his body also was never better for it.
Holiday says there are a lot of reasons that American Apparel failed, but the biggest one is that its founder didn’t get enough sleep.
There’s been a common phrase for many hard working people. I’ve even said it before.
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
Holiday says this is very stupid thinking, both literally and figuratively. People trade in their health for a few more working hours. And it is usually hours no one but themselves are asking them to work.
Do not treat sleep as a luxury or it will be the first thing to go when you get busy. Sleep is essential.
In fact, “sleep is the other side of the work we’re doing — sleep is the recharging of the internal batteries who’s energy stores we recruit in order to do our work,” writes Holiday.
“We only have so much energy for our work, for our relationships, for ourselves. A smart person understands this and guards it carefully. The greats — they protect their sleep because it’s where the best state of mind comes from.”
While some people can function better than others with less sleep, everyone functions better when well-rested.
The lesson: “If you want peace, there is just one thing to do. If you want to be your best, there is just one thing to do. Go to sleep.”
***
When you wake up, be sure to stay on track with our reading. We have just one more week to go with Stillness Is The Key. By this time next week, you will want to complete the book. That means reading the final four chapters of Part III and the Afterword. Those include pages 234-260.
Then, mark you calendar for Tuesday, August 27 at 7:00 PM ET. We will join together in a live online session with AI Innovator Douglas Pestana, the co-founder of Legalmente AI, to discuss the concepts of Stillness Is The Key. Register here for the session.
***
Also another announcement: the next book we will read together in September and October is Peter Thiel’s Zero To One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. Be sure to order it now so you will be ready to go when we start it in September.