Use your leisure time wisely
Leisure is a luxury. But beware of escapism. Don't tune out. Tune in. Get to know yourself. Build a life that you don’t need to escape from.
If you’ve been keeping up with the Fearless Journeys suggested reading schedule, you should have now completed the entirety of Ryan Holiday’s book, Stillness Is the Key.
Today we review the final four chapters of the book.
This Tuesday, August 27 at 7:00 PM ET, we will gather 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.
Doug lives in Orlando and joined us on our most recent Fearless Journeys group trip to Argentina. This is your opportunity to connect (or re-connect) with him as he helps us understand how the concepts from Stillness Is the Key helped him be more effective in his life and in his work.
As someone who has worked in AI for more than a dozen years, he knows the fast-paced life we all live. Learn how he has incorporated concepts from Ryan Holiday’s book and the Stoic philosophy to help weed out distractions and find stillness. No one journeys alone and we hope his insights will be helpful to you.
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FIND A HOBBY
We are fortunate to live in a time and age where most of us can enjoy some leisure time. Of course, this varies depending on the kind of job or career we have, but typically we all have some extra time during each day when we don’t have to work or fend for food. We may even have a full weekend where nearly the entirety of time is ours. Most people in history have not had this luxury.
What do we do with this modern luxury known as leisure time? Do we waste it? Or do we use it to bring more stillness to our lives?
By now we should all know that finding stillness should not imply inactivity. Yes, finding stillness could be incorporating something like meditation, or even getting some extra sleep. But it’s not limited to that.
In this book, we have seen Winston Churchill find stillness through bricklaying. William Gladstone took an axe to trees. The idea here is they were finding activities outside of their work routines that moved their body in different ways while resting their minds from the things that kept them occupied most times of the day.
The word “leisure” today often implies lounging around and doing nothing. But historically, leisure meant “simply freedom from the work needed to survive, freedom for intellectual or creative pursuits. It was learning and study and the pursuit of higher things.”
I hope you have found that the Fearless Journeys book club is a productive form of leisure! This is precisely why we encourage you to set aside some time each week to dive deeper into ideas and concepts from great writers like Ryan Holiday. They help us see new perspectives and take our mind to places outside of our daily regimen.
Holiday reminds us that “leisure is not the absence of activity, it is activity.” The difference is that you are not doing leisure for pay. You’re not doing it to impress others. “You have to do it for you.”
The point is not to distract the mind, it’s to engage a pursuit that simultaneously challenges and relaxes us. It can be exercise, sport, reading, some hobby.
Leisure is also a reward for the work we do. At leisure, we are with ourselves. We are present. Taking the opportunity to get to know yourself is a luxury of the success you’ve had. Make the time for it.
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BEWARE ESCAPISM
Leisure can easily become an escape, but the second it does, it’s not leisure anymore.
The main difference between leisure and escapism is the intention.
Travel is a wonderful thing, but if we use it to escape our life, it can become a dangerous thing. The same can be said of sex.
Others escape through drugs and alcohol. Having a beer or a glass of wine can be just fine, but the moment it becomes a way to escape ourselves, that’s when it becomes a dangerous addiction.
“The one thing you can’t escape in your life is yourself,” says Holiday. “Those who think they will find solutions to all their problems by traveling far from home … are bringing ruins to ruins. Wherever they go, whatever they do, their sad self comes along.”
“What you seek will only come if you sit and do the work, if you probe yourself with real self-awareness and patience.”
Escapism is tuning out. Rather, Holiday urges us to tune in.
“Stand in front of the mirror. Get to know your front porch. You were given one body when you were born — don’t try to be someone else, somewhere else. Get to know yourself. Build a life that you don’t need to escape from.”
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ACT BRAVELY
This is a favorite chapter. It’s all about being bold, courageous, and fearless. It’s a reminder that stillness is not about inactivity. Rather, it’s about taking action — the proper action — in our own lives.
“High-minded thoughts and inner work are one thing, but all that matters is what you do.”
It’s impossible to live a life without risk. Life is risk.
“Stillness is not an excuse to withdraw from the affairs of the world. Quite the opposite — it’s a tool to let you do more good for more people.”
By their actions, you shall know them.
Do the hard good deeds. Know that on the other side of goodness is true stillness. The more good we do, the more we will feel good. The more we contribute to our family and to our community, the more we will feel like we are part of one.
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ON TO THE FINAL ACT
Holiday concludes with a chapter stating the obvious: we are all going to die. It may be tomorrow. It may be next year. It may be when we’re 99 years old. The point is: we won’t be here forever.
Many of us avoid this topic because it seems grim. The denial of this reality is why so many of us chase pleasure and money and cannot be still while we are alive.
Cicero said that to study philosophy is to learn how to die.
Holiday tells us that most of us this very book we have just completed reading has been about how to live well.
“But in so doing, it is also how to die well. Because they are the same thing. Death is where the three domains we have studied in these pages come together.”
The mental, the spiritual, and the physical — three legs of one stool.
“Death brings an end to everything, to our minds, our souls, and our bodies, in a final, permanent stillness.”
Find a way to live well so you can die well — so you can be still in eternity. How you choose to use the time you have will make all the difference.
Find a hobby. Avoid escapism. Act Bravely. Die well.
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I hope you have enjoyed this book, Stillness Is The Key. Please reply to this email or comment below to give us some feedback about what you thought of this book. And we always welcome suggestions of book that the broader community will find helpful.
Also: don’t forget to set aside some of your leisure time this week to join us this Tuesday, August 27 at 7:00 PM ET for a 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.
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OUR NEXT BOOK
In the months of September and October, the Fearless Journeys book club will read and review 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.
Also: mark your calendar now for October 24th at 1:00 PM ET for a live online discussion led by Michael Gibson, co-founder and CEO of 1517 Fund. Michael worked directly for Peter Thiel for five years between 2012-2017, precisely during the time that Zero to One was published (in 2014). On October 24th, you’ll have the opportunity to engage with him directly in our live online session as he leads us in a discussion of Peter Thiel’s book.