Ryan Holiday: Stillness Is The Path To Everything We Want In Life

He's best known for popularizing Stoicism — an ancient philosophical yet highly practical operating system he pioneered to mainstream, modern adoption. In his latest turn, Ryan Holiday expands his lens East. In pursuit of shared wisdom across ancient Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Hebrew, Greek, Christian and Epicurean traditions, he discovered one essential truth — that inner peace is essential to a life of purpose, meaning and fulfillment. Ryan calls it stillness — to be steady while the world spins around you. A crucial characteristic of all great leaders, thinkers, artists, athletes and visionaries, it's a practice to transcend the stress of everyday life. An antidote to the distractions of our fast-paced world. And the ultimate path to meaning, contentment, and excellence in a world that needs more of it than ever. For those unfamiliar, Ryan is an autodidact who dropped out of college at 19, maturing into one of the most important thinkers of his generation. Now 32, he is a media strategist, prolific writer and public speaker with six perennial bestselling books to his name, including Ego Is The Enemy, The Obstacle Is The Way, and Conspiracy. Making the digestible case for why slowing down is the secret weapon for charging ahead, Ryan's latest release — aptly titled Stillness Is The Key (hitting bookstores everywhere this week) — is your next must read and read again primer on living your best life. Returning for this third appearance on the podcast (check out RRP #168 and #239 ), today we explore the essential elements of stillness — and its limitless applications for profound personal self-improvement. Want to avoid distractions? Develop greater insight? Unlock creativity? Improve your decision making? Better your parenting skills? Enhance athletic performance? The incredible power and practicality of cultivating placidity in our increasingly turbulent, tumultuous, reactive, distraction monopolized lives simply cannot be overstated. Stillness is the key. You can watch it all go down on YouTube. I have great fondness for this human. I absolutely love this exchange. And sincerely hope you do as well. Peace + Plants, Rich