Ryan Holiday

That's not what I'm jealous of.

What I'm jealous of is what is on the page.

And then jealous isn't the right word.

I'm curious slash inspired to see what it feels like to do something like that.

And that's the ingredient I'm trying to identify.

Well, it's not something you are or something you are given or something you're born with.

The definition of wisdom is a little tricky, but I think one thing we can agree on is that no one is born with it, right?

And I don't just mean because ego is something you get when you're older, because no one just turns 80 and magically has it either.

It's the result of work.

It is a result of a process and a way of living and thinking and operating.

And I think that's true of all of the virtues.

And if this does make sense, like if they were easy, if you naturally had them, we probably wouldn't hold them up as admirable things to strive for.

Like if you are born courageous or cowardly, if you are born disciplined or not, if you just have a good heart or not, and that's all that counts.

I mean, what good is justice or discipline or wisdom or courage?

Like the whole point is that not just that it's hard, it's that most people are allowing themselves to get away with not doing it.

And no one is making you do it either.

Like the discipline of being in the Marines is

as an enlisted Marine where they are forcing you to do a bunch of stuff.

I mean, obviously that's hard and it's nothing to dismiss, but the whole point of the virtue is self-discipline.

It's that you have the choice and you're choosing to do it.