Ryan Holiday

so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Anyways, as I wrap this up, I deeply admire Roosevelt.

He was not a perfect figure.

He was a problematic figure in some ways.

You get that when you read these big biographies.

You see them fully for who they are.

But I wrote about him a bunch.

Actually, I wrote about him in Obstacles Away, and then I wrote about him in Discipline is Destiny.

But as I wrap up, I want to tell that story, which I first read in Edmund Morris's book on Theodore Roosevelt.

So here is a little riff on the idea of discipline as being the promises you make to yourself.

It's a famous story.

It appears in all the great biographies of Theodore Roosevelt.

Two of my favorites are The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris and Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough.

It appears in Discipline is Destiny and The Obstacle is the Way.

I'll make my body, Roosevelt said in response, and proceeded to lift weights, hike mountains, ride horses, wrestle, box, swim laps, and even learn judo.

But there's another perspective on this story that we often glide over, for it was Teddy's sister, Corrine, who witnessed the exchange between father and son.

What struck her about it years later, she said, was that this was her brother's first important promise to himself—

It's about doing what you say and not doing what you say you won't.

I hope you enjoyed this little Theodore Roosevelt-themed episode.

And again, what the Stoics want us to do is step into the arena.