Ranger Brody Young

Nine Miracles: When Bullets Can't Kill and Hope Prevails by Brody Young and Austin Murphy

John 19:1-3

Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control by Ryan Holiday

The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday

"Nearly anything you want, whenever you want it, however you'd like it, it's yours. This is our human right. As it should be. And yet … what do we have to show for all this? Certainly not widespread flourishing. Empowered, unshackled, blessed beyond expectation–why are we so … unhappy? Because we mistake liberty for license. Freedom, as Eisenhower famously said, is actually only the 'opportunity for self-discipline.' Unless we'd rather be adrift, vulnerable, disordered, disconnected, we are responsible for ourselves. Technology, access, success, power, privilege–this is only a blessing when accompanied by … self-restraint. …

"The pleasure of excess is always fleeting. Which is why self-discipline is not a rejection of pleasure but a way to embrace it. Treating our body well, moderating our desires, working hard, exercising, hustling–this is not a punishment. This is simply the work for which pleasure is the reward."

"Still, there must have been so many days when he wasn't feeling it. When he wanted to quit. When he doubted himself. When it felt like he could barely move. When he was frustrated and tired of his own high standards. [Lou] Gehrig was not superhuman–he had the same voice in his head that all of us do. He just cultivated the strength–made a habit–of not listening to it. Because once you start compromising, well, now you're compromised. …

"By being a little hard on ourselves, it makes it harder for others to be hard on us. By being strict with ourselves, we take away others' power over us. A person who lives below their means has far more latitude than a person who can't. …

"[Y]ou have work to do. They want you to get upset. … [I]f you're going to stop and reply to every attack, … you might as well admit defeat right now. You'll never get anything done. You'll certainly never be happy. And they'll have won. It's the easiest thing in the world to respond to intemperance with intemperance. We have to remember: Someone else's lack of self-control is not a justification for abandoning our own. Nor is it a good look or a recipe for success and achievement."

"Do you want people to look at you in a few years, when you are a husk of your former self, and think about what could have been? If you had stayed healthy, if you had had something left in the tank, if you hadn't wasted all that potential. To last, to be great, you have to understand how to rest. Not just rest, but relax, too, have fun, too. (After all, what kind of success is it if you can never lay it down?) The most surefire way to make yourself more fragile, to cut your career short, is to be undisciplined about rest and recovery, to push yourself too hard, too fast, to overtrain and to pursue the false economy of overwork. Manage the load. …

"Meanwhile, we're at home, burned out after a long day. We made dinner. We exercised. We put the kids to bed. We caught up on email. We're so exhausted it feels like all we can do is just veg out on the couch … when in fact, we need one final push of discipline: picking ourselves up and walking to the bedroom and passing out. It will solve so many of your problems. …

"We say, 'I'm not a morning person,' but that is almost certainly because we have been an irresponsible or undisciplined evening person. The best way to master the morning is to have mastered it the night before. ... Early to bed, early to rise. ... You want to think clearly tomorrow? You want to handle the small things right? You want to have the energy to hustle? Go to sleep. Not just because your health depends on it, but because it is an act of character from which all our other decisions and actions descend."

"While we hold ourselves to the highest standards–and hope that our good behavior is contagious–we cannot expect everyone else to be like us. It's not fair, nor is it possible. … 'I am prepared to forgive everybody's mistakes,' Cato the Elder said, 'except my own.' Ben Franklin, many generations later, would put forth an even better rule: 'Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.' Or as Marcus Aurelius put it, Tolerant with others, strict with yourself.

"The only person you get to be truly hard on is you. It will take every ounce of your self-control to enforce that–not because it's hard to be hard on yourself, but because it's so hard to let people get away with things you'd never allow in yourself. To let them do things you know are bad for them, to let them slack off when you see so much more in them. But you have to. Because their life is not in your control. Because you'll burn yourself out if you can't get to a place where you live and let live. Credit them for trying. Credit them for context. Forgive. Forget. Help them get better, if they're open to the help. Not everyone has trained like you have. Not everyone has the knowledge you have. Not everyone has the willpower or the commitment you have. Not everyone signed up for this kind of life either! Which is why you need to be tolerant, even generous with people. Anything else is unfair. It's also counterproductive. …

"That's the power of discipline. It makes you better … and then better still because of the positive effect it has on the world around you. … [W]e can be a positive force in our community. We can show our children, our neighbors, our colleagues, our employees what good choices look like. We can show what commitment looks like by showing up each day. We can show what it means to resist provocation or temptation. We can show how to endure. We can show how to be patient. Maybe they'll appreciate this now. Maybe they'll hate us for it now. Maybe we'll be celebrated, maybe we'll be hated. We don't control that. What's up to us is that we are good. That we do right. That we conquer ourselves. We can't force anyone else to do the same. But we can plant a seed. We can rest comfortably in our destiny, knowing that, eventually, inevitably, it'll make a difference for someone. Because like courage, there is something contagious about discipline."

"Such is the paradox of success. Precisely when we think we've earned the right to relax our discipline is exactly when we need it most. The payoff for all our efforts? So much more temptation. So many more distractions. So many more opportunities. The only solution? Even more self-mastery! Achieving things is great. Becoming a selfish jerk because you accomplished them? Thinking you're suddenly better or matter more than anyone else? C'mon."