It’s not uncommon to find someone who has physical command of themselves, Discipline of their Body. Nor is there a shortage of brilliant people who have brought their Mind under control.

What is extraordinarily rare is someone who not only combines these two disciplines, but also manages to do so 'in the arena' - in public life, as a contributor to society. 

With stories from the likes of Queen Elizabeth II, Martin Luther King Jr, and Angela Merkel, this episode (based on Ryan Holiday's book Discipline Is Destiny) shows us what's possible.

Following on from the previous episode about discpline over our physical vessel, this episode is about discipline over our temperament. 

Based on Ryan Holiday's book Discipline Is Destiny, we'll hear stories from the likes of Beethoven and Tom Brady to learn how we can improve our own attitudes.

When we're talking about discipline, the first and most obvious place to start is discipline over ourselves, over our exterior: discipline of the body. 

In this episode, based on Ryan Holiday's book Discipline Is Destiny, we'll hear stories from basballer Lou Gehrig, inventor Thomas Edison, basketball coach John Wooden, and author Joyce Carol Oates, to learn some lessons that we can apply to our own lives.

Over the next three days, we'll be learning from the book Discipline Is Destiny by Ryan Holiday. 

Following on from his book Courage Is Calling (episode #xxx of the What You Will Learn podcast if you want to hear the best bits of that book), this is the second book in his four-part series on the cardinal virtues: Courage, Temperance, Justice & Wisdom. 

Over the next three days, you’re going to hear storties of discipline from basballer Lou Gherig, inventor Thomas Edison, author Joyce Carol Oates, composer and musician Ludwig van Beethoven, footballer Tom Brady, politcal figures like Queen Elizabeth II, Martin Luther King Jr, Angela Merkel, and more.

We’re going to dive into discipline over three domains: the body, the mind, and the soul.

Before we power ahead into the new year, let's take some time to look back at the year that was. As has been an annual tradition since 2016, I'm looking back at my top 10 favourite books I read in 2023. 

I had the pleasure of speaking with Oliver Burkeman, who is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors. His books HELP!, The Antidote and Four Tousand Weeks have all been winners and I can't wait for what he dishes up next. 

In this episode we speak about happiness, making effect change, the power of identity, motivational seminars, writing, and all things self-help books. 

You can find more about Oliver and his work here: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/ 

It's one of the most pervasive cognitive errors in our human psychology. When we assess others, we overemphasise personality-based explanations and undervalue situational ones. If someone is late to a meeting, we assume it's because they're a lazy person, not because they were stuck in traffic. And vice versa - when we assess our own behaviour, we tend to discount the negatives based on circumstances outside of our control. When WE are late to a meeting, we know it's because our train was cancelled, not because we're an intentionally rude or disrespectful person. Looking at luck versus skill, when thigns go wrong for us it's because we were unlucky and when things go right it's because we worked hard. 

You can see this in all areas of life, and in this episode I'll share a few more examples of where the Fundamental Attribution Error can rear its ugly head.

You might've heard of Parkinson's Law, how tasks expand to fill the time alloted to them. Well this is Parkinson's on steroids. Hofstadter's Law says that: any task you’re planning to complete will always take longer than expected, even when Hofstadter’s Law is taken into account. It's a viscious cycle that feeds on itself - even when you expect a task to take longer than you expected, it exceeds your expectations and takes even longer still!