In this episode we discuss how our perception of reality dramatically shifts what actions we take, why you should embrace 2000+ years of wisdom to be happier and more productive, how to stop judging yourself and others based on your achievements and root your identity in something within your control, we look at how we can cultivate a more humble and resilient world view, discuss strategies for connecting with top tier mentors, and much more with Ryan Holiday. 

Ryan Holiday is a media strategist and writer. He is the bestselling author of over five books including The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is The Enemy, and most recently his upcoming book Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work That Lasts. Ryan previously worked as the director of marketing for American Apparel, working on several controversial campaigns,  before starting his own creative agency. His work has been featured in The Huffington Post, Fast Company, Forbes, and more!

• Why you should understand the Stoic discipline of "perception"

• The way in which we see the world changes how we interact with it

• How to accept situations as they are, not as you want them to be

• Why you shouldn't waste time figuring out how things happened, who is to blame, etc - you should shift your focus to constructively determining the next thing to do

• “There’s no problem so bad (in space) that you can’t make it worse”

• The challenge of perception is not making the situations in your life worse with interpretations, resentments, anxieties

• The story of Amelia Earhart and how you can use it to take action in the face of challenges

• When you’re offended, when you think something is beneath you, you are projecting onto that situation something that may not be there

• How do you react when people don’t think you have what it takes?

• How to make yourself the most important person in a room, not by posturing, but by what you can contribute

• How we can flip obstacles on their heads and view setbacks as opportunities

• “What stands in the way becomes the way”

• We have the ability with our minds to change how anything means

• Setbacks make some people worse, some people tough it out, other people get even better

• What is “Stoic Optimism” and why stoicism is not a focus on the negative

• The distinction between Being and Doing and why its so critical

• Should you do the “right thing” even if it pisses people off, hurts your chances of being promoted, causes political infighting, and worse?

• Many people make the choice unknowingly between being and doing - and end up one day wondering where it all went wrong

• How do we untangle success from our identities?

• How do we avoid the trap of judging people based on their achievements?

• The importance of being able to measure yourself by an internal score card - and not the external score card of accomplishment and achievement

• Focus on basing your identity on an internals scorecard that is within your control

• Decide what’s important to you, and root it within the things you control

• How do we anchor our identity and self worth on a more stable footing?

• How to have a more humble and resilient worldview

• The critical difference between stoicism vs pessimism and how to look at both sides of the coin and realizing there are no good or bad outcomes - just outcomes

• Everything is relative and subjective - someone in the third world would kill to live the life you may think of as failure

• The world isn’t saying “this is happening to you because its bad” its just saying “this is happening”

• The hard work of stoicism is the practice of doing it every day

• “The message is the marketing” and how you shouldn’t distinguish between the making and the marketing when creating something

• Why Ryan writes so much about ancient philosophy and how you should focus on rooting your ideas in timeless principles

• The tactics Ryan used to build a relationship with and become an apprentice of Robert Greene

• The people who need mentoring the most often get the least mentoring

• Do well and a mentor will find you, put in the work, show the potential, and then mentors will naturally start to show up in your life

• How Ryan approaches the creative process and the strategy he uses to test new ideas

• You have an idea, you test that idea, and you work on it every single day - it gets 1% better every day - and at the end it’s finally good

• Every book should be an article before its a book, every article should be a dinner conversation before its an article

• Most of the marketing of anything that lasts is really about the product itself

• Strategies Ryan recommends for finding a market for our ideas or concepts

• Don’t create a solution in search of a problem, find problems and build solutions

• How to uncover the problems that people are struggling with that you can help solve

• What are needs that people have that there are currently no solutions?

• How Ryan would start building an audience from scratch today if he had to start over

• If you don’t collect your fans and have direct access to them - you are at risk - own your relationships with your customers and fans as much as possible

• How Ryan deals with staying creative and productive with a new born child

• Why Ryan hates the question of “what's the biggest struggle you’ve had to overcome”

• Time you spend dwelling on the past (negatively or positively) is wasted time and attention

• What Ryan journals about every morning and how he implmenents stoic philopsphy into his life

• And much more!

Thank you so much for listening!

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This Episode of The Science of Success is brought to you by our partners, That Moment Podcast. That Moment explores the pivot that changes everything: moments that open doors for discovery and growth, but also bring the looming possibility of failure. Each show features different leaders and innovators sharing their stories of taking risks in business and in life. That Moment is produced by Pivotal, who believes when change is the only constant, people and businesses must be built to adapt. Get the details of their first episode "It Was Essentially Disrupting Ourselves" here and check them out on iTunes, Google Play, and Soundcloud.

SHOW NOTES, LINKS, & RESEARCH

• [Book] Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts by Ryan Holiday

• [Book] Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday

• [Website] Ryan Holiday

• [Book] Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

• [Book] Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram

• [Book] The Tao of Seneca: Practical Letters from a Stoic Master, Volume 1 Seneca presented by Tim Ferriss Audio

Episode Transcript