When you think of someone being courageous, it’s easy to think of police, fire fighters, and military. Maybe the person that risked their life to help a total stranger in a time of need comes to mind as being courageous. But courage manifests in many ways than not just the physical acts that we default to. Ryan Holiday joins Tom to discuss his new book, Courage Is Calling. He explains how courage is ongoing.It’s about the moments and opportunities that are presented where you choose to act in courage, or you show up reckless without regard, or you choose the cowardly thing in that moment.

]Ryan unpacks having courage, acting in courage, and where it falls in the spectrum between being reckless and being a coward. Even the term coward seems harsh when you realize you may be guilty of acting cowardly at different points in your life. You’ve chosen to “save face” and look after your personal safety and benefit at some point, and it’s okay, we all have. Ryan further explains through his personal experiences that doing the courageous thing is not always self-evident, and that these moments will present themselves. This is a great jumping off point to exercise your courage muscle, do the heroic things and start living to a higher standard today.

Order Ryan Holiday’s new book, Courage Is Calling: https://amzn.to/3i0XRmD

SHOW NOTES:

0:00 | Introduction Ryan Holiday
0:21 | Why Live by Virtues
7:57 | Intuitive Nature of Courage
13:08 | Put Yourself Out There
19:28 | Inspired Cynical Ideas
28:51 | Integrate Truth & Courage
35:18 | Responsibility to Past Lessons
41:29 | Middle of Reckless and Coward
48:02 | Is It Reckless Or Cowardice?
1:00:52 | Failing to be Courageous
1:08:11 | Not Acting Courageous
1:15:59 | Get More Courageous
1:21:34 | Courageous is Contagious
1:31:17 | Ryan’s Heroes & Standards

QUOTES:

“That's kind of the idea of virtues, is to create sort of a structure that you can live in, that guides you so you're not again winging it on these critical decisions.” [7:03]

“There is no deed in this life so impossible that you cannot do it, your whole life should be lived as a heroic deed.” Leo Tolstoy read by Tom [12:21]

“History is not just a parade of shitty people and crimes and awfulness and hypocrites, that we are making progress and things are getting better and it's getting better because people were courageously committed to ideas and ideals, and risked themselves and their reputations to try to make those things more real.” [22:45]

“You don't get to stick your head in the sand and deny that facts are facts, but you have to decide what facts are you going to take and integrate into your understanding of the world, and what your imperative as an individual is.” [31:28]

“What do you do with the little moments that life offers you? Do you make the brave choice Or the cowardly choice?” [34:32]

“If the fight doesn't need to happen, it's not courageous to start it [....] deciding what battles need to be fought, what risks need to be taken, how risk can be taken off the table if it's not necessary. This is an important part of courage. It's not just, I don't feel fear.” [44:49]

“The thing you're hesitating on doing, the considerations, are usually very helpful in reminding you of what actually matters.” [51:33]

“Courage isn't this thing where you're either courageous or you're not. It's more a thing you do, day to day.” [1:14:54]

“If you think about courage as like, very rarely the easy way, and almost always the harder way, you can build that as a muscle” [1:17:21]

“The decision to quit, the decision to give up, the decision to concede, that's ultimately a power that you always have.” [1:20:19]

“Everyone tells you, it's a bad idea, until you definitively prove it was a good idea. And then the curse is that it looks like it was obvious all along.” [1:25:30]


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