Hi everyone,

Thank you once again for checking out this week's newsletter. Please let me know what you thought about - I hope you're able to learn something from it.

Cato the Younger - The Perfect Stoic.

Occasionally, I find a book that is genuinely so good that everything else gets set aside so I can finish it. Rome's Last Citizen was one of these books. The writing itself was excellent - but the key to its quality was the study of Cato the Younger – a man that many consider to have been the perfect Stoic. Although he died over two thousand years ago, there is a lot we can learn from him.

Guard your Virtue

Cato understood that nothing external was in his control. He had grown up under a Dictator and lived to see the end of the Roman Republic that he had loved so much. None of this seemed to shake Cato because he placed his faith in the one thing he could control: his own actions.

He did everything he could to live with virtue – creating joy from his own actions and discipline rather than any fleeting and external thing.

Welcome Pain

Most of us automatically try to avoid pain of any kind – because, well, it’s pain.

Cato never shrugged it off. He not only took the hits life gave him, but he also actively sought out more. He understood that pain – as uncomfortable as it may be – was the perfect way to test himself and grow. He saw every moment of discomfort and pain as a chance to improve his pursuit of Virtue.

Seek Discomfort

In his pursuit of improving himself, there were many Stoic exercises that Cato used: he learned to endure cold, subsist on food usually reserved for Rome’s poor, went barefoot, meditated on disaster, lived drastically below his means, and constantly invited embarrassment to learn how to deal with it.

All of these meant that Cato learned how to eradicate fear from his life – he trained himself to be capable to endure anything that the world threw at him. Training that greatly benefit him during Rome’s civil war.

Nobody’s perfect.

Cato lived a life of intense self-discipline and used his philosophy to a higher extent than nearly anyone in history. Even in his own time, people would use “We can’t all be Cato’s” as an excuse for any wrongdoing. He was the one incorruptible voice of honour during the Roman Republic’s decline.

Even so, Cato was far from perfect. He was constantly criticised for his occasional heavy drinking and drunkenness. History reveals how his pride and inability to admit he might have been wrong spurned on the fall of his beloved Republic. A man who was usually able to keep his emotions in check, broke down in intense grief at the death of his brother.

We should cut ourselves some slack if not even Cato can be perfect all the time.

Deserve it

In Joseph Addison’s play based on Cato’s life, there’s a powerful line: “Tis not in mortals to command success, But we’ll do more, Sempronius: we’ll deserve it.”

Plenty of times we struggle with not being where we want to be – or having achieved the things that we want to achieve. More often we never even consider a very simple question:  Do we deserve it?

To highlight this point best, here’s a quote from Ego is the Enemy:

“It’s all within reach – for all of us, provided we have the constitution and humbleness to be patient and the fortitude to put in the work.”

There’s not much that we can’t do in this life – but first, we need to deserve it.

A constant question.

All of the above lessons are powerful if used – so we need to learn to ask ourselves when launching into anything: What would Cato do? (or, find your equivalent.)

How to be Prolific - Lessons from a man who wrote 470+ books.

If anyone produced a hundred books in the modern world, we'd consider them wildly prolific. The fact that Isaac Asimov was involved in nearly 500 books across a bunch of different genres - most written by hand or typewriter nonetheless - should spark interest in how he did it. Take a look at his bibliography to get a full idea of the sheer scope of his writing.

Keep a Schedule…

Asimov worked long hours as a youth in his family’s candy store. He was always grateful for the schedule his parent’s ground into him. It allowed him to put in the long hours to balance his writing with his work in the start of his career, and when he became full-time writer, allowed him to outproduce nearly any writer in modern history.

… but be Flexible.

Although Asimov preferred grinding it out for an entire day, he was also aware that sometimes life interrupts. He gave the advice that to be prolific, “A compulsive writer must always be ready to write.” He pointed out that even 15 minutes of free time, is more than enough time to write a page.

He suggested that to be able to do this effectively, you should be writing even when you’re not at a typewriter. Think about your work when eating, falling asleep, anything that didn’t require his thought. This means there was no writers block when he sat down at the typewriter because it was already thought through. (Ryan Holiday does a similar thing, thinking on his writing while swimming, walking, or running.)

Set aside your insecurities.

“A prolific writer … must have self-assurance. He can’t sit around doubting the quality of his writing. Rather, he has to love his own writing.”

Asimov openly admitted to enjoying reading his own books and being extremely sensitive to criticism. He believed in himself and kept powering through. This meant he set aside any internal doubts that could have slowed him down or prevented him from producing the amazing work that he did.

As a side note, even Asimov knew that his books improved over time in terms of quality of writing. That’s a benefit of being prolific – you’re bound to constantly improve anyway.

Get joy from the work.

Isaac Asimov loved to learn – made clear from the sheer amount of non-fiction topics that he wrote about. He loved the act of writing, no man who writes hundreds of books, essays and short stories could do it without loving the craft, but more than that his love of learning spurred on his creativity. As he end’s abridged memoir, It’s been a good life, “It is the absolute truth that I have never written a book that didn’t teach me far more than it taught my reader.”

If you can get joy from your work – especially your creative pursuits – you will care far less about any outcomes outside of your control.

Digital Detox - My one-day experiment.

Last Sunday, I decided to take complete a digital detox - which meant a 24-hour period without screens of any kind (Laptop, TV, Phone, etc.)

I honestly had no clue how it would go – but was pleasantly surprised by the results. It felt like a vacation day – one that I mainly spent reading, thinking, and writing.

There were two key things that I took from it:

1)   Mental Discomfort: I found that often, when journaling or reading, I would come to a point of mental discomfort – where I was trying to figure something out or understand it. With nothing else to do, I was able to push through and reap the benefits.

2)   Free from Distractions and Escapes: Sunday was very productive for me. I was able to get through a lot of my non-digital to-do list since there was no social media, YouTube or TV to distract me. With no escapes, I kept working and found that my energy levels kept consistently high.

I plan on making a digital detox something I do often – maybe even weekly. The one change I would make is to keep a list of things to do – since I was able to get through a lot more in a much shorter amount of time with no distractions.

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That's all for this week. Thanks again for reading!