Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller & Wall Street Journal
Bestseller
In The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy, bestselling
author Ryan Holiday made ancient wisdom wildly popular with a new
generation of leaders in sports, politics, and technology. In his new
book, Stillness Is the Key, Holiday draws on timeless Stoic and
Buddhist philosophy to show why slowing down is the secret weapon for
those charging ahead.
All great leaders, thinkers, artists, athletes, and visionaries share
one indelible quality. It enables them to conquer their tempers. To
avoid distraction and discover great insights. To achieve happiness and
do the right thing. Ryan Holiday calls it stillness--to be steady while
the world spins around you.
In this book, he outlines a path for achieving this ancient, but
urgently necessary way of living. Drawing on a wide range of history's
greatest thinkers, from Confucius to Seneca, Marcus Aurelius to Thich
Nhat Hanh, John Stuart Mill to Nietzsche, he argues that stillness is
not mere inactivity, but the doorway to self-mastery, discipline, and
focus.
Holiday also examines figures who exemplified the power of stillness:
baseball player Sadaharu Oh, whose study of Zen made him the greatest
home run hitter of all time; Winston Churchill, who in balancing his
busy public life with time spent laying bricks and painting at his
Chartwell estate managed to save the world from annihilation in the
process; Fred Rogers, who taught generations of children to see what was
invisible to the eye; Anne Frank, whose journaling and love of nature
guided her through unimaginable adversity.
More than ever, people are overwhelmed. They face obstacles and egos and
competition. Stillness Is the Key offers a simple but inspiring
antidote to the stress of 24/7 news and social media. The stillness that
we all seek is the path to meaning, contentment, and excellence in a
world that needs more of it than ever.
