Another Reason To Journal

In Walter Isaacson’s wonderful new biography of Leonardo Da Vinci, he spends a lot of time dissecting and exploring the ideas in Da Vinci’s notebooks. From his military sketches to his lesser known fables to self-portraits and scientific breakthroughs, Da Vinci poured his best self onto these pages (in fact, he often carried them around on a rope attached to his belt so they were always at hand). As Isaacson observed, Da Vinci’s lifelong habit of journaling should inspire us to do some of our own: “Five hundred years later, Leonardo’s notebooks are around to astonish and inspire us. Fifty years from now, our own notebooks, if we work up the initiative to start them, will be around to astonish and inspire our grandchildren, unlike our tweets and Facebook posts.” He is so right. Marcus Aurelius is himself a wonderful example of this. The American philosopher Brand Blanshard was as enthralled with Marcus’s writing as Isaacson was with Da Vinci. As he said: “Few care now about the marches and countermarches of the Roman commanders. What the centuries have clung to is a notebook of thoughts by a man whose real life was largely unknown who put down in the midnight dimness not the events of the day or the plans of the morrow, but something of far more permanent interest, the ideals and aspirations that a rare spirit lived by.” The question for you then is when are you going to stop wasting your time tweeting and chattering and texting and start producing your own notebooks? Keep a commonplace book. Keep a diary. Start a journal. Create something that, if the centuries don’t cling to, at least your family can. Or if they don’t care, produce something that will give you something to look back on and learn from. But start. Stop putting it off. Take the initiative. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com. Another reason to journal. In Walter Isaacson's wonderful new biography of Leonardo da Vinci, he spends a lot of time dissecting and exploring the ideas in da Vinci's notebooks. From his military sketches, to his lesser-known fables, to self-portraits, scientific breakthroughs,

• 0:47Ryan Holiday?

  da Vinci poured his best self onto these pages. In fact, he often carried them around on a rope attached to his belt, so they were always at hand. As Isaacson observed, da Vinci's lifelong habit of journaling should inspire us to do some of our own. "500 years later," he wrote, "Leonardo's notebooks are around to astonish and inspire us. 50 years from now, our own notebooks, if we work up the initiative to start writing them, will be around to astonish and inspire our grandchildren, unlike our tweets and Facebook posts." He is so right. Marcus Aurelius is himself a wonderful example of this. The American philosopher Bran Blanchard was as enthralled with Marcus's writing as

• 1:32Ryan Holiday?

  Isaacson was with da Vinci. As he said, "Few now care about the marches and counter marches of the Roman commanders. What the centuries have clung to is a notebook of thoughts by a man whose real life was largely unknown, who put down in the midnight dimness not the events of the day, nor the plans of the morrow, but something of far more permanent interest: the ideals and aspirations that a rare spirit lived by." The question for you, then, is when are you going to stop wasting their time tweeting, and shattering, and texting, and start producing your own notebooks? Keep a commonplace book. Keep a diary. Start a journal. Create something that, if the centuries don't cling to, at

• 2:17Ryan Holiday?

  least your family can. Or if they don't care, produce something that will give you something to look back on and learn from. But start. Stop putting it off. Take the initiative.

• 2:29Ryan Holiday?

  And of course, you might like the Daily Stoic Journal, which we make. You can buy it anywhere books are sold, including on Amazon. And it's got a prompt for you to meditate on and muse and put your best ideas down in the morning. And then it's got the same prompt for you to do in the evening as well. So the idea is you start the day off with reflection and then you close the day with reflection. And this sort of habit will build up journaling in your life. Now, sold many tens of thousands of these copies to people all over the world. It's translated in multiple languages now. We hope you enjoy it and check it out. That's the Daily Stoic Journal.