Too busy to read?

Tolstoy expressed his exasperation at people who didn't read deeply and regularly. "I cannot understand," he said, "how some people can live without communicating with the wisest people who ever lived on earth."

you had to trade places entirely with the person you envy, if you had to give up your brain, your principles, your proudest accomplishments to live in their life, would you do it? Are you willing to pay the price they paid to get what you covet? No, you aren't.

Many people find relief in strenuous exercise. Sure, it might make them stronger at work, but that's not why they do it. It's meditative to put the body in motion and direct our mental efforts at conquering our physical limitations.

It was Eisenhower who defined freedom as the opportunity for self-discipline. In fact, freedom and power and success require self-discipline. Because without it, chaos and complacency move in. Discipline, then, is how we maintain that freedom.

We don't need to get rid of all our possessions, but we should constantly question what we own, why we own it, and whether we could do without.

Each school has its own take on wisdom, but the same themes appear in all of them: The need to ask questions. The need to study and reflect. The importance of intellectual humility. The power of experiences--most of all failure and mistakes--to open our eyes to truth and understanding.

The less we are convinced of our exceptionalism, the greater ability we have to understand and contribute to our environment, the less blindly driven we are by our own needs, the more clearly we can appreciate the needs of those around us, the more we can appreciate the larger ecosystem of which we are a part.

Just as every hoarder becomes trapped by their own garbage, so too are we tied down by what we own. Every piece of expensive jewelry comes with an insurance bill, every mansion with a staff of groundskeepers, every investment with obligations and monthly statements to review, every exotic pet and plant with a set of responsibilities.

Anne used her journal to reflect. "How noble and good everyone could be," she wrote, "if at the end of the day they were to review their own behavior and weigh up the rights and wrongs. They would automatically try to do better at the start of each new day, and after a while, would certainly accomplish a great deal."

When we not only automate and routinize the trivial parts of life, but also make automatic good and virtuous decisions, we free up resources to do important and meaningful exploration. We buy room for peace and stillness, and thus make good work and good thoughts accessible and inevitable.

The journey has been enjoyable and well worth making--once!

The playwright Tennessee Williams spoke of luxury as the "wolf at the door." It wasn't the possessions that were the problem, he said, but the dependency. He called it the catastrophe of success, the way that we become less and less able to do things ourselves, the more and more we cannot be without a certain level of service.

"When you realize there is nothing lacking," Lao Tzu says, "the whole world belongs to you."

"Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all." Democritus, twenty-four hundred years before him: "An envious man pains himself as though he were an enemy."

In a little book titled Painting as a Pastime, Churchill spoke eloquently of a reliance on new activities that use other parts of our minds and bodies to relieve the areas where we are overworked. "The cultivation of a hobby and new forms of interest is therefore a policy of first importance to a public man," he wrote. "To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real."

The less energy we waste regretting the past or worrying about the future, the more energy we will have for what's in front of

That is why those who seek stillness must come to . . . * Develop a strong moral compass. * Steer clear of envy and jealousy and harmful desires. * Come to terms with the painful wounds of their childhood. * Practice gratitude and appreciation for the world around them. * Cultivate relationships and love in their lives. * Place belief and control in the hands of something larger than themselves. * Understand that there will never be "enough" and that the unchecked pursuit of more ends only in bankruptcy.

In these situations we must: * Be fully present. * Empty our mind of preconceptions. * Take our time. * Sit quietly and reflect. * Reject distraction. * Weigh advice against the counsel of our convictions. * Deliberate without being paralyzed.

stillness. To be steady while the world spins around you. To act without frenzy. To hear only what needs to be heard. To possess quietude--exterior and interior--on command.

If we are to be half as productive as Churchill, and manage to capture the same joy and zest and stillness that defined his life, there are traits we will need to cultivate. Each of us will: * Rise above our physical limitations. * Find hobbies that rest and replenish us. * Develop a reliable, disciplined routine. * Spend time getting active outdoors. * Seek out solitude and perspective. * Learn to sit--to do nothing when called for. * Get enough sleep and rein in our workaholism. * Commit to causes bigger than ourselves.

Churchill to write his final set of memoirs, The Second World War,

You will never feel okay by way of external accomplishments. Enough comes from the inside. It comes from stepping off the train. From seeing what you already have, what you've always had.

Virtue is not holiness, but rather moral and civic excellence in the course of daily life. It's a sense of pure rightness that emerges from our souls and is made real through the actions we take.

A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. --HERBERT SIMON

If history is any indication, leaders, artists, generals, and athletes who are driven primarily by anger not only tend to fail over a long enough timeline, but they tend to be miserable even if they don't.

You can even use this to connect more deeply with yourself and your own life. The moon you're looking at tonight is the same moon you looked at as a scared young boy or girl, it's the same you'll look at when you're older--in moments of joy and in pain--and it's the same that your children will look at in their own moments and their own lives.

Anyone can be rich or famous. Only you can be Dad or Mom or Daughter or Son or Soul Mate to the people in your life.