Hello everyone,
Welcome to a new book review from my blog. I'll share what I took away from the book with a quote that stood out to me. The quote is from the book Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday, which says:
“Stillness is the key to a good life.”
Ryan Holiday offers another statement from his book Stillness Is the Key that made me question what he means by "stillness is the key to a good life." Is he telling me that the ability to do nothing is what is missing in my life to get a better life? It stood out to me because I am a person on a high pace. I am constantly looking for the next big thing to do, and even sometimes it does not have to be something big. It could simply be a lineup of activities from streaming chess, playing chess, writing, reading a book, watching a movie, or working on my laptop. I have not really spent much time with the idea that I need to clear my list of activities just to sleep or, better still, in Ryan Holiday's words, stillness.
I trust you see why I have to listen to what Ryan Holiday has to say, as I am familiar with Ryan Holiday's work. So here is what the author is saying: He describes the world as a place that moves at a high pace, with different things to do and many more competing for our attention. I remember a conversation with an elderly person, and they spoke about how television was not present when they were younger, unlike today, where kids even have TVs in their rooms. This made them more curious about what was present for them at that point in time, which was playing in the community with other kids. This limits the amount of things competing for one's attention and forces a means of socializing among one's peers. I was intrigued by the conversation, but now that I traced it down to the quote from Ryan's book, stillness has to do with doing less and prioritizing the important things.
It is about realizing that you are doing enough and you are not lazy for wanting to take a break every once in a while from a long shift of activities. Also, I have observed that we have replaced the meaning of being productive with being busy, which, in my dictionary, are not the same thing. Productive is more about getting things done; it does not matter the number of things, while being busy is having a lot to do and thinking you can do it all at once. This does not work well the way you think, especially when it comes to multitasking. I also subscribe to the idea that doing more than one thing at a time reduces one's efficiency. You cannot give your 100% when your attention is already divided.
Take the time to slow down once in a while; it does not make you less of a person. Rather you makes you stronger for more activities to get done. We could claim to be machines, but the fact is we are not; everybody still needs to get some rest after a day's work. You have to refresh for the next day, and as for it being the key to a good life, I guess this is what Ryan was talking about, at least in my understanding.
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Thanks For Reading!
