{"id":87131,"date":"2023-01-14T22:36:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-15T02:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=87131"},"modified":"2023-01-20T12:28:53","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T16:28:53","slug":"virtuous-life-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/virtuous-life-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Holiday: How to Live a Virtuous Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What does it mean to \u201clive virtuously\u201d? How is virtue cultivated?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/virtuous-life\/\">Living a virtuous life<\/a> means abiding by your personal moral code. If you don\u2019t have any moral principles, you\u2019ll feel lost, empty, and directionless. However, when you live virtuously, you\u2019ll <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ways-to-feel-better-about-yourself\/\">feel good about yourself<\/a> and your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With this in mind, here\u2019s how you can cultivate your personal moral code to inform virtuous living.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-becoming-virtuous\"><strong>Becoming Virtuous<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Without a strong moral code to live by, Holiday says you\u2019ll be confused and never have peace. For this reason, stillness requires cultivating virtue in your life, as a means of enriching your soul and guiding your behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A virtuous life is worth living for its own sake, Holidays says, and you can cultivate virtue in yourself by intentionally defining your moral code. To define your moral principles, you should take time to really contemplate what\u2019s important to you. To that end, ask yourself the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>How do I want to live?&nbsp;<\/em><\/li><li><em>What do I stand for?&nbsp;<\/em><\/li><li><em>What makes life worth living?<\/em><\/li><li><em>What values would I rather die than not embody?&nbsp;<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When you\u2019ve answered these questions and know clearly what your moral principles are, you can call on them in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/methods-of-decision-making-crucial-conversations\/\">decision-making<\/a> and use them to guide you through confusion or difficulty.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Holiday says that relationships are one of the most soul-enriching things available to us. He says everything is meaningless and empty if we don\u2019t have love and others to share it with. In fact, stillness is actually more for other people than for ourselves. In addition to providing nourishment for your soul, good relationships will require you to practice your virtuous behaviors, and therefore continue to grow.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>How to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/identify-your-values\/\">Identify Your Values<\/a><\/strong><br><br>In <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-subtle-art-of-not-giving-a-f-ck\/1-page-summary\"><em>The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck<\/em><\/a>, Mark Manson argues that most self-help books give advice for reaching your life goals but fail to discuss how to actually <em>define what your goals should be<\/em>. He says <strong>identifying the right goals for your life rests on clearly defining your values<\/strong>, and he gives <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-subtle-art-of-not-giving-a-f-ck\/chapter-4\">advice on thinking through this process<\/a>.<br><br>1) Pay <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/mindfulness-of-emotions\/\">attention to your emotions<\/a>. Notice what makes you feel happy, sad, angry, and so on.&nbsp;<br><br>2) When you have an emotional response to something, ask yourself <em>why<\/em> this thing is making you feel this way.&nbsp;<br><br>3) Identify the values underlying that feeling.&nbsp;<br><br>For example, let\u2019s say you notice a particular news story makes you feel unusually angry. When you stop and ask yourself why this anger is welling up, you recognize it\u2019s because the story involved an incident of racism. This probably indicates that a sense of equality and justice in society is a deep value you hold. Make note of each of these values as you discover them, and use them as a basis for deciding what kinds of life goals to pursue.&nbsp;<br><br>Manson does note that many people are not in touch with their emotions due to social conditioning. If you think that\u2019s the case for you, this work would be better undertaken with the help of a therapist.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does it mean to \u201clive virtuously\u201d? How is virtue cultivated?&nbsp; Living a virtuous life means abiding by your personal moral code. If you don\u2019t have any moral principles, you\u2019ll feel lost, empty, and directionless. However, when you live virtuously, you\u2019ll feel good about yourself and your life. With this in mind, here\u2019s how you can cultivate your personal moral code to inform virtuous living.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":43405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[837],"class_list":["post-87131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-spiritual","tag-stillness-is-the-key","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ryan Holiday: How to Live a Virtuous Life - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A virtuous life is worth living for its own sake. 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Here&#039;s how you can cultivate virtue in yourself by intentionally defining your moral code.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/virtuous-life-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-15T02:36:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-20T16:28:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/moral-foundations.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/virtuous-life-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/virtuous-life-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Ryan Holiday: How to Live a Virtuous Life\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-15T02:36:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-20T16:28:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/virtuous-life-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":531,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/virtuous-life-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/moral-foundations.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Stillness Is the Key\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Lifestyle\",\"Spiritual\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/virtuous-life-2\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/virtuous-life-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/virtuous-life-2\/\",\"name\":\"Ryan Holiday: How to Live a Virtuous Life - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/virtuous-life-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/virtuous-life-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/moral-foundations.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-15T02:36:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-01-20T16:28:53+00:00\",\"description\":\"A virtuous life is worth living for its own sake. 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