Read to Lead: A Daily Stoic Reading Challenge

To be a great reader, it is not enough that you read.

As Epictetus said, “I cannot call somebody ‘hard-working’ knowing only that they read. Even if ‘all night long’ is added, I cannot say it—not until I know the focus of all this energy…” 

It’s how you read. 

It’s not about reading to impress people or for the mental gymnastics. 

It’s not about pouring inputs into your brain. 

It’s about getting better! It’s about filtering what gets into your brain. It’s about finding useful knowledge, knowledge you can use in your actual life. It’s about putting the information up to the test, examining it, seeing how it applies to your life, asking yourself how you might use it, what it’s prompting you to think.

If that’s the kind of reader you want to be, the Stoics can show you the way.

We built out their best insights into our Read to Lead: A Daily Stoic Reading Challenge

This challenge will take place across 5 weeks at a pace of 1 email every 3 days (~30,000 words of exclusive content), in which Read To Lead participants will learn:

• how to get the most out of your reading
• how to find books with the potential of changing your life
• how to think more critically
• how to find time to read
• how to digest books above your level

And much more.

Additionally, there are weekly video recordings with Ryan Holiday, author of 12 books about Stoic philosophy which have sold more than 5 million copies in over 30 languages. And Ryan’s monthly newsletter dedicated to book recommendations goes out to nearly 300,000 people. Videos on his reading habit have gotten millions and millions of views.

As a participant in Read to Lead: A Daily Stoic Reading Challenge, you’ll not only become a better reader and build a real reading habit, you’ll get to learn from Ryan and the practice that’s made him, as it's been said, “the king of reading as a form of self-improvement.”

“Far too many good brains have been afflicted by the pointless enthusiasm for useless knowledge.” — Seneca

Marcus Aurelius’ life was changed by a single book recommendation. In book 1 of Meditations, he thanks his philosophy teacher Rusticus “for introducing me to Epictetus’s lectures—and loaning me his own copy.” Rusticus handed Marcus one book and Marcus read that one book—this changed the arc of history.

As for Epictetus—he found freedom from slavery, long before he was legally free. How? In the writings of the Stoics, in the words of Musonius Rufus. He read his way to freedom, literally and figuratively.

More recently, there’s the story of someone like Malcolm X. His early life was defined by crime and it was a story that led to a prison cell. But in that cell, Malcolm picked up a book…and then another book…and then another. He would say later,

“People don’t realize how a man’s whole life can be changed by one book.” 

Or think of someone like Warren Buffett—one of the richest men in the world. Do you know what he traces his fortune back to? His single best investment decision? It's a book. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, which he first read at the age of 19. He explained in his 2013 letter to shareholders,  

“I can’t remember what I paid for that first copy, [but] of all the investments I ever made…[it] was the best.”

Never forget that it’s in your self-interest to read—there’s incredible power and money in it.

If you want to become a great reader with a great reading habit, the Stoics can help.