Congratulations President William Ruto on your electoral victory. Like Paul did to the church of the Galatians, I am writing this epistle to encourage you along this journey so that you can keep your faith. I would like you to pay attention to the following 10 things:
1. Discipline is destiny
Our forefathers were fond of this expression: Character is fate. Self-discipline is one of those special things that are both predictive and deterministic. It both predicts that you will be great and it makes whatever you are doing great. It is not a means to an end. Discipline is the win. When you are disciplined about your craft, you win. When you know you put your best into something, you win. When your self-worth is tied to things you can control (effort, for example) you win.
Who we are, the standards we hold ourselves to, the things we do regularly—in the end, these are all better predictors of the trajectory of our lives than things like talent, resources, or anything else.
2. Attack the dawn
The morning hours are the most productive. Because in the morning, you are free. Ernest Hemingway would talk about how he’d get up early because there was, “no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write.”
3. Manage the load
“Absolute activity, of whatever kind,” Goethe said, “ultimately leads to bankruptcy.” No one is invincible. No one can carry on forever. We are all susceptible to what the American swimmer Simone Manuel has helped popularise: Overtraining Syndrome. Even iron eventually breaks or wears out.
4. Do the hard things first
The poet and pacifist William Stafford put forth a daily rule: “Do the hard things first.” Don’t wait. Don’t tell yourself you’ll warm up to it. Don’t tell yourself you’ll get this other stuff out of the way and then…No. Do it now. Do it first. Get it over with. I noticed, with a lot of appreciation, that you started hard on your inauguration speech.
5. Bring distinction to everything you do
Plutarch tells us about a general and statesman in Greece named Epaminondas who, despite his brilliance on and off the battlefield, was appointed to an insultingly minor office in Thebes responsible for the city’s sewers.
In fact, it was because of his brilliance that he was put in this role, as a number of jealous and fearful rivals thought it would effectively end his career. But instead of being provoked or despairing at his irrelevance, Epaminondas took fully to his new job, declaring that the distinction of the office isn’t brought to the man, the man brings the distinction to the office.
With discipline and earnestness, Plutarch wrote, “he proceeded to transform that insignificant office into a great and respected honour, even though previously it had involved nothing more than overseeing the clearing of dung and the diverting of water from the streets.”
6. Be hard on yourself
“Take the cold bath bravely," WEB Dubois wrote to his daughter. “Make yourself do unpleasant things so as to gain the upper hand of your soul.” By being hard on ourselves, it makes it harder for others to be hard on us. By being our own tyrant, we take away the power of tyrants over us.
7. View everything in the calm and mild light
George Washington had a mantra that always calmed him down when things seemed to be at their absolute worst. In a single two-week period in 1797, Washington included it in three different letters. And later, in Washington’s greatest but probably least known moment, when he talked down the mutinous troops who were plotting to overthrow the US government at Newburgh, he said it, as he urged them away from acting on their anger and frustration. View everything, he liked to say, “in the calm light of mild philosophy.”
8. Stay in the saddle
There is an old German word sitzfleisch, which means basically sitting your butt in the chair and not getting up until the task is complete. Even as it goes numb, even as one by one, the people around you call it a day. Showing up yourself, day after day, until your back aches, your eyes water, and your limbs turn to mush. Many a great conqueror in the days of horseback were called “Old Iron Ass” for their ability to stay in the saddle.
9. Be a little deaf
We have to develop the ability to ignore, to endure, to forget. Not just cruel provocations from adversaries, but also unintentional slights and mistakes from people we love or respect. “It helps to be a little deaf,” was the advice that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was given by her mother-in-law. It helped guide her through not just 56 years of marriage, but also a 27-year career on the court with colleagues she adored–but surely disagreed with on a regular basis. Mr Hustler, don't just listen to everything.
10. Speak little
Robert Greene puts it perfectly: “Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less.” They have the discipline and this discipline creates a powerful presence.
