Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday

goals by the weather just as easily as you can by a dictator. But
virtue? No one can stop you from knowing what’s right. Nothing
stands between you and it... but yourself.
Each of us must cultivate a moral code, a higher standard that we
love almost more than life itself. Each of us must sit down and ask:
What’s important to me? What would I rather die for than betray?
How am I going to live and why?
These are not idle questions or the banal queries of a personality
quiz. We must have the answers if we want the stillness (and the
strength) that emerges from the citadel of our own virtue.
It is for the difficult moments in life—the crossroads that Seneca
found himself on when asked to serve Nero—that virtue can be called
upon. Heraclitus said that character was fate. He’s right. We develop
good character, strong epithets for ourselves, so when it counts, we
will not flinch.
So that when everyone else is scared and tempted, we will be
virtuous.
We will be still.