Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday

know what to expect because they’ve been through so much. They’ve
made mistakes and learned from them. And so must you.
Wrestle with big questions. Wrestle with big ideas. Treat your
brain like the muscle that it is. Get stronger through resistance and
exposure and training.
Do not mistake the pursuit of wisdom for an endless parade of
sunshine and kittens. Wisdom does not immediately produce
stillness or clarity. Quite the contrary. It might even make things less
clear—make them darker before the dawn.
Remember, Socrates looked honestly at what he didn’t know.
That’s hard. It’s painful to have our illusions punctured. It’s
humbling to learn that we are not as smart as we thought we were.
It’s also inevitable that the diligent student will uncover
disconcerting or challenging ideas—about the world and about
themselves. This will be unsettling. How could it not be?
But that’s okay.
It’s better than crashing through life (and into each other) like
blind moles, to borrow Khrushchev’s analogy.
We want to sit with doubt. We want to savor it. We want to follow
it where it leads.
Because on the other side is truth.