Courage Is Calling: A Book About Bravery

Currently reading this book and I’m picking up some storylines and insights. Having authored a semi-scientific book on this subject myself, this book provides the philosophical angle I didn’t have or know about as at when I wrote my book if you know what I mean 😃😃😃😃😃

Liked the theme of this book and look forward to the next one. If I had anything bad to say it would be that there are too many little stories to illustrate a simple point. Found myself switching off from time to time

a book about temperance very much needed, it is incredible how easy it is to forget about basic wisdom that once upon a time was common sense and now sounds like a radical wisdom

If you've read Robert Greene's books, Holiday's 'Courage is Calling' follows a similar style - concepts and philosophies of the human experience are laid out, using historical figures as examples and we're told how we can apply this knowledge to our modern lives.I do like books like this. I find them fascinating. Your generic philosophy / well-being books can be quite vague and cliché. History books have their use. But the increasing wealth of literature attempting to splice the two, tickles my pickle.And so Holiday should be congratulated on this undertaking. Using the principles of stoicism to motivate the modern reader into reaching their potential is a just and captivating pursuit.The reason why I rated it three stars are as follows:- Though there is an apparent close relationship between Greene and Holiday, Courage is Calling seems to contradict 'Greeneism' in many ways. My take from much of Greene's work is that the world is harsh and competitive and you need to use subtlety and poise to navigate through life. Issues are nuanced, people are complex, so understanding people and using restraint in our interactions is key.Holiday in this book however [this is again my take] seems to champion a rather reckless and swashbuckling kamikaze approach. 'Just send that angry email', 'just quit your job', 'just move places'. It's all very emotional and drastic.I tend to adhere to Greene's way of looking at this, and so Holiday's proclamations come across as a naive and overly bolshy without regard to repercussions.How realistic is it to expect a working class 21 year old to just quit their job because they dislike their boss? In an age of intense competition for jobs, rising living costs, the ongoing pandemic. Of course Holiday would respond to this saying that courage is needed to make these big decisions, they can work out - but it just seems a bit too Hollywood happy ending, idealistic for my tastes. I tend to favour Greene's pragmatism. But that's just me.I just disagree with this idea that you should make yourself a matyr to make some kind of vague wider point; and I can't help but feel this take is derived from Holiday's own angst regarding an experience he had at American Apparel.- Holiday also lost me slightly when he throws in barbed comments about people he disagrees with on issues such as the COVID vaccine, Trump, voting left or right etc. I think these issues, whichever side you align with, are very charged and trigger emotional responses in us all. By declaring one side right and one side wrong, Holiday loses half the readership. It again seems to be naive from someone acting as an authority on human interaction.I fundamentally believe that there are certain subjects you're best off tackling in a diplomatic way or perhaps avoiding altogether, so the fact that Holiday seems to either ignore this understanding of human psychology or not care, then sullies my trust in him to advise me on how to interact with society.It is perhaps a feature from North America where this culture war is particularly toxic and is seeping into many other parts of the West now. This 'goodies v baddies', 2d cartoonish view of both sides of a political issue. It destroys nuance, and creates a very dim 'right v wrong' narrative.Linked to this is Holiday's attempts in the book to suggest some courage is bad, while other courage is good, and the determining factor of 'good or bad' seems to be whether the agents involved are people he politically aligns with., or those who are opposed. WW2 Japan 'bad', Abraham Lincoln 'good'. In reality no side is wholly good or bad, every cause is nuanced. Good and bad dwell on both sides of every debate.Holiday also mentions that you have a duty to act in advancing 'the truth' but again 'what is the truth?' everybody will have different perceptions, different opinions.It may be that the above is just a consequence of the author and I having different world views; and Holiday isn't to blame for seeing things differently to myself.I can only praise the undertaking, i just found I disagreed with Holiday on much. You should give it a read and make your own mind up. It is very readable, the chapters are short and choppy and the tone is informal so you can pick it up and read significant amounts at ease.

Love this latest book by Ryan Holiday.I was lucky at eighteen to join a job that tested my mettle, but as life in general gets softer few youngsters learn to face down their fears. He’s done a good job here mixing old wisdom and modern advice.EDIT: Yeah, enjoyed it and still dipping in, but I can’t help feeling he’s missed a trick. An appendix giving real life examples of progressively overcoming fears would’ve been a great extra to this book. (See ‘Fear, the friend of exceptional people’ by Geoff Thompson)The book is good as it stands though, so remains five stars from me.

I've really enjoyed Ryan Holiday's work of late and I was looking forward to this when I saw him talk about it on his YouTube channel.The book isn't bad and reading it was a decent use of my time. It's certainly an easy read like his other books, but not nearly as compelling for me. I like that he still writes short, punchy chapters (probably even more so than his other recent books) but in this book I wouldn't say that each chapter is as tighly-focused on a specific point as I've come to expect. It therefore all feels a bit rambling and unstructured and at times just feels like literary cheerleading.I highly highly recommend Ryan's work and he has more than enough goodwill in the bank with me as a writer, to cut him some slack here. If you're curious about Ryan, definitely read his books but I wouldn't start with this one. The Obstacle is the Way, Ego is the Enemy and Stillness is the Key are excellent books, so start with those.I'm sure he'll get back to form and I will still buy his future books (this is one of a planned series of four), but this didn't blow me away. I admire him for varying up his technique instead of getting complacent but it hasn't worked quite so well on this book.

Absolutely love Ryan's writing and how his books always feel like concise summaries of modern and ancient wisdom, expertly curated and collated to bring a fresh, easy to digest take on key life lessons. Simultaneously hard hitting and easy to consume. This book in particular, is a real call to action, to put this hard won wisdom into play in our day to day lives.

I read quite a bit . Ryan is one of my favourite authors and he certainly delivered with this title , stoicism is my go to topic and has helped me though a few challenging times . Courage is calling is well worth a read , and I will be doing so several times over .