Books Like
Discipline Is Destiny

If you liked Discipline Is Destiny, the closest books are Right Thing, Right Now by Ryan Holiday, Discipline Equals Freedom by Jocko Willink, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius in the Gregory Hays translation, You Are Capable of More by Chris Sund, A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine, How to Think Like a Roman Emperor by Donald Robertson, Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman, and Endure by Alex Hutchinson. Right Thing, Right Now is the natural next read, because it is the next book in the same Stoic Virtues series.

What Discipline Is Destiny does well, and what it leaves to you

Holiday builds his case for self-control the way a good coach builds a team talk, through short chapters and the lives of people like Lou Gehrig and Marcus Aurelius, so that by the end discipline feels less like a punishment you accept and more like a quiet strength you would be proud to have. The gift of the book is its tone, because it never shames the reader and keeps reminding you that discipline is something you practice rather than something you are born with. That is good news for most of us.

What the book leaves to you is the method. It is very good at making you want to be more disciplined, and much quieter about what to do at six in the morning when the alarm goes off and every part of you wants to stay put. When I surveyed more than 200 working adults for my own book, 92 percent said they were capable of more than they were doing, and 78 percent said they delay action they know they should take. Most of those people already admire discipline. What they need is a small, kind first step, taken again tomorrow.

One

Right Thing, Right Now by Ryan Holiday (2024)

This is the next book in Holiday’s Stoic Virtues series, and it moves from self-control to justice, which he describes as doing the right thing for other people even when it costs you something. If you loved the short chapters and the historical stories in Discipline Is Destiny, you will feel right at home, and it is the most natural next read.

It is long and covers a lot of ground, from personal honesty to whole movements in history. Readers who have read several of Holiday’s books may also find the pattern of story and lesson starting to feel familiar.

Two

Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual by Jocko Willink (2017)

Where Holiday persuades, Willink commands, in a short book of blunt thoughts on waking early, training hard, eating well and refusing to negotiate with your own excuses, with a basic workout plan at the back. It gives you the daily routines that Discipline Is Destiny mostly leaves out. It is easy to pick up for five minutes.

The tone is intense and it will not suit everyone. Readers who need gentleness more than a drill sergeant may find it more tiring than helpful.

Three

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, translated by Gregory Hays (2002)

Marcus Aurelius wrote these notes to himself while ruling Rome, never meaning for anyone else to read them, and that is exactly what makes them so honest, because you are watching one of the most powerful men in history remind himself to be patient, humble and steady. Hays’s translation is clear and modern, and it is the source Holiday returns to again and again. It is worth owning.

It is a private notebook, not a book with a plan. It repeats itself and jumps between ideas, so it works best read a few pages at a time rather than straight through.

Five

A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine (2008)

Irvine is a philosophy professor who decided to actually live as a Stoic, and his book turns the old ideas into simple practices, like imagining the loss of what you have so you appreciate it more, and choosing small discomforts on purpose so that bigger ones lose their grip. It is the most hands-on Stoic book on this list and a lovely companion to Holiday. You can start using it the same day.

Some chapters feel academic, and Irvine adapts Stoicism in ways that some scholars disagree with. Read it as one thoughtful modern take rather than the final word.

Six

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor by Donald Robertson (2019)

Robertson is a psychotherapist, and he tells the story of Marcus Aurelius’s life alongside the mental techniques Marcus used, showing how closely they match the tools modern therapists use for worry and anger. It is a gentle bridge between ancient philosophy and the way we actually feel on a hard day. It makes the Stoics feel human.

It moves back and forth between history and technique, which can slow the pace. It is also more about calming your emotions than building daily discipline.

Seven

Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman (2020)

This book tells the stories of the Stoics themselves, from the founders to the emperor, in short chapters that show how each of them tried, and sometimes failed, to live up to what they believed. If the historical portraits were your favorite part of Discipline Is Destiny, this gives you a whole book of them. It is comforting to see that even they struggled.

The chapters are uneven, because some of these figures left very little behind. A few portraits feel thin as a result.

Eight

Endure by Alex Hutchinson (2018)

Hutchinson, a science journalist and former competitive runner, looks at what actually stops us when we feel we cannot go on, and finds that the mind plays a much bigger part than most of us think. It gives the idea of discipline a modern scientific footing, and it makes the point that our limits are often further away than they feel. That is an encouraging thing to learn.

It is written mostly around sport and endurance research. Readers who are not athletes may need to carry the lessons over to their own lives themselves.

Which one to pick

If you want one, read Right Thing, Right Now. If you have read enough about discipline and simply want to practice it, the best place to start is usually the first hour of your day, and there is a gentle guide to that in how to build a morning routine you will actually keep.

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