/lit/ - Literature

>>19079813
Meditations
Thus Zarathustra Spoke
And The Diamond Sutra

>>19079813
The first step is always going to be getting a regular exercise routine to start your days off properly. Cardio, 5km run, after you wake up is the best way to start. That way the rest of your day (after you've progressed past the initial unfit stage if you're out of shape right now) will be kickstarted and whatever other pursuits you attempt during the day won't feel stunted and weak.

>>19079813
Infinite Jest might serve as a depressing wake-up call, especially if addiction is one of the things that is bugging you. Truth is, if "completely transforming your life mentally and physically" is your goal, then you should ask yourself what type of person you want to become and maybe that way you can get some useful recommendations. Also, get some exercise as the other anon mentions

>>19079834
What this anon said. Regular aerobic exercise is great. Also diet. My well being and energy levels skyrocketed when I started running daily and fixed my diet up. If you want to get your shit together, start there.

>>19079813
Pic related is literally me. I love improoving

>>19079827
Why the Diamond Sutra?

>>19079813
Learn Calculus

You could listen to Rich Dad Poor Dad audiobook as an introduction on how you should start thinking about personal finances if you dont have that down yet

>>19079813
The New Testament (unironically)

>>19079813
Not a specific recommendation, but read biographies. The problem with endless self-improvement, as in your meme, is the risk that it doesn't lead anywhere. It can be beneficial to look at lives to their end of people you admire to see how their various efforts work out.
As for a specific book, read 'The Life of Cardinal Wolsey' by George Cavendish. As you're into self-improvement, you'll enjoy Wolsey's rise. There's some great anecdotes about his work ethic.
First reply recommended Meditations. This is a good example improvement that can lead nowhere. Stoicism can be good in moderation imo but is more often a cope. Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of Rome, not an office drone. He was related to Trajan, you are not. Don't take it too seriously.

>>19083390
>more often a cope
What is wrong with coping? I don't understand this meme. Without coping we'd all kill ourselves at the slightest discomfort.

>>19083424
Coping is like escapism. If you really want to improve yourself and progress in life you don't want to keep coping with problems in your life, you want to overcome them and move on to the next obstacle you want to overcome. You can do a little bit of escapism but many people lose ambition once they start patting themselves on the back.

>>19082909
Romans 12
2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

>>19083424
There's a difference between cope as in the traditional sense of being able to tolerate and push through adversity and cope as in the blackpill sense of choosing to ignore reality in favour of comfortable delusions, like saying you don't care about getting a girlfriend when deep down you do. The former is essential to success in life, the latter just breeds mental illness amd should be avoided

>>19083476

Escapism and self improooooovment are two freaks suffering from the same vice. And freaks are always tortured by vice because of their malformed health and minds. And they always wish to overcome it, some pitiable "personal struggle" they're working on lol. Like slaves trying to cure their mark they pray in vain to Asclepius. If I had to power to heal you I wouldn't even care lol. Anyways, both the escapist and self improoover are compulsively withdrawn from mundane life. Work and toil, seizing modest opportunities before they pass, and they avoid entrapping social obligations like joining a social group and like a nail sticking out hammering themselves in line to dumb custom and convention (which most people do because they're just as dumb lol), and they avoid committed relationships, "sowing their oats" with sloots at the appropriate age, and of course they probably will never marry and sire children. Wow the way I described life makes it seem lackluster and petty. Well, it is. Why does it hurt you so much? It makes me angry and makes me laugh. The idea of fearing it, or thinking yourself unworthy of a mediocre life. "I wish I thought television and Facebook thanos memes were cool too, oh god what's wrong with me???". Lmao, I'm such a big badass I just lie to normies if I have to, sometimes bite the bullet too. It isn't even an incredible thing to have both a body and soul in modern America, even if our situation seems insane to an outside observer.

Maybe improoovers will grow out of their insecurity, but probably not. Compare the similar vice of lacking basic sexual restraint usually caused by a lack of self control in general. One freak indulges in disgusting and dangerous sex acts, he finds "freedom" in letting the vice destroy him. The other freak makes sexual release and domestic romance and family life into an evil demon, he is truly good and sex and womanhood is a great dragon to be defeated by his great trial of enduring abstinence. For him self control is merely "self restraint" and is not well balanced nor does it come naturally. Every vice is some way of being stupid, clumsy, maladroit, born upside down, etc. And do not be fooled by these freaks and the display of integrity and shame they love to peacock. Just ignore them, don't even be nice and pretend to recognize or acknowledge if you don't have to. And thank you for reading this entire post champ, I wish I could pat you on the head for being so considerate and patient.

Pic related, example of natural vice. Bad physiology and neurosis. He even steals jokes from Sam Hyde. Imagine being Jewish and secretly admiring an open antisemite and stealing his creative material.

>>19079813
I'm quite drinking myself!

>>19083667
meds

>>19083680

not an argument pussy. And my bad for posting the pic, I forgot where the spoiler checkbox was

>>19083667
So basically Aristotle got it right with the golden mean. Fair enough.

Crack, rush, ye mountains, bury your rills!
Spread your green glass, ocean, over the meadows!
Scream, avalanche, boulders amok, strangle the dale!
O ships in the sea’s power, O horses
On shifting roads, in the earth’s power, without hoofhold!
This is the earthquake, this was
the great earthquake of Genryaku!

The chapel fell, the abbey, the minster and the small shrines
fell, their dust rose and a thunder of houses falling.
O to be birds and fly or dragons and ride on a cloud!
The earthquake, the great earthquake of Genryaku!

A child building a mud house against a high wall:
I saw him crushed suddenly, his eyes hung
from their orbits like two tassels.
His father howled shamelessly—an officer.
I was not abashed at his crying.

>>19079813
Asking on 4chan about self improvement is comedy. The reason anyone comes here is to immerse themselves in the worthless and lose time and potential.

>>19083779

Well I think it's more of a difference in horizon altogether. And on part of the vice ridden freak, his lower horizon means that he is unable to even understand a natural and good virtue. He can only see virtue "his way". Such as: yeah you would see it that way wouldn't you, freak? The improoover does not even have a basic, well formed notion of routine, social participation, or the separation of public and private life. In this case I think it's caused by self imposed social withdrawal and inexperience, so the person make come to terms with reality if they manage to expose themselves to it honestly. And to be clear, by notion of virtue and vice is elitist where the former is exceptional and the latter is common. There's merely conventional vice which is forced to be managed by society to some degree since it is so pervasive, then unconventional vice perhaps caused by some marked difference between the individual and society. Social withdrawal is very uncommon, so improoovers may be intimidated by the ubiquity of conventional ugliness and stupidity and imagine themselves lesser rather than merely a different type of fucked up freak. But that's my interpretation of channer improoovers, they are people who broke from convention and withdrew from society but are driven back due to maybe economic necessity or some type of guilt or self pity. And the vice that marks their problem in thinking and lower horizon is their inability to imagine participating in a largely senseless and arbitrary existence. Because conventional existence does not itself contain what improoovers are longing for. So much like passive nature, society itself is largely a series of accidents. And most people are between human and beast. So an improoover is seeking out a transformation in himself which will purify him or empower him thus reconciling the wedge between himself and society. The brutal truth is that society is mainly driven by custom and habit (mere repetition of the same), not by ideas so an improoover will likely never satisfy his need for recognition no matter how well he succeeds in establishing conformity and acquiring status. Because he misunderstands the nature of society altogether he is looking for what he wants in a place where it cannot be found. This is probably why he finds so much trouble with motivation, he is always on the cusp of realizing his effort is futile in relation to what he longs for so he stops pursuing it, but his vice prevents him from realizing it clearly and seeing the bigger picture. He's caught within it. The correct understanding would involve a proper distinction between your inner nature and the obligations and opportunity offered by society. And that the two do not need to match. And that custom is largely arbitrary, merely an established way of doing things. It may as well be otherwise but it happens to be this way, and that does matter. But this all depends on my personal interpretation of channers and improovers

>>19084242

And sorry to toot my own horn too much, but the example of sexual vice in my earlier post, and abstinence and general poverty of self control is less ambiguous and much easier. In this case, or in any example of "vice-ridden" asceticism where the ascetic, suffering from his vice, seeks to punish himself to relieve guilt, or harshly impose order on his whole life with cruel and extreme self censure and strictures, or he believes he may be healed, that in opposing his own nature he may heal or purify himself. He suffers from the very same weakness of his hated and feared doppelganger, the one who is driven to horrible excess and depravity. Because a vice-ridden degenerate, even at his very best, could not imagine self control as being second nature to some people. A mark of health and good character, in this case especially the lack of control is a "conventional vice". Most people lack self control. And they cannot conceptualize it as balanced, graceful, or as an easy and intrinsic personal quality. "Self control" only means "self restraint" because somebody who has a weak sense of self is more mutable thus more easily dominated by primitive impulses and hungers. And they imagine they would be healed if they murdered their petty instincts, at least the best of them do. They cannot imagine how one could be naturally exert self control without behaving ruthlessly towards their own desires. Because they altogether are lacking in self control in a very severe way. And people with that vice who are not driven to restraint, they're more common and are merely animals that can speak.

>>19083667
catastrophically blackpilling, what is the solution here? put on a mask of enthusiasm as you get soul-crushed?

>>19083390
>Stoicism can be good in moderation imo but is more often a cope.

The core lesson of stoicism is to accept reality as it is because the external world is outside of your control and thus you shouldn't let it affect your emotions.
The only thing you can control is your "soul" so let that be your only source of happiness.
Does that sound like cope? It sounds like the remedy to it imo.

One of these days I will improooov my way out of mental illness

>>19084663
>thus you shouldn't let it affect your emotions.
Why not?

>>19084673
I have answered that in my post.
>the external world is outside of your control

So many suffer from frustration because reality doesn't meet their expectations. If they just wish for things to turn out as they do rather than as they wish, their life would become less stressful.
That's not to say you shouldn't react to anything though. You should but don't despair if the outcome isn't the one you want.

>>19084666
ch-ch-ch-checked and good luck anon

>>19083390
Tell me more about improvements that lead nowhere.

I read meditations and honestly it was a slug.

>>19084663
It's not a good thing to be an emotional slave to circumstances outside your control. However, you can affect your environment to a extraordinary extent.
Put it this way, gorillas, in the correct environment can learn some rudimentary sign language but in the wild, they cannot. Similarly, a human child will only learn to effectively communicate if brought up in the right environment. A major difference between the two is that humans are able to create these environments for themselves while gorillas are not.
As for stoicism being a cope, I see it as a retreat from the external world because you can't have perfect control over it. These people are abandoning a powerful means they have to improve their circumstances. I know it became a meme in many circles, because it was one of Jordan Peterson's rules, that you have to set your life in order before trying to affect the world, but the reality is most (all?) highly influential people are deeply dysfunctional in all kinds of ways, but they trudge on nonetheless. Stoicism tries to look like humility but I think it's more often just cowardice.
I think you should care more about the external world, not less, if you want to improve your life.

>>19084006

>The reason anyone comes here is to immerse themselves in the worthless and lose time and potential.

Can confirm. 39 years old, broke and single failure here. Been here since '05

>>19084242
great posts anon

>>19084888
I don't think there's anything wrong with buying into self-improvement memes and philosophies while you're young. The improvements that lead nowhere are the ones that have no specific purpose but only the vague aura of being better than not having them. You can fuck up all kinds of things in your life and still excel in a limited domain.
Secondly, any kind of self-improvement regimen that implies that you are living a provisional life in preparation for your real life will take you nowhere. Improvements should feed into a core of real-world action.

>>19084695
>>19084949
What should a person lacking in social interaction do when it comes to trying to interact? try to view each rejection as a bummer?

>>19085035
They should limit how much interaction they load onto themselves a day and they should also experience the full emotional weight of what they're attempting.
Be Pollyanna about it if they can. They can be glad they learned something.

>>19079813
Self improovers don't really know what they want to improve, else they would read non-fiction books on specifik topics of interest. They are just lost souls who aren't aware of the absurdity of existence and what they themselves want in life. They aimlessly read self improvement books for "that one guru" who give them the answers of what to do with their lives. The irony is no one has the answers, only you know what you want. Books that teach you how to think for yourself and control your thoughts have merit though, even if you can classify them as self improvement

>>19083667
You write too much for someone who thinks so little

>>19084949
To have a stoic attitude towards the external world is not to retreat from it but rather to shield against it. You can still take action where it's due but as I said in my other post, do not despair if the outcome isn't what you had desired.
For instance, I have feelings for a girl who's taken. I can attempt to influence her into reciprocating her feelings for me but ultimately, her emotions are beyond my control thus it's futile to suffer from my failed attempt. I could cope that, since most relationships among young people fail, hers will probably fail as well and she will eventually become available once more but again, her relationship is equally outside of my control. They might breakup but they also might not. If I accept this as it is then it will save me from cope, anxiety and other undesirable feelings.

>the reality is most (all?) highly influential people are deeply dysfunctional in all kinds of ways, but they trudge on nonetheless
To imply most if not all highly influential people are dysfunctional is a big claim as well as irrelevant. The point of stoicism is to achieve happiness from within rather than without, not necessarily to become successful and influential. Are those highly influential individuals happy? Van Gogh was influential but still committed suicide.