FINAL HOURS:
Read and discuss with me the book that changed my life.
Don’t miss my LIVE Q&A call to discuss Meditations,
TODAY at 12:00 pm CDT!
Our How to Read Meditations Digital Guide, a comprehensive reading companion to the book, is your ticket in. This month only, buy our leatherbound edition of Meditationstoget the guide FREE, along with your invitation to my live Q&A call TODAY.
Get your Meditations book and guide NOW to join me!
Why did Marcus Aurelius write his Meditations? It wasn't to become famous or admired. It wasn’t to practice his Greek—after all, he was already accomplished in all that. Instead, we must think of when he was writing to understand why he was writing.
In the second century AD, conflicts loomed just beyond Rome’s border, economic troubles shook its foundations, and a rare plague had ravaged the populace—not to mention all the political corruption and backstabbing going on within the palace walls!
It was a dark world…and Marcus Aurelius desperately needed some light. In fact, he spends all of Book 1 in Meditations reflecting upon what he has learned from various influential individuals in his life. “Debts and Lessons” it’s titled, and the 17 entries—spanning nine pages and more than 2,000 words—make up nearly 10% of the entire book! Then there's the fact that almost every page after contains at least one quote, story, or reference designed to inspire, reassure, or call us to action.
It all seems rather odd, doesn’t it? That the emperor of Rome, the most powerful man on the planet, stayed up late at night not to record his story for prosperity, but to document the virtues and wisdom he admired in others.
It is a beautiful passage in Book 6 that holds the key to understanding his process:
“When you need encouragement, think of the qualities the people around you have: this one’s energy, that one’s modesty, another’s generosity, and so on. Nothing is as encouraging as when virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us, when we’re practically showered with them. It’s good to keep this in mind.”
Marcus was writing to encourage himself during trying times! And he was doing so by thinking of the qualities of the people around him. He was showering himself in their virtues so that he might be improved by the association. And as far as we can tell, it worked. Because he was a good man, despite facing incredible temptations and pressures.
Today, we should follow this example anew.
Not just by reading Meditations, but by truly engaging with it. By reflecting upon it, journaling on it, using it to become a better person. Letting it be a bright light in our own dark times.
That’s exactly why we created the How To Read Meditations Digital Guide—for anyone who wants to not only read and deeply reflect on Marcus’s words, but actually live them.
The digital guide distills all of my reading, rereading, and annotating of Meditations into a roadmap designed to help you get out of the book in just a few weeks what took me twenty years—you'll get 11 self-paced modules, video lessons, expert commentary, guided journaling prompts, and access to our private discussion platform.
And TODAY, April 27th, at 12:00 pm CDT, I'm answering all your questions about Meditations in a live Q&A call as part of the How To Read Meditations Digital Guide.
Get started NOW to join the call at noon CDT—get the guide to receive your invite!
And this month only, when you buy the leatherbound edition of Meditations—a beautiful, heirloom-quality version of the book—you’ll get the digital guide FREE, including the invitation to the Q&A if you purchase before 12:00 pm Central.
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