Life Is Short And So Is This Book

by Peter Atkins

The trick is people who are most productive tend to say no to things that are unimportant to them and focus on what they believe matters.

Focusing on what matters means saying no to things that don’t matter. Otherwise, your life becomes cluttered with distractions.

Me with tik tok. I could spend hours on that app watching other people live their lives while I sit and observe theirs. Britney Spears was right: “there’s only two types of people in the world, the ones that entertain and the ones that observe.”

Making space in your life by using time efficiently also helps nurture creativity.

So to make the most of your life, say no to things that don’t matter, work hard at what you love, and occasionally take time away from your core focus to rest so that your mind can be quiet for great insights to come.

If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep. -Dale Carnegie

Worrying, I’ve found, wastes energy and wastes time; it limits what you can accomplish.

So true. I’ve had a couple of panic episodes regarding the state and future of the political climate, the attack on civil/human rights and my own personal future—especially my financial health. All that time spent worrying didn’t change the outcome of any of my worries. All it did was affect my emotional and mental wellbeing. I think the key is to pause and change perspective and mainly focus on what I can control. If I’m worried about my financial wellbeing, I need to take proactive steps into insuring that my future self will be protected.

The lesson to me is that you can focus on something going well, or something beautiful, or something interesting -- even amidst terrible times.

You don’t have to change everything overnight. In fact, thinking you can, or should, is likely to lead to failure, or to feeling overwhelmed -- and as a result perhaps doing nothing.

Me when it comes to losing weight. I get too wrapped up in doing everything perfect so I can get the best and fastest results and when I don’t get them, I quit. I don’t focus on creating healthy long term habits.

As Winston Churchill said: Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Need this tattooed ASAP

Do what you think is right. Don't follow other people blindly. Be honest and keep your word. Admit your mistakes.

Hold yourself accountable and know your limits! Don’t go above and beyond for others just to people please.

Your friends are a reflection of you.

We were made to move, and our brains were made to think while in motion.

Taking care of yourself means finding a balance that works for you, then having the discipline to maintain that balance.

Omg so dramatic lol I wonder what quotes from today will be used for future publication. Self help book, quote:YOLO —Drake lol

There’s a Japanese proverb that gets right to the point: We’re fools whether we dance or not -- so we might as well dance.

Yasss dance! I always feel so free when I dance.

The payoff is the physical act of laughing actually improves your mood.

In thinking about this, I keep Mark Twain in mind: The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

Oh no not Texas lol

Fortunately, everything I’d done earlier in my career wasn’t wasted. In fact, many of the experiences I’d had (and particularly my failures) became useful learning.

Nothing is ever a waste of time as long as you figure out where you want to go.

I was stunned: He’d almost died in a spectacular catastrophe that impacted millions of people, and yet, years later, in telling the story he tried to impress me with the status of his job! I told him I thought he was just lucky to be alive.

Because that's his identity. That's what he values and sees his worth in.

However, if you fight change you’ll usually lose -- and you’ll get worn down fighting it.

Alexander Graham Bell said: “When one door closes, another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”

Since change is inevitable, the key is learning how to manage it.

I’ve found patience is a huge virtue. Change comes slowly. It’s a hard thing to accept, and people may resist it actively or passively.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. - Thomas Jefferson

This is cute! #manifesting

A clear, stretch goal. If the goal is too easy, it won’t feel like an achievement; if it’s unrealistic, you’ll never do the work.

Similarly, to make changes in your life, focus on taking small steps in the right direction.

you can’t do it overnight.

Only if!

The initial change will be small, and in the near term the difference may be imperceptible, but as time goes on you’ll end up in a totally different place than where you started.

Adding bricks to buuld your house.

Remember: take small steps. They work. Big steps often don’t. Over time, small steps add up, and you end up in a different place.

Being able to accept and manage change is an essential skill.

You need to use your judgment to figure out what’s right for you at a given time in your life.

Education is another field that requires focus, as many people in our societies aren’t getting access to the sort of educational opportunities that will allow them to compete in the world today, let alone the world in which our children will live in twenty years.

I think this is the scariest one. The world would literally crumble if the majority of the population are not educated. That would mean only a specific group of people will have access and control over the next generations. They'll be able to manipulate the uneducated and take advantage. Example: Trump and the “forgotten”. Also without an even layer of education, there will be a lack of new ideas or questions that can improve or challenge the norm. Children are the future and we have to ensure that there is a transfer of knowledge passed in every schools and teachers need tools and support to execute that knowledge transfer.

There are risks to new technologies, including a potential loss of privacy and various forms of abuse and fraud.

Breach of data, data leaks, selling data or mass consumption . AI taking over jobs.