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by
Jim Murphy
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May 12 - June 5, 2025
The ego is the greatest opponent
Life moves from learning and growing, giving and receiving, to self-preserving, hoarding and grasping.
ego gets amplified and turns into pride and fear, both of which steal our joy.
unsmiling concentration on the self.
Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person.
The ego is always drawing attention to itself.
comparing and boasting…
fear stops us from performing with freedom and passion.
This book is about achieving extraordinary performance and fullness of life.
Self-awareness, in contrast, nurtures our growth by recognizing that we’re part of a greater whole.
When we’re self-aware, we’re able to observe our thoughts and behaviors, unattached to them, which enables us to see our place in the bigger picture, inter-connected with others. This is a powerful lens through which we can see clear enough to learn and grow into our true selves.
Self-awareness is the wisdom that knows your true self
helping view your circumstances objectively as feedback to continually learn and grow.
There’s no failure, only feedback.
“It’s an absolute necessity for a leader to be able to handle losing. The bigger a person’s job, the more losses he or she will have, and the more costly they will be.”
training your mind to focus on the process, not the result.
being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience.
Practice getting out of your head, focusing on your breathing and using your senses. Can you stop analyzing and just breathe? Just feel?
How often do you find your mind in the past or future? Keep a 3x5 card in your pocket and spend a full day marking every time your mind got caught up in the past or future.
When we absolutely have to have something over which we are not in full control, we become a servant to it. In this we lose our power.
we get enslaved by the moment-to-moment feedback from the ego on how life is going in comparison to others.
the effort to overcome adversity is essential for greatness.
This cluttered, negative state does one thing that really hurts us: it crowds out the space needed to dream great dreams, to imagine possibilities. This is the Monkey Mind.
a lack of awareness of our thoughts is our biggest obstacle:
“Primarily it’s the athletes’ inability to catch their use of unproductive thoughts, unproductive ways of thinking about the situation they’re in. That translates into ‘What if this happens?’ ‘What if that happens?’ ‘I’m not doing well right now.’ The more technical term is fusing with their language. They let their language take on a reality of its own.”
they’re creating a reality—when
The voice of the Trickster easily leads to overwhelm and self-rejection.
deception and accusation.
ability to diminish our identity.
This perception drives your behavior. Thus, we end up on a path constantly seeking validation because the need to feel ok about ourselves is so strong, we’ll do anything to fill that need.
Instead of being motivated to get better, the Trickster exaggerates how far short we always seem to fall and makes us feel bad about ourselves.
disappointment,
defeated,
defective:
greatest trap in our life
self-rejection.
One skill that selfless-actualizers with Inner Excellence have developed is that they do not get mentally trapped by circumstances they can’t control.
All things are here to teach me and help me—it’s all working for my good.
The problem is not the problem, the problem is the way you’re thinking about it.
“What are the circumstances of this situation, and what are my thoughts?”
three most powerful resources in the world: love, wisdom, and courage,
pillars of extraordinary performance: lead with your heart, expand your vision, and be fully present.
if your life has a purpose beyond yourself, you will be willing to take more risks than you would otherwise, empowered by a life of connection and meaning.
fear
does it not disappear, it gets even worse.
now I acc...
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Zoe is the full expression of love, wisdom, and courage.
every achievement brings only temporary satisfaction.
Most people don’t actually know what they want most, besides material success.
the greatest possible life is one filled with love, wisdom and courage.
