More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
The worst thing you can ever do is think that you know enough.
“If you have a 10-year plan of how to get [somewhere], you should ask: Why can’t you do this in 6 months?”
Success, however you define it, is achievable if you collect the right field-tested beliefs and habits.
Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about.
“I can think” → Having good rules for decision-making, and having good questions you can ask yourself and others. “I can wait” → Being able to plan long-term, play the long game, and not misallocate your resources. “I can fast” → Being able to withstand difficulties and disaster. Training yourself to be uncommonly resilient and have a high pain tolerance.
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
the ceiling is: You have all this amazing knowledge and all this amazing practice, but how are you bringing that into the world? What happens when you’re in traffic? How are you with your mom? Do you talk to your mom? Do you tell her the truth?”
Who is good at [SPORT] despite being poorly built for it? Who’s good at this who shouldn’t be? ► Who are the most controversial or unorthodox athletes or trainers in [SPORT]? Why? What do you think of them? ► Who are the most impressive lesser-known teachers? ► What makes you different? Who trained you or influenced you? ► Have you trained others to do this? Have they replicated your results? ► What are the biggest mistakes and myths you see in [SPORT] training? What are the biggest wastes of time? ► What are your favorite instructional books or resources on the subject? If people had to teach
...more
“I always say that I’ll go first….
“If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” —Lao Tzu
Obviously, the air I am breathing comes from all over the world, and some of it’s a billion years old. Every 8 years, I get almost all new cells from something. Everything I eat is connected to me. Everyone I meet is connected to me. Right now you and I are sitting outside, and our feet are touching the ground. We’re connected to the ground. Now, that’s all easy to say intellectually and even poetically. But when you actually experience that you’re part of this larger system, one of the things that you become aware of is that your ego—your personal identity—is not that big a part of you.
‘Is that a dream, or a goal? Because a dream is something you fantasize about that will probably never happen. A goal is something you set a plan for, work toward, and achieve.
I’m either ready or I’m not. Worrying about it right now ain’t gonna change a damn thing. Right? Whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen. I’ve either done everything I can to be ready for this, or I haven’t.’”
if you don’t do something well, don’t do it unless you want to spend the time to improve it.
To be answered in the morning: I am grateful for … 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ What would make today great? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ Daily affirmations. I am … 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________
To be filled in at night: 3 amazing things that happened today … 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ (This is similar to Peter Diamandis’s “three wins” practice; see here.) How could I have made today better? 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________
old relationship that really helped you, or that you valued highly. ► An opportunity you have today. Perhaps that’s just an opportunity to call one of your parents, or an opportunity to go to work. It doesn’t have to be something large. ► Something great that happened yesterday, whether you experienced or witnessed it. ► Something simple near you or within sight.
Achieving the extraordinary is not a linear process. The secret is to show up, do the work, and go home.
accept that quality long-term results require quality long-term focus. No emotion. No drama. No beating yourself up over small bumps in the road. Learn to enjoy and appreciate the process.
‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.’”
“Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call ‘life’ was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
“To do original work: It’s not necessary to know something nobody else knows. It is necessary to believe something few other people believe.”
When deal-making, ask yourself: Can I trade a short-term, incremental gain for a potential longer-term, game-changing upside?
It’s not what you know, it’s what you do consistently.
“HOW TO THRIVE IN AN UNKNOWABLE FUTURE? CHOOSE THE PLAN WITH THE MOST OPTIONS. THE BEST PLAN IS THE ONE THAT LETS YOU CHANGE YOUR PLANS.”
“Be expensive” (see Marc Andreessen, here), “Expect disaster” (see Tony Robbins, here), and “Own as little as possible”
don’t be a donkey. You can do everything you want to do. You just need foresight and patience.”
You need to figure out whether you’re feeling like, “Fuck yeah!” or “No.”’
Lack of time is lack of priorities. If I’m “busy,” it is because I’ve made choices
Write down the 3 to 5 things—and no more—that are making you the most anxious or uncomfortable. They’re often things that have been punted from one day’s to-do list to the next, to the next, to the next, and so on. Most important usually equals most uncomfortable, with some chance of rejection or conflict. For each item, ask yourself: “If this were the only thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day?” “Will moving this forward make all the other to-dos unimportant or easier to knock off later?” Put another way: “What, if done, will make all of the rest easier or irrelevant?”
What you do is more important than how you do everything else, and doing something well does not make it important.
Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.
“Losers react, leaders anticipate.”
Capping the downside:
Asymmetrical risks and rewards:
HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY. LUCK IS NOT A FACTOR. FEAR IS NOT AN OPTION.
BE A MEANINGFUL SPECIFIC INSTEAD OF A WANDERING GENERALITY
If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.
Asking the right dumb question is often the smartest thing you can do.”
“Tell me about a time when …” “Tell me about the day [or moment or time] when …” “Tell me the story of … [how you came to major in X, how you met so-and-so, etc.]” “Tell me about the day you realized ___ …” “What were the steps that got you to ___ ?” “Describe the conversation when …”
you spend your time focusing on the things that are wrong, and that’s what you express and project to people you know, you don’t become a source of growth for people, you become a source of destruction for people.
“WHAT INTERESTING THING ARE YOU WORKING ON? WHY IS THAT INTERESTING TO YOU? WHAT’S SURPRISING ABOUT THAT? IS ANYBODY ELSE THINKING ABOUT THIS?”
‘What context does this person even have, and have I provided appropriate context?’
the minutiae fit around the big things, but the big things don’t fit around the minutiae.
“Frustration is a matter of expectation.”
an anteambulo. Clear the path for the people above you and you will eventually create a path for yourself.
The person who clears the path ultimately controls its direction, just as the canvas shapes the painting.
not accepting the norm is the secret to really big success and changing the world.”
“No matter what the situation may be, the right course of action is always compassion and love.”
It’s always smart, before starting any collaboration, to ask yourself, “What are their incentives and the timelines of their incentives?
