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“You become what you think about all day long.”
That’s why he famously said: “Cogito ergo sum.” Popularly translated to, “I think, therefore I am.” Descartes concluded that he must exist because he’s able to think.
His most important idea is that we should question the source of our beliefs, not the belief itself. Because most of our beliefs are based on our or other people’s perception.
Thoughts should serve a useful purpose. If they don’t, they’re useless. That’s straight thinking.
Remember: The quality of our thoughts determines the quality of our lives. And our decisions are a result of our thoughts.
The point is that there are multiple ways to achieve your goals. Also, if everyone is doing one thing, that often means you shouldn’t.
Like Steve Jobs said, “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
If you want the dots to connect in the future, you have to make sure you form dots in your brain. The only way you form dots is by learning, doing, making mistakes, reflecting, or anything you can do to feed your brain with the input it needs to give you the output you want.
When faced with decisions, I ask myself: “Will the outcome of a decision change the way I live?”
Only think about things you can control. That automatically eliminates about 99% of your thoughts because there’s very little you control in life.
If you’re constantly thinking without a useful purpose, it’s because you haven’t trained your mind yet.
If you believe in something, you will try hard to find information, clues, and signs to back that up. In other words, you do everything to prove you’re not wrong. Instead of looking at facts, you look at beliefs.
Avoid making decisions based on beliefs, obvious logic, and even science.
You still can’t trust your judgments, no matter how much knowledge you have. Being aware of that simple thought helps you make better-informed decisions.
Cognitive biases explain our illogical behavior.
Whatever you do, never waste your thoughts on other people’s ill-informed opinions and guesses.
Don’t bother with convincing people with different opinions of the “truth.” It’s just not a practical thing to do.
Your first reaction is usually outdated. Either it’s an answer you came up with long ago and now use instead of thinking, or it’s triggering a knee-jerk emotional response to something that happened long ago.”
Instead of following my first thought, I say, “Please give me a day or two to think about it.” That’s all you need.
Training your mind happens in stages—and before you can move on to the next phase of your learning development, you have to get through a wall.
“Conquer yourself rather than the world.” ― René Descartes
What are you good at? What are you bad at? How do you learn new things? What are you passionate about? What do you dislike?
Knowing yourself is step one. Step two is acting on that knowledge.
No matter what happens, if you have enough money to survive for six months, you’ll figure it out.
Money is a replaceable resource. When you’re out of it, you can earn it back. You can’t say the same for time. Don’t spend too much time thinking about money.
It’s good to let your attention wander and stop thinking. This is also a part of controlling your mind. You have the ability to decide when you want to let go of your thoughts. Similar to relaxing your muscles when you lay on the couch after a tough day, you can let loose of your thoughts.
Become aware of your thoughts, observe them, and let them go.
You’ll find that the moments you’re not thinking are just as important as the times you are actively thinking.
When you stop doing things the way they’re done, you’ll start doing things how you get it done.
there’s no point in asking “why” when you deal with obstacles, challenges, or mistakes. Instead, think about what you can do to overcome or prevent the things that are holding you back.
One of the things I’ve learned about writing books is that you must stand out somehow. No one cares about a better book on thinking. Instead, it’s likely that you picked up this book because you expected something different. But with the previous titles that I had drafted, I knew no one would think it’d be different.
Thinking about details is nothing more than doing your job.
If you want to grow—financially, spiritually, mentally—you must revisit the details all the time.
When you combine a few rules, you have a system. And a system helps you to take the thinking part out of the equation. The only thinking you need to do is when your system doesn’t give you the results you want.
you don’t regret what you did in life, you regret what you didn’t do.
When we hold on to a lot of things in the past, they form an obstacle to living in the present.
look back, but don’t stare for too long. Life happens now.
list of what I think are effective thoughts: Making your life better Growing your career and business Visualizing your future Thinking of new ideas Solving problems Coming up with fun things to do with your partner, family, or friends
We all know that the beauty of life lies in the small things. Did you notice the sunshine this morning when you woke up? Or the raindrops? Did you notice the smell of your coffee? Did you feel the texture of your cereals?
Stop thinking and start feeling.
Just sit down, be one with your thoughts, observe them, and then, ignore them. That’s all there is to meditation.
Find the calm within yourself.
Pragmatism means that one must look at the practical value of ideas.
Would you change the way you lived if a scientist proved how the earth was created?
William James himself once said: “The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.”
If we live our lives every day with that idea in mind—that we should strive for doing/creating useful things that matter to others—we end up spending our time on things that actually make a difference. When you do that, life automatically has meaning—to everyone.
