Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong

by Eric Barker

when you’re pessimistic and miserable it’s very hard to achieve success.

success does not lead to happiness as often as happiness leads to success.

We can’t rely on the world to tell us when to power down or shift gears. It’s on you now. That means you need a plan, or you’re always going to feel like you’re not doing enough.

Being reactive doesn’t just hurt your chances of getting what you want; it also reduces your chances of real happiness.

Without a plan, we do what’s passive and easy—not what is really fulfilling.

As fMRI studies show, a feeling of control motivates us to act. When we think we can make a difference, we’re more likely to engage.

The importance of control goes all the way down to the neuroscience level. Quick summary: when you’re stressed out, you literally can’t think straight.

Also, at least an hour a day, preferably in the morning, needs to be “protected time.” This is an hour every day when you get real work done without interruption. Approach this concept as if it were a religious ritual. This hour is inviolate. Emails, meetings, and phone calls are often just “shallow work.” You want to use this hour for what Cal calls “deep work.”

Research shows that two and a half to four hours after waking is when your brain is sharpest.

“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything.”

One of the big lessons from social science in the last forty years is that environment matters.

things. We think that we make decisions on our own, but the environment influences us to a great degree.

We can’t control our environment everywhere we go, of course, but we have more control than we usually choose to exercise. Distractions literally make you stupid.

There are three categories of people—the person who goes into the office, puts his feet up on his desk, and dreams for twelve hours; the person who arrives at five A.M. and works sixteen hours, never once stopping to dream; and the person who puts his feet up, dreams for one hour, then does something about those dreams.