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June 15 - September 23, 2021
Setting the bar too high is just punishing; it’s unrealistic that you’ll make all of that progress in one giant leap.
When you’re happy in the present moment and pulled forward by a vision for the future, your inner and outer worlds mesh seamlessly.
Sometimes from the crappiest situations, opportunity arises.
I worked on it a few hours every evening after I got home from the office.
In my first month, I lost $800. In my second month, I lost $300. In my third month, I made a profit—a
That was basically how Mindvalley started. It wasn’t about building a business. No big goals. No deadlines. Just this little game to see how much food I could get with my profits.
our beliefs shape our world.
Stop postponing your happiness. Be happy now. Your thoughts and beliefs do create your reality, but only when your present state is joyful.
the fuel I desperately needed was happiness.
Keep the big goals—just don’t tie your happiness to your goals. Be happy now.
make fun and happiness a key part of my day.
not going to postpone my happiness until I attained some future goal.
We pushed hard—but we did it while having a blast.
Have big goals—but don’t tie your happiness to your goals. You must be happy before you attain them.
1. You have a bold vision for the future pulling you forward. 2. Yet…you’re happy in the NOW.
Because I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man.
There’s no point dwelling in the past and letting it define you, nor in getting lost in anxiety about the future. In the present moment, you’re in the field of possibility. How you engage with the present moment will direct your life.
Think of happiness in the now and vision for the future as two ingredients that can be combined, but here’s the trick. They have to be in balance.
happiness alone can be fleeting.
long-term happiness and fulfillment come from something more—the need to contribute, grow, and do meaningful things.
It’s great to think big and to want to accomplish amazing things, but it’s not an optimal state if you’re postponing your happiness along the way.
you’re happy in the now, and you have a vision for the future that drives you.
It’s about the journey as well as the destination.
your happiness is not tied to attaining your vision. It comes from the pursuit of your vision, combined with a sense of gratitude for what you already have.
you don’t have to wait for happiness. It’s just the natural by-product of pursuing your vision. You feel a deep sense of fulfillment. And you feel insanely motivated to keep moving forward.
He’s always about having fun. He has huge goals. He’s one of the biggest thinkers I’ve ever met, yet he’s perpetually in play.
I was early taught to work as well as play, My life has been one long, happy holiday; Full of work and full of play— I dropped the worry on the way— And God was good to me every day.
Your happiness cannot be tied to your goals. You must be happy even before you attain them. Doing so will make life joyous and full of play and bring your goals to you faster than ever.
We shouldn’t do things so we can be happy. We should be happy so we can do things.
almost all of the extraordinary people I’ve met or read about have one thing in common: They have a vision for their future.
I believe that being present is only part of the story. Happiness in the now grounds you in the present. But you need bold dreams pulling you forward, too.
You need to make sure that your goals aren’t Brule-based, or you might end up chasing something that feels meaningless once you acquire it—as
you want a vision for the future that speaks to your soul.
Extraordinary minds pay little attention to the infectious “wants” of the culturescape. Instead, they create their own goals.
We tend to overestimate what we can do in one year and underestimate what we can do in three years.
Blissipline: the discipline of daily bliss.
learning to control and maintain our happiness is an important part of extraordinary living.
Happiness from unique experiences is a kind of short-term happiness—but
humans find meaning so important that we’ll sacrifice a certain amount of happiness for it.
Meaning is what we get from having a healthy vision for the future,
Studies show that each of us has a particular level of happiness that we tend to return to after things happen, good or bad. Researchers call this phenomenon hedonic adaptation.
our happiness is hackable.
Perhaps no single exercise leads to as big a happiness boost as the practice of gratitude—so
A study by Robert A. Emmons, PhD, and Michael McCullough, PhD, showed that people who simply wrote down five things they were thankful for from the previous week showed a 25 percent difference in happiness levels compared to people who wrote down five negative things from the week. They also exercised more and said they felt healthier.
Apparently gratitude leads to giving, which in turn boosts the happiness and gratitude of others. That’s the kind of social contagion I can get behind.
If you’re chasing the forward gap, the chase will never end. No matter how good life gets, you’ll always be chasing the next idea on the horizon. And just like the actual horizon, you can’t catch it. It will always remain ahead of you. Tying happiness to the attainment of some future goal is like trying to catch up to the horizon. It’s always going to be one step beyond your reach.
look backward—to the past—and appreciate how far we’ve come.
Paying attention to the “reverse gap” is a perfect exercise in gratitude and is far more likely to give you a boost of happiness than striving for happiness in the future.
I believe every day should begin and end with gratitude.
For each item, spend five to ten seconds letting the feelings well up.
