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August 17 - September 1, 2023
We crave experiences that will make us be present, but the cravings themselves take us from the present moment.
A lot of our unhappiness comes from comparing things from the past to the present. [4]
It’s always the next thing, then the next thing, the next thing after that, then the next thing after that creating this pervasive anxiety.
try to figure out, “Would I rather be having this thought right now, or would I rather have my peace?” Because as long as I have my thoughts, I can’t have my peace.
You’re meant to do something. You’re not just meant to lie there in the sand and meditate all day long. You should self-actualize. You should do what you are meant to do. The idea you’re going to change something in the outside world, and that is going to bring you the peace, everlasting joy, and happiness you deserve, is a fundamental delusion we all suffer from,
Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.
it’s way more important to perfect your desires than to try to do something you don’t 100 percent desire. [1]
When you’re young, you have time. You have health, but you have no money. When you’re middle-aged, you have money and you have health, but you have no time. When you’re old, you have money and you have time, but you have no health. So the trifecta is trying to get all three at once.
SUCCESS DOES NOT EARN HAPPINESS Happiness is being satisfied with what you have. Success comes from dissatisfaction. Choose.
The problem with getting good at a game, especially one with big rewards, is you continue playing it long after you should have outgrown it.
Most people think of someone as successful when they win a game, whatever game they play themselves. If you’re an athlete, you’re going to think of a top athlete.
the real winners are the ones who step out of the game entirely, who don’t even play the game, who rise above it. Those are the people who have such internal mental and self-control and self-awareness, they need nothing from anybody else.
“All of man’s troubles arise because he cannot sit in a room quietly by himself.”
You can get almost anything you want out of life, as long as it’s one thing and you want it far more than anything else.
Peace is happiness at rest, and happiness is peace in motion.
The only way to actually get peace on the inside is by giving up this idea of problems. [77]
Whenever the word “should” creeps up in your mind, it’s guilt or social programming. Doing something because you “should” basically means you don’t actually want to do it.
The reality is life is a single-player game. You’re born alone. You’re going to die alone. All of your interpretations are alone. All your memories are alone. You’re gone in three generations, and nobody cares. Before you showed up, nobody cared. It’s all single player.
You can increase your happiness over time, and it starts with believing you can do it.
When working, surround yourself with people more successful than you. When playing, surround yourself with people happier than you.
The first rule of handling conflict is: Don’t hang around people who constantly engage in conflict.
“Stop asking why and start saying wow.”
When we get something, we assume the world owes it to us. If you’re present, you’ll realize how many gifts and how much abundance there is around us at all times.
The more you judge, the more you separate yourself. You’ll feel good for an instant, because you feel good about yourself, thinking you’re better than someone. Later, you’re going to feel lonely. Then, you see negativity everywhere. The world just reflects your own feelings back at you. [77]
No exceptions—all screen activities linked to less happiness, all non-screen activities linked to more happiness. [11]
Increase serotonin in the brain without drugs: Sunlight, exercise, positive thinking, and tryptophan. [11]
CHANGING HABITS: Pick one thing. Cultivate a desire. Visualize it. Plan a sustainable path. Identify needs, triggers, and substitutes. Tell your friends. Track meticulously. Self-discipline is a bridge to a new self-image. Bake in the new self-image. It’s who you are—now. [11]
First, you know it. Then, you understand it. Then, you can explain it. Then, you can fee...
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In any situation in life, you always have three choices: you can change it, you can accept it, or you can leave it. If you want to change it, then it is a desire. It will cause you suffering until you successfully change it.
You always have three options: you can change it, you can accept it, or you can leave it. What is not a good option is to sit around wishing you would change it but not changing it, wishing you could leave it but not leaving it and not accepting it. That struggle or aversion is responsible for most of our misery.
realize this is a game. But it’s a fun game. All that matters is you experience your reality as you go through life.
All you should do is what you want to do. If you stop trying to figure out how to do things the way other people want you to do them, you get to listen to the little voice inside your head that wants to do things a certain way. Then, you get to be you.
When it comes to medicine and nutrition, subtract before you add. [11]
If something is your number one priority, then you will do it. That’s just the way life works. If you’ve got a fuzzy basket of ten or fifteen different priorities, you’re going to end up getting none of them.
The best workout for you is one you’re excited enough to do every day. [4]
Relaxed breathing tells your body you’re safe. Then, your forebrain doesn’t need as many resources as it normally does. Now, the extra energy can be sent to your hindbrain, and it can reroute those resources to the rest of your body.
most of our suffering comes from avoidance. Most of the suffering from a cold shower is the tip-toeing your way in. Once you’re in, you’re in. It’s not suffering. It’s just cold. Your body saying it’s cold is different than your mind saying it’s cold. Acknowledge your body saying it’s cold. Look at it. Deal with it. Accept it, but don’t mentally suffer over it.
Meditation doesn’t mean you’re suddenly going to gain the superpower to control your internal state. The advantage of meditation is recognizing just how out of control your mind is. It is like a monkey flinging feces, running around the room, making trouble, shouting, and breaking things. It’s completely uncontrollable. It’s an out-of-control madperson. You have to see this mad creature in operation before you feel a certain distaste toward it and start separating yourself from it. In that separation is liberation. You realize, “Oh, I don’t want to be that person. Why am I so out of control?”
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The ability to singularly focus is related to the ability to lose yourself and be present, happy, and (ironically) more effective. [4]
you are more than just your mind. You are more than just your habits. You are more than just your preferences. You’re a level of awareness. You’re a body. Modern humans, we don’t live enough in our bodies. We don’t live enough in our awareness. We live too much in this internal monologue in our heads. All of which is just programmed into you by society and by the environment when you were younger.
The mind itself is a muscle—it can be trained and conditioned. It has been haphazardly conditioned by society to be out of our control.
Life is going to play out the way it’s going to play out. There will be some good and some bad. Most of it is actually just up to your interpretation.
being in an internal state of revolution. You should always be internally ready for a complete change.
if you’re self-aware, you can think, “‘I say I want to do this, but I don’t really because if I really wanted to do it, I would just do it.”
When you really want to change, you just change. But most of us don’t really want to change—we don’t want to go through the pain just yet. At least recognize it, be aware of it, and give yourself a smaller change you can actually carry out. [6]
Impatience with actions, patience with results.
It takes time for great products to emerge as you polish away, polish away, polish away. Impatience with actions, patience with results.
“Set up systems, not goals.” Use your judgment to figure out what kinds of environments you can thrive in, and then create an environment around you so you’re statistically likely to succeed. The current environment programs the brain, but the clever brain can choose its upcoming environment.
At some level, you’re doing it for social approval. You’re doing it to fit in with the other monkeys. You’re fitting in to get along with the herd. That’s not where the returns are in life. The returns in life are being out of the herd.
For self-improvement without self-discipline, update your self-image.
