Siva’s Kindle Notes & Highlights for How to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters

Tell me, what is it you plan to do With your one wild and precious life?

Ambitious for your life means unlocking your greatness and becoming the best version of yourself. Science repeatedly tells us that happiness rarely comes from money or fame or status, even if you’re lucky enough to have any of those; it comes from a life well lived. A life where you don’t let fear or past scars or made-up BS get in the way of growing, refining and using your talents, exploring your edges, and having adventures.

4%

Ambition for the world means looking past your own happiness, and the test is “Will you give more to the world than you take?” No matter who you are, no matter how much privilege you do or do not have, you can find a way to give more to the world than you take.

4%

As you unlock your greatness by working on the hard things, you’ll make a difference and you’ll make the world a little better.

5%

You sense the stirrings of your own ambition. You know that you have more to contribute. You want to shake things up and make a difference. You want to learn and grow. You want to use your power for good. And you’re ready to begin.

5%

First, Set a Worthy Goal. I’ll help you find and refine a goal that is Thrilling, Important, and Daunting. A Worthy Goal entwines ambition for yourself and for the world.

.c1

6%

Second, Commit. You want to be clear and confident that this is a journey worth taking. Naming what’s to be won and what’s to be left behind will help steel your resolve. Third, Cross the Threshold towards that Worthy Goal. Taking the first step leads to the next, then the next, and you make progress. You do need to get going. Being too scared to act on a Worthy Goal isn’t just a loss to you, it’s a loss to us all.

.c2

6%

But a good process is a thing of beauty: it’s loose enough that you can make it feel your own, and tight enough to save you from distractions; it gives you some of what you want, and reveals what you didn’t know you needed; and it has an elegance and simplicity that makes it approachable, and engages enough with both theory and practical reality so it’s not simplistic or fragile. A good process is scalable. That means it’s understandable, can be taught and learned, and can spread. You can take it, adapt it, and make it your own. You can use it by itself or work it through with others.

9%

You need to hold on to what you’d like to achieve, who you’d like to be, and how you might be a force for change.

10%

To find your Worthy Goal, you need to interrogate the possibilities. It must be worthy of you: your time, your focus, your resources and resourcefulness. Your Worthy Goal must be worth your life. Your life!

10%

Worthy becomes more accessible as a standard when you understand its three different elements: Thrilling, Important, and Daunting. They’re the primary colours that allow you to paint the picture of your ambition. If you have all three of these in a goal or a project, you’ve got something intriguing on your hands.

10%

The idea of taking this on gets you going. You’re excited about this, not just in theory but in real life. Thrilling means something to you. It speaks to your values and lights up your receptors. It makes you rub your hands together and think: “YES! This!” You’d be proud to do this. It’s cool, fun, bold. It’s an adventure you want to have. Thrilling is a countermeasure against a sense of obligation. The tendrils of expectations—others’ and our own—can keep us rooted to the spot. “I should be doing/wanting/achieving/claiming this...” is a heavy stone that many of us carry.

11%

In Jacqueline Novogratz’s wonderful book Manifesto for a Moral Revolution, she lays down the challenge to “give more to the world than you take.” Important connects to that. It’s a project or a goal that’s for a bigger win than just self-satisfaction or self-gratification. The stakes are higher than your life.

11%

Important is a countermeasure against selfishness. I’m all for investing in yourself, personal exploration, and growth, but for the most part, “self-help” is not sufficient to create a better world.

11%

Daunting is a countermeasure against the comfort zone. Endless influences encourage you to grind it out, play it safe, and keep it small. Daunting helps banish those by inviting you back to the learning edge.

13%

A simple way to begin is to split the world into two spheres of possibility: Work and Not Work.

14%

Project-class Worthy Goals have a primary focus on Doing.

14%

People-class Worthy Goals have a primary focus on Interacting.

14%

Are your current patterns of behaviour still serving you well? Do you need to leave behind an old way of being and doing that doesn’t fit your ambition?

15%

Pattern-class Worthy Goals have a primary focus on Being.

17%

Feedback is not the truth. It’s potentially helpful, but not necessarily so.

18%

Bear in mind, your Spouse-ish person isn’t speaking the truth or issuing a command. You don’t need to agree with what they’re saying or follow their direction. They’re sharing an alternative, insider point of view, a mirror that helps you understand your own level of excitement and commitment.

19%

Goldilocks Zone, that part of space near a star where water on a planet remains liquid. Too close to the star and the liquid’s been boiled off; too far away from the star and it’s frozen. But liquid water... that’s one of the precursors of life.

22%

By beginning your Worthy Goal with a verb, you’re committing to action. Defining the outcome is deeply helpful: it points you in the right direction and it fires you up. That’s why we’re spending so much time on it now. But it’s by working the process that you make progress. It’s by doing the hard things that we unlock our greatness.

22%

Verbs for your active draft Begin. Set up. Initiate. Dismantle. Launch. Dare. Hire. Start. Finish. Create. Break. Fire. Produce. Change. Reinvent. Summon. Ask for. Reach out. Challenge. Marry. Abdicate. Protest. Improve. Record. Work out. Collaborate with. Build. Defenestrate. Reframe. Plant. Transform. Pursue. Disrupt. Connect with. Engage. Bring together. Harvest. Seize. Study. Follow. Teach. Re-engage. Instigate. Venture. Unleash. Provide. Rearrange. Post. Sort out. Kickstart. Write. Confront. Commit to. Toss out. Invite. Defy. Lead. Join. Free. Organize. Return to. Reinitiate. Generate. ...more

27%

Add one word/phrase to intensify your Worthy Goal Commitment: Full-time. Four hours a week. Dedicated. Every waking moment. With a team. Willingly. Joyfully. All in. Reach: Local. Globally. Worldwide. 1,000 true fans. 10 million fans. Time: By tomorrow. By March. Within six weeks. By the end of the year. By 2050. Before I die. Scope: One-off. Annually. A series. A franchise. Regularly. Every full moon and new moon.

.c1

27%

Standard: Professional. Elite. Completed. Extraordinary. Good enough. Competent. Graciously. Handmade. Evolving. Generously. Lovingly. Committed. Outcome: Profitable. Lucrative. Sustainable. Launched. Approved. Recognized. Helpful. Freeing. Top 3 percent. Bestseller. Classic. Transformative. Evergreen.

.c2

31%

If you want to make any real difference then stop making lists of idealised qualities of how things should be—they will always end up as anodyne platitudes—focus on understanding and critically ACTING in the present to start shifting things in a better direction.

- Dave Snowden

32%

“Understanding the present.” It’s difficult, perhaps impossible, to achieve your Worthy Goal if you don’t know where you’re starting from. There’s enormous benefit in taking the time to close-read who you are now and what your patterns and commitments are before you set out.

32%

Dream big. Dare bravely. Pursue boldly. Commit.

33%

Acknowledge those times when you were disheartened, discouraged, discombobulated, distracted, and stuck.

35%

Your Worthy Goal comes with a cloud of its own Mosquitoes. These Mosquitoes are all the things you’re currently doing and not doing—secular sins of commission and of omission—that are contrary to this Worthy Goal you’ve set for yourself. You’ll find they’re numerous. Some are tiny, others more significant. No single Mosquito is fatal in and of itself, but together they irritate you, weaken you, slow you down, and distract you from your Worthy Goal.

35%

Notice Your Mosquitoes Write down the things you’re currently doing and not doing that are not leading towards your Worthy Goal. Actions and non-actions, big and small. Make them tangible and real.

37%

Spending time beating yourself up only makes your pursuit of a Worthy Goal harder.

37%

Hero’s Journey. It’s one model for the narrative of “we unlock our greatness by doing the hard things.” The path, broadly speaking, takes you across the threshold and into the unknown to defeat the monster, claim the prize, and journey back to the light, changed and bringing change.

38%

When you define your Worthy Goal with its entwined ambitions—for you and for the world—one part of you is thrilled by the idea. Changing things up, leaving some things behind, making a difference, becoming different. Bring it on! But there’s another part, a bigger part than you might realize, that hates the idea. It’s there in your body. Maybe your shoulders are drifting upwards. Maybe you’re breathing a little shallowly. Maybe, like me, you’re jiggling your leg.

39%

Prizes for not taking on your Worthy Goal might include not disrupting the way others see you or disappointing the expectations they have of you; not having to challenge your own limiting stories about yourself; not stepping out to the edges of your experience, competence, and confidence; and finding ways to let yourself off the hook, or play small, or keep being a victim, or stay disengaged, or be cynical.

42%

Your Worthy Goal is Thrilling, Important, and Daunting. “Important” means that whether you take this on or not affects others. You need to account for the way we all lose should you not take on your Worthy Goal.

45%

Water’s liquid at 99 degrees Celsius, and it’s steam at 101 degrees. What’s released in that moment of change is fascinating: enough energy to break the molecular bonds and in some ways change utterly, and in other ways change not at all (ice, water, steam... they’re all still H2O). We face a similar moment as we examine our Worthy Goal and weigh up the Prizes & Punishments. We need the energy to break the bonds of the status quo.

50%

“wisdom enters through the wound,”

50%

Japanese ceramic art of kintsugi, which translates as “golden joinery.” When a dish breaks, rather than discarding it, a craftsperson beautifully repairs it with urushi lacquer infused or dusted with gold. It is a deliberate act to show rather than hide the repair.

51%

“you unlock your greatness by working on the hard things.” To strive to become your Best Self is a lifetime’s work.

52%

I am: Generous. Brave. Provocative. An Innovator. Dedicated. Daring. Creative. Smart. Loving. Consistent. Driven. Heart-Led. Ambitious. A Thought Leader. A Host. Loyal. An Expert. Joyful. Calm. Fearless. Kind. Restless. Consistent. Open. Insightful. A Maverick. Generative. Decisive. A Follower. Welcoming. A Connoisseur. A Starter. Forgiving. Compassionate. A Champion For. Engaged. Relentless. A Learner. Playful. Trustworthy. Influential. Catalyzing. An Explorer. A Teacher. Dependable. Funny. A Mentor. Vulnerable. Confident. A Leader. With Boundaries. Resilient. Adventurous. A Bridge. ...more

58%

your Worthy Goal isn’t a stroll through the Shire. It’s not even a walk in the park. You’re about to journey into the unknown, and you’ll need to navigate the ups and downs that lie ahead. Three principles will see you through.

.c1