Clear Thinking Quotes

“What happens in ordinary moments determines your future.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Results are a function of position. You don’t need to be smarter than others to outperform them if you can out-position them. Anyone looks like a genius when they’re in a good position, and even the smartest person looks like an idiot when they’re in a bad one.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Seneca said, “Happy is he who can improve others not just when he is in their presence, but even when he is in their thoughts!”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“One reason the best in the world make consistently good decisions is they rarely find themselves forced into a decision by circumstances”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“it’s only after we accept reality that we can attempt to change it.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Self-accountability means taking responsibility for your abilities, your inabilities, and your actions.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“There is always something you can do in the moment today to better your position tomorrow. You might not be able to solve the problem, but your next action will make the situation better or worse. There is always an action you can control, however tiny, that helps you achieve progress.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Working with a master firsthand is the best education; it’s the surest way of raising the bar. Their excellence demands your excellence. But most of us aren’t lucky enough to have that opportunity. Still, not all is lost. If you don’t have the chance to work with a master directly, you can still surround yourself with people who have higher standards by reading about them and their work.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Most people go through life assuming that we’re right about everything all the time and that people who don’t see things our way are wrong. We mistake how we want the world to be with how it actually is. The subject doesn’t matter: we’re right about politics, other people, our memories; you name it. We mistake what we believe for the true facts.
Of course, we can’t be right about everything all the time. Everyone makes mistakes or misremembers some things. But we still want to feel right all the time, and ideally get other people to reinforce that feeling. Hence, we channel inordinate amounts of energy to proving to others—or ourselves—that we’re right. When this happens, we’re less concerned with outcomes and more concerned with protecting our egos.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“In order to get the results we desire, we must do two things. We must first create the space to reason in our thoughts, feelings, and actions; and second, we must deliberately use that space to think clearly. Once you have mastered this skill, you will find you have an unstoppable advantage.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“While the rest of us are chasing victory, the best in the world know they must avoid losing before they can win. It turns out this is a surprisingly effective strategy.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Our desire to feel right overpowers our desire to be right.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Reacting without reasoning makes every situation worse. Whether big or small, these unforced errors consume significant time and energy just to get you back to where you were before.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“we make repeated choices in life that become habits, those habits determine our paths, and those paths determine our outcomes.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“if you find yourself exerting energy to fit in with a crowd, if you’re frequently fearful of disappointing other people, if you’re afraid of being an outsider, or if the threat of scorn fills you with dread, then beware! The social default is in charge.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“If you find yourself expending tremendous energy on how you are seen, if you often feel your pride being wounded, if you find yourself reading an article or two on a subject and thinking you’re an expert, if you always try to prove you’re right and have difficulty admitting mistakes, if you have a hard time saying “I don’t know,” or if you’re frequently envious of others or feel as though you’re never given the recognition you deserve—be on guard! Your ego is in charge.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“The ego default urges us to feel right at the expense of being right.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“The ego default: we tend to react to anything that threatens our sense of self-worth or our position in a group hierarchy.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“The emotion default: we tend to respond to feelings rather than reasons and facts.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“If all you see are average people, you will end up with average standards. But average standards aren’t going to get you where you want to go. Standards become habits, and habits become outcomes. Few people realize that exceptional outcomes are almost always achieved by people with higher-than-average standards.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“confidence empowers resilience in the aftermath of negative feedback, and adaptability in the face of changing circumstances. You know what your abilities are and how they add value, whether other people appreciate them or not. If you’ve forged a healthy sense of self-confidence, it will see you through whatever emerging challenges and difficulties come your way.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Choosing the right exemplars helps create a repository of “good behavior.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Facing reality demands acknowledging our mistakes and failures, learning from them, and moving forward.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Marshall recognized that the only way to understand a problem and solve it was by going to the source. He constantly either went to the front lines himself or sent people he trusted to find out what was really going on.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Doing something different means you might underperform, but it also means you might change the game entirely.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Life gets easier when you don’t blame other people and focus on what you can control. —JAMES CLEAR”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Complaining is not a strategy. You have to work with the world as you find it, not as you would have it be. —JEFF BEZOS[1]”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Time is the friend of someone who is properly positioned and the enemy of someone poorly positioned. When you are well positioned, there are many paths to victory. If you are poorly positioned, there may be only one. You can think of this a bit like playing Tetris. When you play well, you have many options for where to put the next piece. When you play poorly, you need just the right piece.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Never forget that your unconscious is smarter than you, faster than you, and more powerful than you. It may even control you. You will never know all of its secrets. —CORDELIA FINE, A Mind of Its Own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results

“Not all confidence is created equally. Sometimes, it comes from a track record of applying deep knowledge successfully and other times it comes from the shallowness of reading an article. It’s amazing how often the ego turns unearned knowledge into reckless confidence.”
― Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results