Weekly book summaries review
Taking my own advice here and re-reading my book summaries. Every week I aim for 5 summaries. I'll keep them short & spicey.
Dan Pena e-book: few notes ->
Man’s greatest burden is unfulfilled potential. I’ll be 70 years old my next birthday and I’ve seen a lot more people than I can count, men and women, boys and girls, that haven’t fulfilled their potential ’cause they give up.”
… You can accomplish almost anything through clear, absolute and laser beam focus. I’m often asked, ‘If you were 20 years old, what would you tell the 20-year-old Dan Peña today approaching 70?’ I’ll only them just one thing — ‘Just f*cking do it.’ Don’t think about it. Don’t ask so many questions. Don’t Google it, don’t spreadsheet it, don’t Wikipedia it. Just f*cking do it! Know that part of the process is that you’re gonna make mistakes, part of the process is that you’re gonna stumble. Part of the process is like a high-tech startup: You’re gonna pivot, you’re gonna morph, you’re gonna change. Know that and don’t be worried about it. Fail but fail fast! But most people are afraid because we’re taught to want to fit in, be like other people and not stand out. You show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.”
People ask if I have my life to live over again what I’d change. Number one, I would have set higher goals. Higher goals because I’ve fulfilled 90 percent of what I’ve said I’d fulfill, but I would have set higher goals.
And part of any success of any of the mentees is the size and strength of theirEmotional Bank Accounts! Because when failure stairs you in the eye, it is not your Financial Bank Account you will lean on – it will be your Emotional Bank Account!
AS AGRESSIVE AS DAN PENA IS I WILL WRITE THOSE TWO IN CAPITAL FUCKING LETTERS!!!!!
MASSIVE DIFFERENCE IN PLAYING TO WIN AND PLAYING NOT TO LOSE!
WE ARE THE AVERAGE OF THE 5 PEOPLE WE ARE EXPOSED TO MOST IN OUR LIVES!
Benjamind Hardy — Willpower does not work.
You are responsible for shaping and choosing the environments that will ultimately shape the person you become and the destiny you have. Environmental design is your greatest responsibility. Choosing and shaping your environment is at the center of what “free will” really means, because your choice of environment and external influences will directly reflect in the person you become.
It’s easy to predict where people are going in their lives. Your environment reveals you, both to yourself and to other people. Perhaps the clearest indicator of your internal identity is your external environment. If you are comfortable in certain environments, what does that say about you?
Write your goals down daily. Then, in your morning mental state, you should write down everything you need to do to achieve your goal. This includes people you’ll reach out to. It includes things you’ll do this week, and even this day related to that thing.
Writing in your journal first thing in the morning is essential for training your subconscious mind to achieve your goals. As Napoleon Hill wrote in Think and Grow Rich, “The subconscious mind will translate into its physical equivalent, by the most direct and practical method available.” This morning journaling session only needs to be five to fifteen minutes. When you write your goals and dreams down first thing every morning, you deepen your own sense of belief and desire in your goals.
Meditation, visualization, prayer, and journaling are all powerful activities that go very well together. But the journaling portion is where you solidify, clarify, affirm, and strategize your insights, goals, and plans. Journaling makes the other keystone activities ten times or a hundred times more powerful. If you’re not using your journal daily, then your meditation, visualization, and prayer will be far, far less effective.
Committing 100 percent is required because the process of deep learning is emotionally and intellectually difficult. Only those who are fully committed will endure the purging process of learning.
When you’re fully committed to something, you have a different posture than if you’re only partially committed. When partially committed, you’re hesitant. You’re not confident. You’re unsure and undetermined. However, once you become dead set on something, all of the mental fog goes away. You become clear on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. You stop thinking about the other options available to you.
“Knowing that you’ve made a choice that you will not reverse allows you to pour your energy into improving the relationship that you have rather than constantly second-guessing it.”
Once you’ve passed your point of no return, you’ve fully bought into your own vision. You’re committed. Your role, and thus identity, changes. You’ve removed alternatives that were nothing more than distractions anyway. You’ve forced your own hand and now must move in the direction you want to go. You’re all in. The act of investment changes you
Competing with those at your same level yields slow and minimal progress. You’re better off “competing” with people far advanced to your current level. By so doing, you can quickly learn to live according to more advanced rules.
Rather than “competing,” with people at your perceived skill level, compete with those who are where you want to be. In other words, always punch above your weight.
“Unsuccessful people make decisions based on current circumstances while successful people make decisions based on where they desire to be.”
Who you decide to compete with is incredibly important. While most people are content competing with amateurs, you want to compete with only the best in the world.
“Self-made is an illusion. There are many people who played divine roles in you having the life that you have today. Be sure to let them know how grateful you are. Example: the person who introduced you to the person who introduced you to your spouse or business partner or client. Go back that far.”
Story-Driven:
Whether as an individual or as a brand, you can’t thrive if you spend the majority of your time competing with and comparing yourself to others. Differentiation happens when you authentically amplify the best of you — discovering how to be more of who you are, rather than finding ways to be a version of the competition.
We make sense of who we are by piecing together stories from our reconstructed past, perceived present and imagined future. As Professor McAdams explains, ‘In personality psychology, what mainly counts when it comes to the idea of a life story is the narrator’s subjective understanding of how he or she came to be the person he or she is becoming — that is, the person’s narrative identity.’
By setting out to find and tell the right story, we lose sight of the real story — the truth about who we are. We mistakenly assume that marketing is about adapting our story according to what most people want to hear. We go off in search of an angle that will attract the most attention today. As a result, we don’t devote enough time and resources to reflecting on how we can resonate with the right people — just as we are. We fail to harness the true potential of our narrative. Pretending is exhausting. When we pretend, we not only miss the opportunity to deeply connect with the right audience in a way that gives us a sustainable advantage; more important, we’re left feeling as unfulfilled as they are disappointed.
Today we differentiate by doing. The more deliberate we can be about acting in alignment with our intentions, the more we stand out.
‘The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision.’ — Neil Gaiman
We spend a lot of time looking at our reflection — not so much to see or acknowledge ourselves, but to wonder how our appearance will be perceived and what we need to do to alter or perfect it. Our days are consumed with measuring up in all kinds of arbitrary, superficial, ungrounded ways. What would happen if we spent as much time reflecting — wondering about and working on the inside, nurturing the things that make us who we are? Understanding what matters most to us and discovering who we might become.
Unshakable
80% of success is psychology and 20% is mechanics.
Either you master your mind or it masters you. The secret of living an extraordinary life is to take control of the mind since this alone will determine whether you live in a suffering state or a beautiful state.
There are no failures; there are results: failure does not exist for successful people. If something goes wrong, it will generate feedback for future experiences.
Everything happens with a purpose or reason, which works in my favor: successful people usually think of possibilities. They believe that even their failures or adversities will serve as a future benefit.
Focus on asking ‘how‘ instead of ‘why’. Focus on how to solve the problem instead of just understanding why the problem exists.
The Strangest Secret
We must control our thinking. The same rule that can lead a man to a life of success, wealth, happiness and all the things that he has ever dreamed of for himself and for his family, that very same law can lead him into the gutter. It’s all in how he uses it, for good or for bad. This is the strangest secret in the world.
Every one of us is the sum total of his own thoughts. He is where he is because that is exactly where he really wants to be, whether he’ll admit that or not. Each of us must live off the fruits of his thoughts in the future because what you think today and tomorrow, next month or next year, will mold your life and determine your future.
You’re guided by your mind
Success is not the result of making money. Making money is the result of success and success is in direct proposition to our service. Most people have this law backwards. They believe that you’re successful if you earn a lot of money. The truth is, that you can only earn money after you’re successful.
In our similarly complicated world, it’s difficult for an adult to understand that all he needs is a purpose and faith.
