Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Posted on December 9, 2018December 11, 2018

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

The Essence

Practical philosophy as written from the private writings of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. As prescribed by the timeless lessons of Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations are applied writings in his day to day life as literal king of the world. They are reminders of living in accordance to nature; to accept what you cannot control. We all have the tools reappraise what is out of control and the powers we have over our minds to shape every obstacle that may arise in our lives into something that assists us. It is though this, that one may become a person of virtue.

Meditations Journal Entry Notes:

This is my book summary of Meditations My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh and mix of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. Sometimes, to my own fault, quotes are interlaced with my own words. Though rest assured, I am not attempting to take any credit for the main ideas below. The Journal write up includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

• Live according to nature. Accept without resentment whatever may befall.
• Kindness to his fellow creates is therefore incumbent upon him.
• The man of understanding finds good in his own actions.
• Never parade encyclopedic learning, put guard against unnecessary fault-finding.
• Never become unduly absorbed in things that are not of the first importance.
• The mind can circumvent all obstacles to action…barriers in its path become aids progress.

• True, others may hinder the carrying out of certain actions; but they cannot obstruct my will; nor disposition of my mind, since these will always safeguard themselves under reservations and adapt themselves to circumstances.
• Teach them better; if you can; if not, remember that Kindliness has been given you for moments like these.
• Be sparing in my wants, attend to my own needs, mind my own business, and NEVER listen to gossip.
• Treat with respect the power you have to form an opinion.
• What is the good of praise-unless maybe to sub serve some lesser design? Surely, then, you are making an inopportune rejection of what Nature has given you today, if all your mind is set on what men will say of you tomorrow.
• Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be One.
• Approach each action as though it were your last. Time has a limit set to it for you. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and NEVER in your power again. You can only ever lose the moment you are living now.

• Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness- all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. But for my part I have long perceived the nature of good and it nobility, the nature of evil and its meanness, and also the nature of the culprit himself, who is my brother; therefore none of those things can injure me, for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading. Neither can I be angry with my brother of fall foul of him; for he and I were born to work together, like a man’s two hands, feet, or eye lids, or like the upper and lower rows of his teeth. To obstruct each other is against Natures law and what is irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction?

• REJECT your sense of injury and injury will disappear.
• A good man does not spy around for the black sports in others, but presses unswervingly on towards his mark.
• Recollect all you have learnt and accepted regarding pain and pleasure.
• When anything tempts you to feel bitter: not, ‘This is a misfortune’. But, ‘To bear this worthily is good fortune’.
• The more a man deprives himself, or submits to be deprived, of such things and their like, the more he grows in goodness.
• In every instance learn… Nothing so enlarges the mind as the ability to examine methodically and accurately every one of life’s experience with an eye to determining its classification, the end it serves, worth to the universe, and it’s worth to men.
• Think it no shame to be helped.
• When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity, lose no time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help. Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.
• “It lies in my own hands to ensure that no viciousness, cupidity, or torture of any kind finds a home in this soul of mine; it lies with me to perceive all things in their true light, and to deal with each of the mass as it merits. This is Natures gift to you.”
• Let NO emotion of the flesh, be they pain or pleasure affect the supreme and sovereign portion of the soul.

For Humans; The Greatest Self-inflicted Wrongs:

• To quarrel with circumstance in a rebellion against Nature.
• To reject a fellow-creature of oppose him with malicious intent as men do when they are angry.
• To surrender to pleasure or pain.
• To dissemble and show insincerity or falsity in word or deed.
• To direct its acts and endeavors to no particular object and waste its energies purposelessly and without due thought.

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what was discussed in Meditations.

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52 in 52 Book Summaries

Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

Posted on December 8, 2018

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

The Essence

An expert in expertise, Anders Ericsson distills 30-years of research on how people become top performers. Peak revels that top performance is not preordained to a select few; it’s open to everyone. So long as we have a deep intrinsic interest to discipline and motivate ourselves, excellence is no question open to all. The secret sauce is all in the type of practice that one engages in to gain expertise; it’s Deliberate practice is the gold standard. By harnessing the power of Deliberate practice mastery of any field is possible. It is Deliberate practice carried out over a sufficient period of time leads to improvements—the 'talented' are simply those who after having built interest put the time.

Peak Journal Entry Notes:

This is my book summary of Peak. My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh and mix of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. Sometimes, to my own fault, quotes are interlaced with my own words. Though rest assured, I am not attempting to take any credit for the main ideas below. The Journal write up includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

• There are no shortcuts… The bottom line is that every time you look closely into cases of innate talent you find that the extraordinary abilities are the product of much practice and training.
• The brain is far more adaptable than anyone ever imagined, and this gives us a tremendous amount of control over what our brains are able to do—Neuroplasticity.
• “No one has ever managed to figure out how to identify people with ‘innate talent’. No one has ever found a gene variant that predicts superior performance in one area…We cannot just simply identify kids as ‘best’ athletes, mathematicians, or doctors etc.”
• BEWARE: Belief in innate differences yields self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Strengthen the reasons to keep going, weaken the reasons to quit.
• ANYONE can improve. We as humans have far more potential than ever realized. We ALL can take control of our lives!
• Find a good teacher: It puts you miles ahead. No teacher? No problem. Focus, Feedback, and Fix it will be your guide.
• If you wish to develop a truly effective training method of anything that method will need to take into account what works and what doesn’t in driving changes in the body and brain.
• Research has not found some immutable limit on performance. People more often just give up and stop trying to improve.
• The human body is incredibly adaptable.
• The fundamental truth about all practice: If you never push yourself beyond your comfort zone, you will never improve.
• Experts see the forest when everyone else sees only trees: superior mental representations through domain specific specialization may be the cause.
• Mental Representations: A mental structure that corresponds to an object, an idea, a collection of information, or anything else, concrete or abstract, that the brain is think about. We have them for everything! We ought to build more efficient mental representations for whatever activity we practice.
• Skills > Knowledge
• Mindset Matters
• Honing the skill improves mental representations and mental representations help hone the skills. This is improvement reinvesting its dividends.
• Once you start automating you stop improving… Automaticity does not yield progress.

Purposeful Practice:

Well-defined, specific goals
Focused
Involves feedback
Getting out of comfort zone

Deliberate Practice-The Gold Standard

Deliberate Practice…
• Develops skills that other people have already figured out how to do and for which effective training techniques have been established.
• Is deliberate, that is, it requires a person’s full attention and conscious action.
• Involves feedback and modification of efforts in response to that feedback.
• Takes place outside one’s comfort zone and requires a student to constantly try things that are just beyond his or her current abilities.
• Involves well-defined, specific goals and often involves improving some aspects of the target performance: it is not aimed at some vague overall improvement.
• Nearly always involves building on modifying previously acquired skills by focusing on particular aspects of those skills and working to improve them specifically.
• Both produces and depends on effective mental representations.

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what was discussed in Peak.

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52 in 52 Book Summaries

Letters from a Stoic by Seneca

Posted on December 7, 2018December 7, 2018

Letters from a Stoic by Seneca

The Essence

Classic text from the Hellenistic Greek philosophy known as Stoicism. It is an application of the core tenets of Stoicism from the perspective of one of the acclaimed practitioner, Seneca. These letters are a set of essays written as to a friend about how to live a more virtuous life. Humans have what they need within themselves and anything else ought to be taken in moderation. Stoicism is a practical guide to harness the power of our minds to attain a life revolved around intentional living.

Letters from a Stoic Journal Entry Notes:

This is my book summary of Letters from a Stoic. My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh and mix of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. Sometimes, to my own fault, quotes are interlaced with my own words. Though rest assured, I am not attempting to take any credit for the main ideas below. The Journal write up includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

These four qualities enable a man to be ‘Self-Sufficient’, immune to suffering, superior to the wounds and upsets of life.
- Wisdom, Courage, Self-Control, and Justice
“A wise man is content with himself”
“Appoint certain days on which to give up everything and make yourself at home with next to nothing. Start cultivating a relationship with poverty.” This has been a very useful exercise for me. I find that by fasting of sleeping on the floor occasionally I have developed a tolerance for when the occurrences arise in my daily life. Living on less makes me prepared for a life where nature strips me of everything I’ve worked for.
Refusal to be influenced by one’s body assures one’s freedom.
Now I bear it in mind not only that all things are liable to death but that that liability is governed by no set rules.
Drunkenness is nothing but a state of self-induced insanity.
Limiting one’s desires actually helps to cure one of fear. Cease to hope and you will cease to fear.
The utmost benefit comes from talk because it steals little by little into the mind.
Live in conformity with nature.
“Part of my joy in learning is that it puts me in a position to teach; nothing, however outstanding and however helpful, will ever give me any pleasure if the knowledge is to be for my benefit alone.”
Rehearse Death.
Avoid: A mass crowd.
Wisdom does not lie in books.
IT is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more.
Your merits should be outward facing.
Refrain from following the example of those whose craving is for attention, not their own improvement.
Indulge the body just so far as suffices for good health. Treat it strictly to prevent it from becoming any more disobedient to the spirit.
Not happy he who thinks himself not so.
The things of greatest merit are common property: Universal.
The outcome of violent anger is a mental raving, and therefore anger is to be avoided not for the sake of moderation but the sake of sanity.
Why does no one admit his failing? Because he’s still deep in them. WAKE UP. Let us rouse ourselves, so that we may be able to demonstrate our errors.
No one can lead a happy life if he thinks only of himself and turns everything to his own purposes. You ought to live for the other person if you wish to live for yourself.
Refuse to let the fear of death bother you; it is only a thought. Nothing is grim when we have escaped that thought.
A man is unhappy as he has convinced himself he is. And complaining away about one’s sufferings after they are over is something I think should be banned.
We must really want to learn how to lose the lost and still keep smiling.
Nature does not give a man virtue: the process of becoming a good man is an art. Character is built not born.
But let us face up to the blows of circumstances and be aware that whatever happens is never as serious as rumor makes it out to be.
What good does it do you to go overseas, to move from city to city? If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.
It’s not because they’re hard that we lose confidence; they’re hard because we lack confidence.

Reading Recommendations

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what was discussed in Letters from a Stoic.

Find the book on Amazon: Print | Audio

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52 in 52 Book Summaries

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

Posted on December 6, 2018

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

The Essence

Zen Mind Beginner’s mind is not only an essential text in the introductory work of Zen, but it’s also a modern spiritual classic. An organized series of lectures by the late Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki. In Zen an open state of mind is imperative. One that is simple, pure, what is called a Beginners mind. It is only through a beginner’s mind that we can accept the reality ‘as it is’. Many times, our states are bogged down by ‘expertise’ or ‘theory’, it is during these times that we close ourselves off from states of consciousness that inspire introspection, and compassion; beginner’s mind is Zen means for reaching such states.

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind Journal Entry Notes:

This is my book summary of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh and mix of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. Sometimes, to my own fault, quotes are interlaced with my own words. Though rest assured, I am not attempting to take any credit for the main ideas below. The Journal write up includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

The practice of Zen mind is beginner’s mind.
The mind of the beginner is empty,
Free of the habits of the expert;
ready to accept,
to doubt,
open
to all possibilities.
See things as they are.
We must maintain beginner’s mind.

• To live is to create problems…so give yourself to wisdom to cross over.
• Emotionally we have many problems, but these problems are not actual problems; they are something created; they are problems pointed out by our self-centered ideas or views.
• To do something new, of course we must know our past, and this is alright. But we should NOT keep holding onto anything we have done; we should only reflect on it.
• We emphasize straight forwardness: be true your feelings, and to your mind, expressing yourself without any reservations. This helps the listener to understand more easily.
When you listen to someone, you should give up all your preconceived ideas and your subjective opinion; Just Listen, Just Observe…see things as they are in him and accept them.
• We find truth in this world through our difficulties, through our suffering.
• To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study ourselves is to forget ourselves.
• What you do is good, but something more is added to it, Pride is extra. Right effort is to get rid of something extra.
• “Pulling out the weeds we give nourishment to the plants.” Difficulty in our practice will yield growth, enrichment.
• Cultivate your spirit. This means do not go seeking for something outside of yourself.
• The true understanding is that the mind includes EVERYTHING. Nothing outside yourself can cause you any trouble. YOU yourself make the waves in your mind.
• “If you lose the spirit of repetition, your practice will become quite difficult.”
• Wisdom is not something to learn. Wisdom is something which will come out of your mindfulness.
• Remember that when we are battling a storm of appraisals that what you create is not real. Say, “OH, this is just delusion”. Just observe and do not be bothered by it.
• Do something means complete involvement: Devote yourself.
• When you do something, just to do it should be your purpose. Form is form and you are you. The shadows of reasoning are riddled with Ego.
• “Two catch two birds with one stone”: Because they want to catch too many birds they find is difficult to be concentrated on one activity, and they may not end up catching any birds at all!
That kind of thinking always leaves its shadow on activity. The shadow is not actually the thought. Of course, it is often necessary to think or prepare before we act. But right thinking leaves no shadow. Thinking which leaves traces comes out of your relative confused mind. Relative mind is the mind which sets itself in relation to others, thus limiting it.

Reading Recommendations

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what was discussed in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.

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52 in 52 Book Summaries

To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink

Posted on December 5, 2018December 5, 2018

To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel Pink

The Essence

No matter what you do, the 21st century now calls all of us to persuade others to take action in one way or another; we’re all in sales now. The ability to sell ideas to those around you is how we maneuver in a social environment. And with an increasing amount of information available, it is no longer the seller who will manipulate the transparency of information to his benefit. With equality of information comes a restructuring of how we sell. From withholding to giving, by being clear, honest, curious, and helpful we can improve the lives of others all the while getting what we want.

To Sell Is Human Journal Entry Notes:

This is my book summary of To Sell Is Human. My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh and mix of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. Sometimes, to my own fault, quotes are interlaced with my own words. Though rest assured, I am not attempting to take any credit for the main ideas below. The Journal write up includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

• Lead with your ears instead of your mouth.
• “Non-sales selling”: We are devoting upwards of 40 percent of our time on the job to moving others. We are all in sales now.
• The ability to move others to exchange what they have for what we have is crucial to our survival and our happiness.
• The conventional view of economic behavior is that the two most important activities are producing and consuming. But today, much of what we do also seems to involve moving.
• Caveat Venditor: Sellers Beware.
• WE are all in sale now.
Entrepreneurship: the rise
Elasticity: skills are multifaceted and demanded
Ed-Med: it revolves around the ability to influence

Irritation and Agitation

Irritation is challenging people to do something that WE want them to do.
Agitation is challenging them to do something that THEY want to do.
Irritation doesn’t work. A neat example is when you ask a child to clean his room, he is hesitant if not combative. But if you ask them if they practiced playing piano today they feel urged to do so (that is if playing the piano is something they are interested in). It’s all about playing your cards towards someone’s personal identity.

How to Be (ABC)

Attunement
The ability to bring one’s actions and outlook into harmony with other people and the context you’re in.
1. Increase your power by reducing it: Assume that you’re not the one with power.
2. Use your head as much as your heart: Perspective taking > Empathy.
3. Mimic Strategically. “Chameleon effect”.
Ambiverts: the most skilled attuners.
Buoyancy
How to stay afloat amid the ocean of rejection.
1. Before: Interrogative self-talk. “Inspires thoughts about autonomous or intrinsically motivated reasons to pursue a goal”
2. During: Positivity Ratios. “More positive means broadening of peoples ideas about possible actions, opening our awareness to a wider range of thoughts…receptive and more creative”.
3. After: Explanatory Style. Our habit of explaining negative events to ourselves. This is the self-talk after the experience.
• How you see rejection often depends on how you frame it.
• Optimism is a catalyst that can stir persistence, steady us during challenges, and stroke the confidence that we can influence our surroundings.
Clarity
The capacity to help others see their situations in fresh and more revealing ways and to identify problems they didn’t realize they had.
1. Finding the Right problem to solve: Problem finder > Problem solver. “Part of being an innovative leader is being able to frame a problem in interesting ways and… to see what the problem really is before you jump into solving it.”
2. Finding your frame: A frame can come in several forms. To name a few we have: less, blemish, experience, potential, and label frames.
3. Finding an off-ramp. “Clarity on how to think without clarity on how to act can leave people unmoved.” In other words, a solid theory of understanding is of little use without a plan of action. People believe and want to help, so give them more than an explanation, give them the game plan.

• Attention spans aren’t merely shrinking. They’re nearly disappearing.
• Listening without some degree of intimacy isn’t really listening. It's passive and transactional rather than active and engaged.
• Always ask these two questions:
If the person you’re selling to agrees to buy, will his or her life be improved?
When the interaction is over, will the world be a better place than when you began?
• Make it personal and purposeful
• When giving a speech:
What do you want them to know?
What do you want them to feel?
What do you want them to do?
Listen to your own voice and practice, practice, practice.

Reading Recommendations

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what was discussed in To Sell Is Human.

Find the book on Amazon: Print | Audio

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52 in 52 Book Summaries

The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz

Posted on December 4, 2018December 4, 2018

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz

The Essence

As we bask at the amount of information now at our fingertips, we mustn’t forget that with great power comes great responsibility. One would normally think that no amount of additional information could be anything but a blessing. But as The Paradox of Choice shows, the burden of decision-making amongst a now infinite number of choices leaves us cognitively overworked and overall less happy with our choices. Research now shows that offering more choices doesn’t translate to better decisions. In fact, considering a saturated market, it is more likely that someone is choice averse from a growing number of options. So stop considering all the options available to you, and start taking an approach that looks not for the best, but good enough.

The Paradox of Choice Journal Entry Notes:

This is my book summary of The Paradox of Choice. My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh and mix of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. Sometimes, to my own fault, quotes are interlaced with my own words. Though rest assured, I am not attempting to take any credit for the main ideas below. The Journal write up includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

Most good decisions will involve these steps:

1. Figure out your goals.
2. Evaluate the importance of each goal.
3. Array the options.
4. Evaluate how likely each of the options is to meet your goals.
5. Pick a winning option.
6. Later use the consequences of your choice to modify your goals, the importance you assign them, and the way you evaluate future possibilities.

● Every choice we make has an opportunity-cost associated with it.
● People won’t ignore alternatives if they don’t realize that too many alternatives can create a problem.
● Being forced to confront trade-off in making decisions makes people unhappy and indecisive.
● The options we consider usually suffer from comparison with other options. It is the weight of multiple options that when weighted against a single choice cause regret just from the sheer amount of choice that we have. We can only live one future, but imagining all others creates a beast of regret dealing with what could have been.
● What is most easily put into words is not necessarily what is most important.
● Any particular item will always be at the mercy of the context which it is found.
● We must decide, individually, when choice really matters and focus our energies there, even if it means letting many opportunities pass us by. The choice of when to be a chooser may be the most important choice we have to make.
● Second-Order Decisions: Rules, presumptions, standards, habits. These are all ways that mitigate the number of choices we make. Second-order decisions create a set of systems for choice making so we are not unnecessarily burdened by the choice of choosing. Make a choice about when to choose, thereby making life more manageable.
● Learning how to satisfice is an important step not only in coping with a world of choice but in simply enjoying life.

● Our culture sanctifies freedom of choice.

Three things that rarely lineup:
Experienced utility
Expected utility
Remembered utility

Analysis Paralysis:

More choices result in...
Decisions requiring more effort
Mistakes more likely
Psychological consequences of mistake more severe

● New choices demand more extensive research and create more individual responsibility for failure.
● Identity is much less a thing people “inherit” than it used to be

● When people have no choice, life is almost unbearable. As the number of available choice increase, as it has in our consumer culture, the autonomy, control, and liberation this variety brings are powerful and positive. But as the number of choices keeps growing negative aspects of having a multitude of options begin to appear. As the number of choices grows further, the negatives escalate until we become overloaded. As this point, choice no longer liberates but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannize.

● A choice may not always mean more control.

A Chooser …

● Is someone who thinks actively about the possibilities before making a decision.
● Reflects on what is important to him, what is important to the particular situation, and what the short and long-range consequences may be.
● Makes decisions in a way that reflects an awareness of what a given choice means about him as a person.
● Is thoughtful enough to conclude that perhaps none of the available alternatives are satisfactory, and he may have to create the right alternative.

What to Do About Choice

We make the most of our freedoms by learning to make good choices about the things that matter, while at the same time unburdening ourselves from too much concern about the things that don’t.
1. Choose When to Choose
2. Be a Chooser, Not a Picker
3. Satisfice More and Maximize Less
4. Think About Opportunity Costs of Opportunity Costs
5. Make your Decisions Nonreversible
6. Practice an “Attitude of Gratitude”
7. Regret Less
8. Anticipate Adaptation
9. Control Expectations
10. Curtail Social Comparison
11. Learn to Love Constraints

Reading Recommendations

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what was discussed in The Paradox of Choice.

Find the book on Amazon: Print | Audio

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52 in 52 Book Summaries

Animal Spirits by George Akerlof and Robert Shiller

Posted on December 3, 2018

Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism by George Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller

The Essence

Economics has long too often been based on models that lack bases for real-world application. It is even sometimes said that its normative claims make it more of a religion than a social science. Why the disconnect? It is in part due to the rigid models used to predict human behavior. Economics has long viewed humans as absolutely rational decision-making machines. Though science now teaches us that cognition and affect (reason and emotion) always interact. So it would be foolish be make a prediction in economics without considering some of the ramifications of emotional factors on decision making; this is the goal of the book. Akerlof and Shiller revisit John Maynard Keynes idea that psychological forces can partly explain why the economy does not behave as economist predict it ought to. This concept is otherwise known as Animal Spirits. Animal Spirits takes its place in history as part of a larger movement in economics towards models that better represent human nature. As behavioral economics blossoms, we will remember Akerlof and Shiller for reminding us that our emotions matter.

Animal Spirits Journal Entry Notes:

This is my book summary of Animal Spirits. My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh and mix of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. Sometimes, to my own fault, quotes are interlaced with my own words. Though rest assured, I am not attempting to take any credit for the main ideas below. The Journal write up includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

• Animal Spirits: It refers to our peculiar relationship with ambiguity or uncertainty. Sometimes we are paralyzed by it. Yet at other times it refreshes and energizes us, overcoming our fears and indecisions.
• We have long enough ignored the role of Animal Spirits. A description of how the economy really works must consider the Animal Spirits that do in fact exist.
• Saving in America is down… a lot. Why? Our devotion to the credit card is a factor. Shopping malls are symptomatic of broader views of who Americans think they are and how they think they should behave.
• Business thrives on the excitement of creating the future.
• Rededication to protecting the financial consumer must be one of our highest economic priorities.
• Context and point of view are crucially important in determining saving.
• Most economic up and downs are caused by overconfidence followed by underconfidence.
• Goods are much simpler commodities than labor.
• How the Fed can affect the macroeconomy?
1. Open Market Operations 2. Rediscounting.
• A great deal of what makes people happy is living up to what they think they should be doing.
• People have trouble think about broader feedback.
• Simple economic truths get lost in the heat of emotion.
• Echoing Keynes view of the role of macro policy…If there is a macroeconomic void the government must fill it. I must again set the stage for a healthy capitalism…The role of the central bank is to ensure the credit conditions that enable full employment.
• Non-cardholders have considerably higher financial assets relative to income.
• It is extremely easy to create group divisions.
• Government should encourage cues that enhance saving, as it should discourage cues that cause people to spend.

The Five Key Animal Spirits

Confidence
• The very meaning of trust is that we go beyond the rational. Indeed, the truly trusting person often discards or discounts certain information. Not acting rationally, but in accords to trust.
• Beyond the rational approach to choose.
• Low confidence has caused credit markets to freeze up, lenders do not trust they will be paid.
• Confidence, or the lack thereof, may be as contagious as any disease.
Fairness
• Consideration of fairness can override rational economic motives.
• When transactions are not fair, the person on the short end of the transaction will be angry.
• Equity Theory: it holds that on either side of an exchange the inputs should equal the outputs.
Corruption and Bad Faith
• The bounty of capitalism has at least one downside. It does not automatically produce what people really need; it produces what they think they need and are willing to pay for.
• People react to corruption and bad faith in financial markets by withdrawing...A way they believe to circumvent market failure.
• Culture change = Facilitates or hinders aggressively competitive or predatory activities.
Money Illusion
• Money illusion occurs when decisions are influenced by nominal dollar amounts.
• Going from nominal dollars to real dollars, something is lost in translation.
• Exact adjustment for inflationary expectations in wage bargaining is highly unlikely.
• We must merely recognize that capitalism must live with certain rules.
Stories
• Stories and storytelling are fundamental to human knowledge.
• It not only serves to communicate information in a form that is readily absorbed, but it also serves to reinforce memories related to stories.
• Politicians are one significant source, especially about the economy. They spend much of their time talking to the public. In doing so they tell stories. And since much of their interactions with the public concerns the economy so also do these stories.
• Stories no longer merely explain the facts; they are the facts.
• Stories are like viruses.

Reading Recommendations

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what was discussed in Animal Spirits.

Find the book on Amazon: Print | Audio

Check Out More 52 in 52 Challenge Summaries

52 in 52 Book Summaries

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Posted on December 2, 2018December 2, 2018

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

The Essence

How to Win Friends and Influence People is the most successful and influential business book of all time. Master-communicator Dale Carnegie outlines the key principles and techniques for engaging with others in business and in life. As social animals, all roads involve handing a tough conversation at one point or another. Dale effectively breaks down exactly what we each need in situations like these and much other interpersonal interaction. To do better in any facet of life, it is imperative that we learn to communicate, influence, lead, and most importantly listen to people. It’s likely that we all talk too much about ourselves, and listen little to those we’d like to influence. So smile, nod, and give an honest try to talk about someone else’s passions. Oh, and don’t ever forget their name.

How to Win Friends and Influence People Journal Entry Notes:

This is my book summary of How to Win Friends and Influence People. My notes are a reflection of the journal write up above. Written informally, the notes contain a mesh of quotes and my own thoughts on the book. The Journal write up also includes important messages and crucial passages from the book.

“The Principles taught in this book will only work when they come from the heart. I am not advocating a bag of tricks, I am talking about a new way of life.”

Fundamental Techniques of Handling People
1. Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want
Six Ways to Make People Like You
1. Becoming genuinely interested in other people
2. Smile
3. Remember that a person’s Name is to that person the sweetest sound
4. Be a good listener; encourage others to talk about themselves
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests
6. Make the other person feel important
How To Win People To Your Way Of Thinking
1. Avoid argument. Period.
2. Never say “You’re wrong” Show respect to opinion
3. If you’re wrong, admit it quickly, and empathetically
4. Begin in a friendly way
5. Get the other person saying “yes-yes” immediately
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or her own
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s perspective
9. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires
10. Appeal to the nobler motive
11. Dramatize your ideas
12. Throw down a challenge
Be A Leader: How to Change People
1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation
2. Call attention to peoples mistakes indelicately
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person
4. Ask questions instead of giving orders
5. Let the other person save face
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest

• Criticism is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and usually makes him strive to justify himself. We constantly defend ourselves when we feel criticized. This defense is our mechanism for protecting the idea we have of ourselves.
• Instead of condemning people, let’s try to understand them. Let’s try to figure out why they do what they do. This takes finding common ground. Find something that both you and another can become an US rather than a THEM about. I once heard it called “getting them in the same boat”.
• Focus on their wants, not your own, you do not need to start with what you want.
• Your life is not as interesting as you think it is. So talk less about yourself and more about others. You can make more friends in two months than you can in two years by trying to get people interested in you.
• The expression one wears on one’s face is far more important than the clothes one wears on one’s back. This is in part why I am grateful for being able to smile each day and willing to own fewer material belongings. They may have some weight in the opinions of others of me, but they do not match staggering effects of one’s attitude displayed in their facial expressions.
• “You CANNOT win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it. You have made someone feel inferior, and maybe resented.”
• “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”
• “A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall”, Kindness, Kindness, Kindness,
• You may be tempted to interrupt…Don’t.
• Any fool can try to defend his or her mistakes (most fools do) but it raises one above the herd and gives one a feeling of nobility and exultation to admit one’s mistakes.
• Even our friends would much rather talk to us about their achievement than listen to us boast about ours.
• “He didn’t care about credit. He wanted results” This has deeply resonated with me. I came to a point in my life where I noticed the things that brought me the most joy, are things that I contributed to or maybe even directly caused but will never be credited for. That’s fine. Because ultimately it is the yield that I bask at and cherish. If making a great change in this world means being forgotten by history for my actions, then call me a ghost. A ghost who works diligently to make the change that can perhaps spark the growth of the next great name. I wish to be a part of the great climb towards the betterment of my society, not the figure that society subsequently reveres.
• If you are not satisfied, why not experiment? Never settle. Trial and error are deeply rooted in our genetic makeup. It’s only when we become the scientist of our lives that we can optimize for an impermanent state a becoming.
• It is always easier to listen to unpleasant things after we have heard some praise of our good points: Positive-Negative-Positive Sandwich.
Praise is like sunlight to the warm human spirit; we cannot flower and grow without it. And yet, while most of us are only too ready to apply to others the old wind of criticism, we are somehow reluctant to give our fellow the warm sunshine of praise.

Reading Recommendations

If you liked what you saw. Here are 3 titles that I recommend based on what was discussed in How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Find the book on Amazon: Print | Audio

Check Out More 52 in 52 Challenge Summaries

Failure

Quitting Our Commitments

Posted on October 17, 2018October 17, 2018

Quitting Our Commitments

Many of us stay in relationships for too long, jobs that make us miserable, or pridefully sustain habits for the sake of not being a ‘quitter’. We are all part of things at one point or another that cause tension in our lives. So why do we choose to muddle forward? What stops us from quitting our commitments ?

Perhaps it is because we understand that sticking with our choices helps build resilience. As we endure through hardship, we can develop the tolerance to believe. And when we believe in our capacities as a human to grow, we develop the confidence to surrender to the process of living life intentionally; thereby accessing our un-tapped potentials.

Moving on

Intentional living means making sacrifices to continue to progress. But what if the path you have chosen is one that instead of liberating you, binds you. Personally, my greatest vice is transmuting all my energy towards life choices. As I deem things as valuable (worth my time resource) I put all my eggs into those things, sacrificing a great amount of what I may have incrementally established in the first place.

It’s clear there comes a point where commitments become rotten. Yet we endure in fear that this is merely a point of contention, a moment to show our stuff and concur another obstacle.

As we stumble down our life paths, the odds of taking the wrong turns are high. So what do we do when our choices are straying us in direct opposition to our life goals?

It may be time to quit.

As I wrote briefly about when I was discussing when to stop reading a book, quitting ahead of time can be exactly the thing we may need to do to improve our ability to stick to the things that help up become our greatest selves.

Our goals should never be to endure every challenge we choose to accept to the end. We need to learn to sort through our commitments to make sure we can discern when we may be over-committing ourselves to the wrong things.

Quitting Points

When we are questioning if it is time to quit, we need to ask ourselves if we have engaged with the task long enough. But what really is long enough? With such an abstract cut off we cannot learn to stick to our commitments. We leave room to alter our definition of ‘long enough’ whenever it is convenient.

Starting today we need to set guidelines for our commitments. Understanding that the nature of our lives is change, we can respect that what we deem as valuable is ever changing too. Therefore, as we move forward in our lives we no longer become overstrung by past commitments because when we accept said change we are constantly asking ourselves: Is this still what I aim at becoming? And if so, is this still the effective way to do so?

Instead of retrospectively choosing to part ways with our commitments, we can set quitting points ahead of time. When we set points ahead of time this gives us a definite control over our lives. Who wants to stay in a position forever that makes them miserable? But how about a 3-month test period? Or even 30 days?

Setting Test Lengths

Anytime I am starting a new project I run it through a 30-day challenge. 30 days is sufficient enough time to give a commitment a chance at influencing my life. Such trials are a great way to find what you’re interested in without running yourself into a roadblock.

For example, I once wanted to start coding for the website. So I put myself through 30 days of coding practice for two hours a day. Now normally, such a schedule would be grueling and cause me to give up the idea of learning web development in its entirety. But I had a measurable unit of time to test my resilience and most importantly I had time to re-evaluate my commitments.

Setting Re-evaluation Points

Okay fine, that may work for new commitments, but what about the ones I have already started and do not plan to stop?

As someone who avidly reads, meditates, and exercises each day I know the merits of long-term habits. But it isn’t fruitful to just continue a commitment for the sake of just going through the motions. As we become complacent we lose the benefits of the activities. To prevent this, we can set points throughout our progress that we re-evaluate our commitment.

To use my meditation practice as an example, over a period of three-years my meditation has fluctuated from an hour long to 15 minutes sessions. Each month I am re-asking myself how were my sessions. Was I rushing them? Was I concentrated to the level I need to be? Did I fall asleep a lot? These questions and more provide me with information for the up and coming month as to what I need to focus on to continue to move forward in my practice.

Think about a part of your life that you use as a measure of your own identity. Now constantly ask yourself if you are living up to the expectations of that commitment. Over time you will see that taking great care of said commitment will reflect deeply on your own progress in becoming a part of that identity.

Life Impact

It is my firm brief that we have a finite amount of attention that we can distribute across the commitments of our life. From that, it is only logical that as we put more into one thing or another, we strip ourselves of the ability to engage fully with other things. The question then becomes are we pulling energy away from things we find merit in? I'm sure of it.

I recently had the opportunity to experience this myself.

I took on the challenge of entering a new career field and subsequently began to do what I do best; give it my all. Though as I put my time and attention into the position, my life slowly began to crumble around me. I stopped writing for the site, I ran minimally, meditated aimlessly, and even communicated with my friends and family sparingly. Something had to give, and it just so happen that it wouldn’t be the new thing I just attempted to incorporate into my life, it was all that I had incrementally worked for over the past 4 years.

I would have no more of it.

I set a point for evaluation and worked up until that fateful moment when I decided to leave. Now am slowly but surely recreating the life that I know is guiding me towards a life as my greatest self. In hindsight, my greatest lesson is to request information about time commitment sooner. I have come to an understanding that great sacrifices ought to be made to venture into a rigorous field, and when that career does not align with my life virtues, It must be eliminated.

Finding Quitting Points That Have Promising Results

‘‘The best way to predict our feelings tomorrow is to see how others are feeling today”
Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness

In Stumbling on Happiness, Gilbert goes on to state our capabilities for foresight are…well poor to say the least.
We have poor insight when we are making presumptions about the happiness of ourselves in a given circumstance. As a precautionary measure, Gilbert has stumbled upon some great advice that I have only begun to recognize its merits and would like to close by sharing with you. He states:

“If you believe that people can generally say how they are feeling at the moment they are asked, then one way to make predictions about our own emotional futures us to find someone who is having the experience we are contemplating and ask them how they feel.
Instead of remembering our past experience in order to simulate our future experience, perhaps we should simply ask other people to introspect on their inner states, perhaps we should give up on remembering and imagining entirely and use other people as surrogates for our future selves”

What better person to ask than the one who is subjectively experiencing what we hope to experience? From now on, instead of trusting the tools of foresight that Dr. Gilbert has gone to great lengths to show have bias outlooks. It is in our best interest to look towards people with experience in the state of mind that we aim for. This is surrogation at its finest.

We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. From now on when I commit to something I look for people who have done the same. Now I potentially have a collection of people who have been through the same situation.

So not only does this settle any anxiety I may have about what a commitment may mean for the remainder of my life obligations, it gives me information about where to go after that seemingly tragic event occurs.

Commitment Takes Integration

What I’ve learned is dead ends are only so when you cannot integrate what has been of great value with whatever you are currently attempting to grasp. All that we purposefully engage with must continually align with that of what is to come. It is such clarity that will charge our mental volitions, and ultimately further our journey towards discovering commitments that when engaged with for the long term, change our lives for the better.

My Motto: Today is the best day of my life

I treat every day as the best day of my life because no matter the praise, disappointment, obstacles, or success I know that I am doing everything that is in my control to live to the standards of my greatest self.

How? It all starts with my 5 habits. Find out more here.

Meditation

The Importance of Meditation as an Entrepreneur

Posted on July 25, 2018

The Importance of Meditation as an Entrepreneur

Deadlines, Fast place, High Stake, being an entrepreneur means working in the midst of chaos.

As an entrepreneur, you need to learn to snap into focus, let go of slip-ups all while keeping a leveled head. It's all a balancing process. And believe it or not, the most practical skills for an entrepreneur are not developed in business school or field work, but on the meditation cushion.

“Creativity is not coming from the ‘working the brain’ and the ‘I will work hard and think about it’. It comes from this deep state of relaxation.” Ray Dalio

Billionaire Ray Dalio—someone who would make less money deliberating picking up a $100-dollar bill off the ground—takes at least 40 minutes of his busy schedule every day to meditate. Dalio understands the value of a meditation practice in developing the skills needed to function among top performers.

We all can be entrepreneurs. I recently picked up a marketing job with working with a team that inspired me to ponder my role as an influencer.

As an intentionally liver, we are all called to take control of our lives in our aspect of another which is why I think the operation and organization of one's life so synonymous to an entrepreneur running a business/

It makes no difference, we are all in the business of life. So you, as an aspiring student of life are no different whatsoever.

The limits in your personal and business lives are self-made. And meditation is the tool the help break down those barriers. Here’s are 3 essential traits of an entrepreneur that a meditation practice can help develop.

Entrepreneurs are focused.

You have the big idea to jump-start your business and are ready to start. All is left is the key component; you gotta put in the work. Hours upon hours of work is needed to launch your ideas and not any old work will do. Hours of purpose-driven focus with little interruptions are needed.

In the journal of cognitive, affective, & behavioral neuroscience, a recent publication has evidence that performing mindfulness meditation exercises may improve attention-related behavioral responses.

Further, a study titled “Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training” shows that after only a few sessions of meditation training subjects were able to attain the same effective and cognitive benefits that long-term meditators have such as improved working memory and executive functioning.

For the sake of brevity, I have only listed two. But several hundred empirical studies have been published on the cognitive benefits of meditation. It's good stuff.

Entrepreneurs are always creatively addressing problems.

Imagine a pinball machine inside your head with every thought, idea, or habit being another pinball up to play. Well, it’s easy to get so used to playing the same old game that we don’t notice the ball always taking the same track, resulting in the same outcome, and perhaps even the same losses.

“The world always makes sense; we just don’t understand it.”

-Adam Robinson

The routes of pinball thought are the models or system we use to make day to day decisions and they can become outdated. A lot of the times when we are constantly focused on a problem we lock ourselves in these patterns of thought and impair our abilities to think creatively.

Meditation opens up a diffused state of thought that allows various conventional wisdom to become innovatively applied for addressing the problems you are having running your business. I.e. The pinball machine will start taking different paths yielding innovative outcomes.

Educator, writer, and engineer, Professor Barbara Oakley writes about focused and diffused modes of thought in her book a mind for numbers. She discusses several strategies for activating a diffused mode of thought and meditation tops the list.

If you’re interested in the focused and diffuse mode of thought I recommend you check out her book.

Entrepreneurs do not crumble under pressure.

Your inbox is full, the old marketing strategy isn’t working, and your assistant is not getting back to you.

As an entrepreneur you get stressed, and becoming comfortable with unsettling feelings and states is part of the day job. How do top performing entrepreneurs do it?

By developing a sense of equanimity through meditation.

Equanimity is a state of balance even amongst a storm of emotions within us. The value of observing anger, frustration, sadness without becoming those feeling serves the monk and entrepreneur alike.

By observing how you feel internally without justifying it or explaining it, you open yourself up to sitting with discomfort. So when discomfort arises again, you have prepared yourself for the storm and are not shaken by the situation.

For entrepreneurs and business community alike, staying focused, creative and relaxed are pivotal to top performance. With a little mediation, you can start performing like some of the greatest minds in business do every day.

If you’re interested and do not have a clue where to start. Check out a post I wrote about starting your meditation practice the right way; small.

My Motto: Today is the best day of my life

How? It all starts with my 5 habits. Find out more here.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

The Essence

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Letters from a Stoic by Seneca

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The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz

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Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism by George Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller

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How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

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Quitting Our Commitments

Moving on

Quitting Points

Setting Test Lengths

Setting Re-evaluation Points

Life Impact

Finding Quitting Points That Have Promising Results

Commitment Takes Integration

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