3 IDEAS FROM ME
I.
“Improvement is being better than your past self.
It doesn't have to be more complicated than that. Do not compare against others, compare against your past self.
Keep the focus internal.”
II.
“You can take things seriously without taking them personally.
Our tendency is to turn any criticism or complaint into a personal attack. We reply to it, defend against it, build a counter-argument, lose sleep over it.
You don't have to eat everything that is served to you. You can respond to criticism without digesting criticism. Take what's useful, do your best to improve, and leave the rest.”
III.
“With a bow and arrow, you aim before you shoot. But in most areas of life, aiming is something you can do throughout the process.
You can always adjust: your career path, your business strategy, your relationships, your workout program, your plans for next Wednesday. It's all adjustable along the way.
So, pick a direction and get moving. Once you start, you learn along the way and there are plenty of opportunities to refine your plan.”
2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS
I.
Baba Hari Dass, a yoga master and monk who kept a vow of silence from 1952 until his death in 2018, on learning:
“Teach in order to learn.”
Source: Hariakhan Baba
II.
Computer scientist Alan Kay reminds us that our perceptions are limited:
“A frog's brain is set up to recognize food as moving objects that are oblong in shape. So if we take a frog's normal food — flies — paralyze them with a little chloroform and put them in front of the frog, it will not notice them or try to eat them.
It will starve in front of its food! But if we throw little rectangular pieces of cardboard at the frog it will eat them until it is stuffed! The frog only sees a little of the world we see, but it still thinks it perceives the whole world.
Now, of course, we are not like frogs! Or are we?”
Source: “The Center of Why?” (November 11, 2004). Later in the talk, Kay says, “You can't learn to see until you realize you are blind.”
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
Are you building or maintaining?
Until next week,
James Clear
Author of Atomic Habits
Cofounder of Authors Equity
p.s. How to never get robbed.
