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3 IDEAS FROM ME

I.

“The more disciplined your environment is, the less disciplined you need to be. Don’t swim upstream.”



II.

“Many people delay taking action because they hope to avoid suffering. They keep searching for a path that won’t involve tradeoffs.

But some form of suffering is always inevitable. The process of taking action is the process of choosing your pain.”



III.

“Before you begin, think as if you are a lazy person. Imagine the competition will work harder. Your only chance is a better strategy.

After you begin, work as if you are a dumb person. Imagine the competition is smarter and more talented. Your only chance is to outwork them.”

2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS

I.

Writer and activist Audre Lorde on how self-acceptance reduces the power others have over you:

“Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.”

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches



II.

Andrew Carnegie, who would go on to become one of the richest Americans in history, on the importance of seizing the opportunity. In his case, it was the opportunity to become a telegraph messenger boy at age 14: 

“The interview was successful. I took care to explain that I did not know Pittsburgh, that perhaps I would not do, would not be strong enough; but all I wanted was a trial. He asked me how soon I could come, and I said that I could stay now if wanted. And, looking back over the circumstance, I think that answer might well be pondered by young people. It is a great mistake not to seize the opportunity. The position was offered to me; something might occur, some other boy might be sent for. Having got myself in, I proposed to stay there if I could…

And that is how, in 1850, I got my first real start in life. From the dark cellar [of my previous job] running a steam-engine at two dollars a week, begrimed with coal dirt, without a trace of elevating influences in life, I was lifted into a paradise, yes, heaven, as it seemed to me, with newspapers, pens, pencils, and sunshine about me. There was scarcely a minute in which I could not learn something or find out how much there was to learn or how little I knew. I felt that my foot was upon the ladder and that I was bound to climb.” 

Source: The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie

1 QUESTION FOR YOU

Imagine the most important goal or project you are working on right now. Fast forward six months. Imagine the project has failed.

Why did you fail?

Until next week,

James Clear
Author of the million-copy bestseller, Atomic Habits
Creator of the Habit Journal

p.s. If people did everything in a rush.

p.p.s. Shout out to my friend Aleks for today’s P.S.

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