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Figuring Out Who You Are With Matthew McConaughey

  • Happy Sunday!
    Here are 63 insights I have gathered for you this week:

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Never Finished

— David Goggins

  • Take charge of your life: You can’t change the cards you were dealt in life, but you can change what you do with them. Focus on what is within your control, this is what matters.

  • Turn your back to your personal demons and you’ll never find true peace.

  • Be yourself: “You cannot be afraid to disappoint people. You have to live the life you want to live. Sometimes, that means being the motherfucker who can put a middle finger up to everyone in the room and be totally comfortable with that.”

  • When are you going to stop letting your past control you and start taking control over your future?

  • Be prepared: The hardships of life can hit you at any moment and this is what you want to be prepared for, so you can stay in control even in the toughest of times.

  • Preach what you practice: “If I can’t live it, I won’t speak it.”

  • Don’t waste anything.

The Wisdom of Life

— Arthur Shopenhauer

  • "The happiness we receive from ourselves is greater than that which we obtain from our surroundings." - Epicurus

  • Uniqueness: Everyone lives in a world of their own, no external thing affect two people exactly alike. Advice, diets, books, medicine, or anything that you might feel benefitial to you, may not be benefitial to someone else.

  • Perspective is everything: "The world in which a man lives shapes itself chiefly by the way in which he looks at it, and so it proves different to different men; to one it is barren, dull, and superficial; to another rich, interesting, and full of meaning"

  • Personal limits: You can't go beyond the limits of your own consciousness, and the constitution of your consciousness is the most essential thing of all.

  • Health for happiness: A poor and healthy person is happier than an ailing billionaire.

  • Money can't buy this: "A quiet and cheerful temperament, happy in the enjoyment of a perfectly sound physique, an intellect clear, lively, penetrating and seeing things as they are, a moderate and gentle will, and therefore a good conscience — these are privileges which no rank or wealth can make up for or replace"


Clear Thinking

— Shane Parrish

  • Avoid losing first: "While the rest of us are chasing victory, the best in the world know they must avoid losing before they can win."

  • To get the results we desire: 1. Create space to reason in your thoughts, feelings, and actions. 2. Deliberately use this space to think clearly.

  • Definition of reasoning: The action of thinking about something in a logical and sensible way.

  • "All the successful execution in the world is worthless if it’s not in service of the right outcome."

  • Difference between the average and the best: The best of the best rarely finds themselves forced into a decision by circumstances, this let's them make good decisions on a constant basis.

  • "The greatest aid to judgment is starting from a good position."

  • Good position = multiple paths to good results.

  • Bad position = non or very few paths to good results.

Greenlights

— Matthew McConaughey

  • Earn your saturdays.

  • Building identity: Personal identity is first built on who you are not rather than who you are.

  • How figure out who you are: Eliminate who you aren't, and you'll find yourself right where you need to be.

  • With anything: “Don't "half-ass" it.”

  • No one will believe you if you don’t believe in yourself.

  • Importance of preperations: Be prepared or you’ll end up embarrassed.

  • To be good isn't only about doing good things, it is about not doing bad things.

  • "The arrow doesn't seek the target, the target draws the arrow."

  • The personal magnet: Do good things and good things will come your way. Do bad things and bad things will come your way. Always be aware of what you are attracting your way.

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The Bed of Procrustes

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Zero To One

— Peter Thiel

The Socrates Express

— Eric Weiner

Just Be Glad

— Christian Larsen

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