The Choice
Dr Edith Eva Eger
Summary
Beautiful memoir written by a famous psychologist who lived during the Holocaust
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Just as we act as our own prison, we can also be our own liberators
When we force our truths and stories into hiding, secrets can become their own trauma, their own prison
Freedom lies in learning to embrace what happened. Freedom means we master the courage to dismantle the prison brick by brick
Suffering is universal but victimhood is optional
There is no hierarchy of suffering. There’s nothing that makes one’s pain better or worse than another
We cannot choose to have a life free of hurt. But we can choose to be free, to escape the past, no matter what befalls us and embrace the possible
All your ecstasy in life will come from the inside
We have a choice; to pay attention to what we’ve lost to to pay attention to what we have
No one can take away fro you what you’ve put in your own mind
Survival is a matter of interdependence. It’s not possible alone.
To be passive is to let others decide for you. To be aggressive is to decide for others. To be assertive is to decide for yourself and trust that you are enough
Running doesn’t heal pain - it makes it worse
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing - those one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way
If you’re going to live, you have to stand up for something
Perfectionism is the belief that something is broken - you
To be free is to live in the present. The only place where we can exercise our freedom of choice is the present
Only I can do what I can do the way I can do it
You can live to avenge the past or you can live to enrich the present
The real feeling disguised by the mask of anger is usually fear
We all bear suffering. We can’t erase the pain. But we are free to accept who we are and what has been done to use and move on
This is the work of healing. You deny what hurts, what you fear. You avoid it at all costs. Then you find a way to welcome and embrace what you’re most afraid of. Then you let go.
To save yourself, you’re going to have to give up the imagine of who you were supposed to be
To heal we embrace the dark. We walk through the shadow of the valley on our way to light
Our painful experiences aren’t a liability, they’re a gift
Doing what is right is rarely the same as doing what is safe
To run away from our past or to fight against our present pain is to imprison ourselves. Freedom is accepting what is and forgiving ourselves, in opening our hearts to discover the miracles that exist now
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Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
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