The Happiness Equation
Neil Pasricha
Summary
This book teaches you about how to change your lifestyle to give yourself time to think and be happy. A lot of stuff that I’ve heard from a variety of people that’s nicely packaged into an easily readable book. Highly recommend
Rating: 4/5
Notes
‘You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?’ – Steven Wright
‘Be content with what you have. Rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.’ – Lao Tzu
Be happy – great work – big success
Our brains are trained for a short, brutal, competitive world
Life is 10% of what happens and 90% how you react to it
The big 7 of happiness:
- Three walks: half hour of walking per week
- The 20-minute replay – write for 20 minutes
- Random acts of kindness
- A complete unplug
- Hit flow: flow state
- 2-minute meditation
- Five gratitudes: write 5 a week
Be happy first
External goals don’t help you be a better person, only internal ones do
4 simple words that block all criticism: Do. It. For. You.
When you’re not doing it for you, you’re not doing a great job
When you don’t feel like you’re competing with others, you can only compete with yourself. And yo do more, go further & perform better
Success triangle is social, sales and self
It’s impossible to have all three successes so figure out which ones you want
Insecure
Confident
Cynical
Arrogant
Opinion of others on y axis, opinion of self on x axis
You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you have to accomplish
I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be
‘It’s their mistake, not my failing.’ – Richard Feynman
Find what’s hidden, stop apologizing and accept yourself
If you can meet with triumph and disaster, treat those two competitors the same
Do it for you
None of us can control our emotions. We can only control our reactions to our emotions
We’re living in a culture of more instead of a culture of enough
‘I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet’ – Persian proverb
Remember the lottery. Remember you have enough
If you earn more than 50k a year, you’re in the top 0.5% of people on earth
‘Determine never to be idle. No person will have an occasion to complain of the wart of time, who never loses any.’ – Thomas Jefferson
‘The best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.’ – Teddy Roosevelt
Find you ikigai (the reason you wake up in the morning) and write it down
Retirement is a new concept, Western concept and broken concept
Social connections are the single biggest driver of our happiness
168 hours a week divides into 3 56 hour brackets
- One is for sleep and one is for work
- The other 56 hour one is for you so spend that time on your passions
Work gives you social, structure, stimulation and story so don’t give it up
Never retire
Figure out how much you make each hour and overvalue you
Think
Burn
Space
Do
Thinking is on the y axis, doing is on the Y axis. Don’t spend too much time burning
Bed, bathtub, bus = places where ideas pop into your head
Create space in your mind and with your time
Space comes from hacking choice, time and access
Fewer choices means faster decisions
Rule #1: If the amount is higher than 1000$, put more money into an investing account
#2: If investing account is higher than 1000$, move all money to investments
Never break rule #1 or #2
We’re always exhausted from making decisions so take your brain out of it
Decide which decisions to automate, regulate, effectuate and debate
Regulate
Debate
Automate
Effectuate
Time is on the y axis, importance is on the x axis
Work expands to fill the space available and the result is lower quality
The less time available, the more effort you put in
Move deadlines up to increase your effort and productivity
Remove all entry points to your brain except the single one you control
Creating space is the secret step to freeing yourself from the oppression of your busy life
Remove choice, remove time and remove access
‘The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.’ – C. G. Jung
Put your gym clothes on your bed
Motivation doesn’t cause action. Action causes motivation
Be you and be cool with it
Happiness is when what you think, you say and what you are in harmony – Gandhi
Your relationship with yourself is the most important relationship in your life
What you do on a Saturday morning when you have nothing to do
The bench test: immerse yourself in a new situation, you want to test and then observe your authentic reaction to that situation
If you’re in a new office, ask for a tour
Always think about that you’re the average of the five people closest to you
Being you removes regret from your life. Authentically remove it from your life
Happiness is a choice
Biggest regret of people on their deathbed is not living a life for themselves
Only the truth of who you are, if realized, will set you free – Eckhart Tolle
Find a partner who can be your level of happy or higher
Advice is never objectively true in all situations
The answers are inside of you. Think deep and decide what’s best. Go forth and be happy
***
Buy the book here
Free E-book download here
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
***
Buy the book here
Free E-book download here
.jpeg)
