books.
The Art of Non-Conformity. By Chris Guillebeau
•An important principle of life planning is that you can have anything you want, but you cant have everything at the same time. To be able to devote most of your time to projects and activities you enjoy, youll need to be forceful about dropping a lot of other activities. The best way to stop spending time on unnecessary distractions is to make a stop doing list.
•Seth Godin writes the number one business blog in the world, with a relationship base of hundreds of thousands. He is frequently asked how he has time to do everything, especially write back to everyone who emails him. His answer is that he doesnt watch TV and doesnt go to meetings, so that gives him four to five more hours a day than most people have.
•Flow: The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times; the best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
•Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary. Sir Cecil Beaton
•Ernest Shackleton recruitment flyer for expedition to Antarctica in the early twentieth century:
oMen wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.
The above advertisement was highly effective; over 5,000 men applied for the job.
•The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they cant find them, make them. George Bernard Shaw
•The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. Walter Bagehot
•When you reach the convergence between getting what you really want while also helping others in a unique way. I call this world domination, where you live a life of adventure and focus on leaving a legacy that makes a radical difference for other people. Theres no need to settle or accept anything less.
•Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. Dale Carnegie
•Most remarkable people are not remarkable by nature. Instead, they made a few key choices along the way that helped them overcome their fears.
•You need to answer the two most important questions in the universe:
oWhat do you really want to get out of life?
oHow can you help others in a way that no one else can?
•The gap between ignorance and knowledge is much less than the gap between knowledge and action.
•If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader. John Quincy Adams
•Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead
•Consider investing in yourself through spending on unique life experiences more than stuff.
•Every man dies; not every man really lives. William Wallace from Braveheart
•When youre starting to redefine how you spend your time and youre not sure which responsibilities you should commit to, it can be helpful to begin to apply a filter to all the inputs that come your way. Asking two questions will clarify a great many responsibilities for you:
oWhy should I do this?
oWhat will happen if I dont?
•Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with their song still in them. Henry David Thoreau
•11 Ways to be Unremarkably Average:
oAccept what people tell you at face value
oDont question authority
oGo to college because youre supposed to, not because you want to learn something
oGo overseas once or twice in your life, to somewhere safe like England
oDont try to learn another language; everyone else will eventually learn English
oThink about starting your own business; but never do it.
oThink about writing a book; but never do it.
oGet the largest mortgage you qualify for and spend 30 years paying for it.
oSit at a desk 40 hours a week for an average of 10 hours of productive work.
oDont stand out or draw attention to yourself.
oJump through hoops. Check off boxes.
•Most people accept the status quo without question, sleep-walking through life, looking in from the outside.
•What I have done, for better or worse, is chosen freedom as my highest personal value and learned to construct a life around that choice.
•Our lives become most meaningful when we combine our own desires with an active strategy to help other people at the same time.
Flow
The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times; the best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
