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3 IDEAS FROM ME

I.

“A simple rule for life and work:

Don’t rush, but don’t wait.

Thoughtful action.”


​II.

“Your life is purchased by where you spend your attention.”


III.

“The Process:

1) Decide what you want to achieve.
2) Try different ways of achieving it until you find one that works for you.
3) Do more of what works. Do less of what doesn’t.
4) Don’t stop doing it until it stops working.
5) Repeat.”

2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS

I.

Artificial intelligence researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky on pushing yourself:

“If you never fail, you’re only trying things that are too easy and playing far below your level… If you can’t remember any time in the last six months when you failed, you aren’t trying to do difficult enough things.”

Source: Inadequate Equilibria (Chapter 7)


​II.

Documentary filmmaker Valarie Kaur on listening:

“Deep listening is an act of surrender. We risk being changed by what we hear.

When I really want to hear another person’s story, I try to leave my preconceptions at the door and draw close to their telling. I am always partially listening to the thoughts in my own head when others are speaking, so I consciously quiet my thoughts and begin to listen with my senses.

Empathy is cognitive and emotional—to inhabit another person’s view of the world is to feel the world with them. But I also know that it’s okay if I don’t feel very much for them at all. I just need to feel safe enough to stay curious.

The most critical part of listening is asking what is at stake for the other person. I try to understand what matters to them, not what I think matters. Sometimes I start to lose myself in their story. As soon as I notice feeling unmoored, I try to pull myself back into my body, like returning home. As Hannah Arendt says, ‘One trains one’s imagination to go visiting.’ When the story is done, we must return to our skin, our own worldview, and notice how we have been changed by our visit.”

Source: See No Stranger

1 QUESTION FOR YOU

What do I keep coming back to? What is that telling me?

Until next week,

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

p.s. He was truly ahead of his time.

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