"I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and impossible. The fact that something seems impossible shouldn't be a reason not to pursue it. That's exactly what makes it worth pursuing, where would the courage and greatness be if success was certain and there was no risk? The only true failure is shirking away from life's challenges." ~F. Nietzsche

What/who is stopping you from pursuing what you really want in life? Everything is in constant flux. Remember that death walks with us every step of the way, so might as well go for what you deem is worthwhile in the present and live up to your dreams buried underneath the dictates of society. 

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

philosophy

Philosophy

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

mindfulness

Mindfulness

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

Joys and Perils of Living

If you become too myopic and focused on your scope of work, you might lose contact with the bigger picture.

Beware of Specialization

The best time to do it was yesterday, the next best is right now. Don’t put off dealing with your problems. They will only grow.

Deal With Problems Early

Before he would jump into an idea and go full steam, take a reflective period to step back ask yourself: "What do I really have here? Do I actually have something? What am I hoping to accomplish?”

The ‘Draw-Down Period’

With a system in place, you can better do the most essential job of a strategist: think long term.To put into practice your vision, you need systems, routines and rituals—structures that prevent you from sliding off the track.

Adopt Systems & Processes

This is a stoic lesson, to visualize failure in advance.It helps because if you imagine failure you start seeing all the ways that have led to that result. And you can start actively working on addressing and mitigating them in advance.

The Art of Negative Visualization

Strategy requires objectivity and seeing things as they are. It requires us to put aside how our emotions cloud our thinking with fear overconfidence and see how the situation truly is.

Seeing Things As They Are

It is a place where we are perpetually reactive to other people’s demands and needs, driven by emotional instead of logical impulses.We need to escape it and see things objectively and with detachment, from a distance.

Tactical Hell

If you want to be successful, leave no room for your ego.You actively submit your strategic plans to feedback and criticism—that’s how they get better.

Actively Seek Criticism

This is a team with a simple job: to find holes and problems in your plan.Leave your ego out and be grateful when people expose flaws in your approach.

Form a Red Team

Whether you're starting a business, writing a book, playing a sport, or negotiating a salary increase with your boss, a strategy is essential. Without one, what exactly are you doing? Most people are not strategic. They are reactive. A critic of the inventor John DeLorean described the leadership style which sunk that company as "chasing colored balloons."

strategy

Strategy

communication

Communication

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

29 Lessons From The Greatest Strategic Minds Who Ever Lived, Fought, Or Led

The idea of evaluating how we spend our time is a healthy one, but the discussion usually looks more like an apocalyptic prediction than actual useful advice.What we tend to leave out is the fact that emerging technologies are a double-edged sword: the internet can both be a mindless distraction and the greatest educational tool of all times. It all revolves around the way you use it.

Double sword technology

You should search only for helpful information that you can and will apply to your life far more often than you let random information interrupt you.The Circle of Control is anything that relates directly to you, information that improves how you spend your time.

Circle of Control vs. Circle of Concern

Among the catastrophic debates over how TV and the Internet are making us mindless robots, the real problem to keep in mind: we need to cultivate more than we consume.

Quality output demands quality input

99% of the information you see won’t matter to you.Understanding where your time is going is far more important and useful than demonizing TV, the Internet, or mainstream news.

Evaluate how you spend your time

This is the habit of only consuming the information that is brought in front of you, rather than actively cultivating knowledge in areas that are valuable to you.Addressing this problem can be done in a pragmatic way: consider it a habit audit, or an honest look at how you are spending your time.

Excessive passivity

Reduce irrelevant information and spend more time exploring the topics relevant to you, by:<ul><li>Improving job skills.</li><li>Experimenting with new interests.</li><li>Creating more work/art.</li><li>Getting intentional with your learning.</li></ul>

Expanding your Circle of Control

Amidst the debates over how the Internet is making us mindless drones, here's the real issue to keep in mind: we need to be cultivate more than we consume.

habits

Habits

problemsolving

Problem Solving

timemanagement

Time Management

Are You Cultivating Knowledge or Consuming Information?

<ol><li>Notice your negativity bias. Catch yourself when you slip into self-doubt, rumination, anxiety, and fear. Notice when your mind starts spinning out worst-case scenarios.</li><li>Shift to a moment of gratitude. Noticing opens the space for carving new neural pathways. Shifting allows you to flood this space with a more productive focus of attention. A few seconds of gratitude is the most efficient way to do this. </li><li>Rewire your brain. Here's where the real work of begins. This last step is where we transform our ordinary habit of overlooking the positive. </li></ol>

Integrate The Notice-Shift-Rewire Practice Into Your Life

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

The Neuroscience of Breaking Out of Negative Thinking (and How to Do It in Under 30 Seconds)

“You wouldn't abandon ship in a storm just because you couldn't control the winds.”

One of the most influential books in the Western tradition, Thomas More's Utopia (1516) describes an imaginary island community enjoying perfect social and political harmony. This volume is the first to offer the original English translation of the work in an edition that allows students to explore in depth Utopia's historical and intellectual contexts as well as the circumstances of its reception. Based on Ralph Robynson's revised and corrected 1556 translation, with modernized spelling and extensive annotations, this edition returns students to the voice of the past, allowing them to experience the text as it was first encountered by early modern English readers.

books

Books

With an Introduction by Mishtooni Bose. More's Utopia is a complex, innovative and penetrating contribution to political thought, culminating in the famous 'description' of the Utopians, who live according to the principles of natural law, but are receptive to Christian teachings, who hold all possessions in common, and view gold as worthless. Drawing on the ideas of Plato, St Augustine and Aristotle, Utopia was to prove seminal in its turn, giving rise to the genres of utopian and dystopian prose fiction whose practitioners include Sir Francis Bacon, H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. At once a critique of the social consequences of greed and a meditation on the personal cost of entering public service, Utopia dramatises the difficulty of balancing the competing claims of idealism and pragmatism, and continues to invite its readers to become participants in a compelling debate concerning the best state of a commonwealth.

Joys and Perils of Living

29 Lessons From The Greatest Strategic Minds Who Ever Lived, Fought, Or Led

Are You Cultivating Knowledge or Consuming Information?

It's time to Read like a Pro.

The Neuroscience of Breaking Out of Negative Thinking (and How to Do It in Under 30 Seconds)

It's time to
Read like a Pro.