Procrastination is a common issue that affects people of all ages and backgrounds. It is defined as the act of delaying or postponing tasks or activities that should be done promptly. Procrastination can lead to stress, anxiety, and decreased productivity.

To overcome procrastination, it is important to set realistic and achievable goals. Breaking down a big task into smaller, manageable chunks can make it less overwhelming and easier to tackle. Additionally, setting a deadline for each task can help keep you motivated and on track.

Set achievable goals:

Keeping a planner or to-do list can help you stay organized and focused. Write down your daily tasks and prioritize them based on their level of importance. This will help you stay on top of your responsibilities and avoid the temptation to procrastinate.

Use a planner or to-do list:

Distractions can be a major cause of procrastination. Whether it's social media, television, or your phone, these distractions can easily pull you away from your work. To overcome this, It’s important to eliminate distractions by turning off your phone, closing any unnecessary tabs or apps, and finding a quiet place to work.

Eliminate distractions:

Self-discipline is key to overcoming procrastination. It's important to stick to your schedule and resist the urge to put things off until later. Practicing self-discipline can help you develop better habits and increase your overall productivity.

 Practice self-discipline:

While it may seem counterintuitive, taking breaks can actually help you be more productive in the long run.Taking a short break every hour or so can help you refocus, recharge, and avoid burnout. However, it's important to limit your break time and make sure it doesn't turn into procrastination.

 Take breaks:

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that involves breaking down work into 25-minute intervals, known as "pomodoros," with short breaks in between. This technique can help you stay focused and avoid procrastination by keeping your work sessions short and manageable.

Use the Pomodoro Technique:

Sometimes, overcoming procrastination can be a difficult task to tackle on your own. Seeking support from friends, family, or a therapist can help you stay accountable and motivated.Having someone to hold you accountable can also help you avoid falling back into bad habits. Procrastination can be a challenging issue to overcome, but with the right tools and techniques, it is possible.

Seek support:

By setting achievable goals, using a planner or to-do list, eliminating distractions, practicing self-discipline, taking breaks, using the Pomodoro Technique, and seeking support, you can become a more productive and motivated individual.

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7 ways to overcome procrastination 

If we repeat these small behaviors day after day, our choices compound into major results. Eat pizza every day, and you will likely have gained considerable weight after a year. Go jogging for 20 minutes every day, and you'll eventually be leaner and fitter, even though you won't notice the change happening. You've probably worked out the main insight here: it's that small habits can have a surprisingly powerful impact on your life – and you won't necessarily see this impact happening in real-time. You'll only see the results of your habits after a while.

Small Habits Have Powerful Impact On Your Life 

Now, we know that not seeing the impact of your efforts can be dispiriting. If this is happening to you – if you're feeling discouraged by the lack of immediate positive change – then it's important to try to focus on your current trajectory rather than your current results.

Let's say you have little money in the bank. But you are saving something each month. Your current results might not be that great – your nest egg is still pretty small. But you can be confident that your trajectory is right. Keep going in this direction and, in a few months or a few years, you will notice a major improvement. When the lack of perceived progress gets you down, remember that you're doing the right things and that you're moving in the right direction.But how do you get yourself on the right trajectory? You need to develop habits. I

"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity. "

When you walk into a dark room, you don't think about what to do next; you instinctively reach for a light switch. Reaching for a light switch is a habit – it's a behavior that you've repeated so many times that it now happens automatically. Habits like this dominate our lives, from brushing our teeth to driving our car. They are immensely powerful.

Habits are automated behaviors, we’ve learned from experienc

In the nineteenth century, a psychologist named Edward Thorndike tried to answer this question. First, he placed some cats inside a black box. Then, he timed how long it took them to escape. To start with, each cat behaved exactly as you'd expect when placed inside a box. It desperately looked for a way of escape. It sniffed and pawed at the corners; it clawed at the walls. Eventually, the cat would find a lever that, when pressed, would open a door, enabling it to escape.

With his experiment, Thorndike had discovered something important: behaviors that give satisfying consequences – in this case, gaining freedom – tend to be repeated until they become automatic.Every habit follows the same process. Do you drink coffee every morning? Waking up is your cue, triggering a craving to feel alert. Your response is to drag yourself out of bed and make a cup of joe. Your reward is feeling wide awake and ready to face the world.OK, now that you have an idea of how habits work, let's look at how you can develop good habits that can change your life for the better.

So, we have just discovered how habits are formed. Let's briefly recap. A habit consists of four things: a cue – a trigger that gets you to act; a craving – a desire you want to achieve; a response – the action of the habit itself; and a reward – the positive feeling you get from completing the habit.  Once you know how they work, you can start to hack the habit-forming process to get good, productive habits to stick.

Building new habits requires hard-to-miss cues and a plan. 

Let's say you're desperate to learn the guitar. You've got your instrument, you've picked up the basics, but you struggle to keep up with practice. Each morning, you tell yourself that you'll play later on, but the end of the day soon comes, and you haven't picked up your guitar once.

But now that you know the secrets to building a habit, you can use it to your advantage. In this case, you want to make the cue to pick up your guitar impossible to miss. Instead of keeping your instrument in the cupboard or in the corner of your spare room, leave it right in the middle of your living room – in full view. Make your cue visible and unmissable; this will make it easier to turn your desire to practice into a habit. Changing your environment to put your cues front and center will help, but if you want to perfect your triggers even more, you can use as implementation intentions.

When it comes to setting good habits, most of us tend to be too vague about our intentions. We say, "I'm going to eat better," or "I'm going to learn guitar." And we simply hope that we'll follow through. An implementation intention can help us move beyond the vague intention. Implementation intentions introduce a clear plan of action; they help you set out when and where you'll carry out the habit you'd like to cultivate.

So you might be wondering, this all sounds quite plausible, but does it really work? Can I actually tweak my environment and make it easy to form positive habits? Sounds good on paper, right? But in practice?

Anne Thorndike and her colleagues designed a test. As part of the experiment, she had the hospital cafeteria rearranged. The soda in the refrigerators next to the cash registers was replaced with bottled water, and baskets of bottled water were placed all around the cafeteria. Dr. Thorndike and the team then watched to see what would happen.

And what do you think happened? Well, over three months, soda sales fell by 11 percent, and water sales shot up by over 25 percent. Simply by creating more cues for people to drink water, Dr. Thorndike and her team were able to get people to make the healthier choice. In other words, they were able to help people build better habits, without forcing them to make a conscious decision to do so. Clear evidence that altering your environment can help you adopt better habits.

Well, we don't actually have to do the pleasurable activity to get the hit of dopamine. The mere anticipation of doing something pleasurable is enough to get the dopamine flowing. In the brain's reward system, desiring something is on par with getting something! We can turn this to our advantage. When building our new habit, if we make it something we look forward to, we'll be much more likely to follow through and actually do it.

Here's where I'd like to introduce you to the concept of temptation bundling. Temptation bundling is where you take a behavior that you think of as important but unappealing and link it to a behavior that you're drawn to. This is how you can use dopamine to your advantage when building a new habit. Just find a way of making those unattractive but important tasks enjoyable, and you'll be surfing a wave of dopamine, and creating positive habits, at the same time.

Making a habit pleasurable is a surefire way to make it stick. Another way we can hack the habit-building process is to make it easy.  Easy behaviors dominate our lives. We scroll through social media or munch through a bag of potato chips because these are easy things to do. On the other hand, doing a hundred push-ups or studying Mandarin are both pretty tough and take a lot of effort. This is why we don't find ourselves drawn to intensive exercise or language learning in our spare time.

By making our desired behaviors as easy as possible, we stand the best chance of turning them into a habit. And the good news is, there are various ways we can make this happen. The first way is by reducing friction.

So that's friction. The second trick for making a habit easier in the long term is what's known as the two-minute rule. This is a way to make any new activity feel manageable. The principle is that any behavior can be distilled into a habit that is doable within two minutes. So, if you want to read more, don't commit to reading one book every week. Instead, make a habit of reading two pages per night.  Or, if you want to run a marathon, commit to simply putting on your running gear every day after work.

The two-minute rule is a way to build easily achievable habits – small accomplishments that can lead you to greater things. Once you've pulled on your running shoes, you'll probably head out for a run. Once you've read two pages, you'll likely continue. Simply getting started is the first and most important step toward doing something.

Making good behaviors satisfying can be difficult. This is due to human evolution. Today, we live in what is known as a delayed-return environment. You turn up at the office today, but the return – a paycheck – doesn't come until the end of the month. You go to the gym in the morning, but you don't lose weight overnight.

Unfortunately, our brains evolved to cope with an immediate-return environment. Our distant ancestors weren't thinking about long-term returns like saving for retirement or sticking to a diet. They were focused on immediate concerns like finding their next meal, seeking shelter, and staying alert enough to escape any nearby saber-toothed tigers.

This focus on immediate returns can encourage bad habits. Smoking may give you lung cancer in 20 years, but, in the moment, it relieves your stress and the craving for nicotine. The immediate hit from your cigarette will likely override the long-term costs to your health. All this means is that when pursuing habits with a delayed return, you need to try to attach some immediate gratification to them.

One simple trick for making new habits stick is called habit tracking.So why not set yourself a habit contract? Even if it isn't as detailed as Bryan Harris's, consider making a commitment to your partner, your best friend, or one of your coworkers. If you agree upon a set of consequences for failing to follow through, you'll be much more likely to stick to your habits. And as we've seen, sticking to a positive habit, however small, is a surefire way to achieve big things in life.

These are not my personal summary, but no summary can be better than this. @blinkist

The #1 New York Times bestseller. Over 4 million copies sold! Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights. Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field. Learn how to: make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy); overcome a lack of motivation and willpower; design your environment to make success easier; get back on track when you fall off course; ...and much more. Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

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Personal Development

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Strategy

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Learning & Education

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Books

The #1 New York Times bestseller. Over 10 million copies sold! Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights. Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field. Learn how to: <ul><li>make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);</li></ul><ul><li>overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;</li></ul><ul><li>design your environment to make success easier;</li></ul><ul><li>get back on track when you fall off course;</li></ul>...and much more. Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

James Clear is the author of "Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" He writes about habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement at jamesclear.com. His website receives millions of visitors each month and hundreds of thousands subscribe to his popular email newsletter.His work has appeared in the New York Times, Entrepreneur, Time, and on CBS This Morning. He is a regular speaker at Fortune 500 companies and his work is used by teams in the NFL, NBA, and MLB. Learn more at jamesclear.com

James Clear

Atomic Habits

Learning to effectively lead yourself and others all comes down to discipline. Happiness, success, and fulfillment stem from focus and self-control.with discipline and self-control we actually accomplish more of the goals we truly care about. Self-discipline is the bridge between goals defined and goals accomplished.

Self-awareness is a powerful tool for comfort zone expansion, but it requires constant focus and acknowledging your shortcomings, whatever they may be.Know your strengths, but more importantly, own up to your flaws. You can’t overcome them until you do.

1.Know your strengths and weaknesses.

If you want to enhance your productivity at work, improve the management of your To-Do’s, turn off social media notifications and silence your cell phone. Prioritize and execute.The fewer distractions you have, the more focused you will be on accomplishing your goals. Set yourself up for success by ditching bad influences.

2.Remove temptations

If you hope to achieve greater degrees of self-discipline, you must have a clear vision of what you hope to accomplish, just like any goalA clear plan outlines each time-bound step you must take to reach your goals. Create a mantra to keep yourself focused. Successful people use this technique to stay on track, emotionally connect to their mission, and establish a clear finish line.

3.Set clear goals and have an execution plan

work on building your self-discipline through daily diligence in a given area associated with a goal. This goes back to step three. In order to practice daily diligence, you must have a plan. Put it on your calendar, your to-do list, tattoo it on the back of your eyelids - whatever works best for you. With practice, anyone can push the boundaries of their comfort zone every day.

4.Practice daily diligence

Acquiring self-discipline and working to instill a new habit can feel daunting at first, especially if you focus on the entire task at hand. To avoid feeling intimidated, keep it simple. Break your goal into small, doable steps. Instead of trying to change everything at once, focus on doing one thing consistently and master self-discipline with that goal in mind.

5.Create new habits and rituals

When we embrace the mindset of unlimited willpower, we continue to grow, achieve more, and develop mental toughness. It’s the same philosophy as setting “stretch” goals. In short, our internal conceptions about willpower and self-control can determine how disciplined we are. If you can remove these subconscious obstacles and truly believe you can do it, then you will give yourself an extra boost of motivation toward making those goals a reality.

6.Change your perception about willpower

Going in with a plan will help give you the mindset and self-control necessary for the situation. You will also save energy by not having to make a sudden decision based on your emotional state.8

7.Give yourself a backup plan

The development of expertise requires coaches who are capable of giving constructive, even painful, feedback. Real experts are extremely motivated students who seek out such feedback. They’re also skilled at understanding when and if a coach or mentor’s advice doesn’t work for them.The best coaches also identify aspects of your performance that will need to be improved at your next level of skill and aid you in preparation.

8.Find trusted coaches or mentors

Even with all our best intentions and well laid plans, we sometimes fall short. It happens. You will have ups and downs, great successes and dismal failures. The key is to keep going. Learn from your missteps and forgive yourself. Then get your head back in the game and violently execute. Good luck!

9.Forgive yourself and move forward

Learning to effectively lead yourself and others all comes down to discipline. Happiness, success, and fulfillment stem from focus and self-control. Self-discipline is the bridge between goals defined and goals accomplished.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Motivation & Inspiration

9 Powerful Ways To Cultivate Extreme Self-Discipline

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3514273-10-minute-toughness">10-Minute Toughness </a>is a hands-on guide to becoming the best version of yourself and achieving success through consistent good practices such as eating right, forming meaningful relationships, committing to your goals publicly, visualizing your achievements, and many others.

10-Minute Toughness - Book Summary 

"Mental toughness is the ability to focus on and execute solutions, especially in the face of adversity."-Jason Selk

Author Quote

Mental toughness and self-confidence are two essential traits of successful people. For example, in sports, confidence plays a major role. It is said to be the most influential aspect in controlling performance. In other words, thinking highly of yourself and believing that you can do something increases your chances of succeeding.

Book Overview 

However, the path to mental toughness and a winning mentality can be challenging. To think that you can achieve everything you want, you must <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/mind-gym-summary/">train your mind, body, and spirit accordingly </a>. You have to show yourself that you are capable of setting and following goals and plans. And even more than that, you have to go through each day with a focused mentality. That way, you can overcome any obstacles that may keep you from achieving your goals.

To do so, you must have a clear vision first, and target your efforts. Moreover, you non have to stop caring about what those around you say, and trust yourself more. Although it may sound simple, these aspects stand in the way of the majority of us. These impede us from becoming our best selves. Fortunately, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3514273-10-minute-toughness">10-Minute Toughness </a>by <a href="https://enhancedperformanceinc.com/">Jason Selk </a>steps in to help everyone struggling in the process to find their way.

<ol><li>Your image of yourself is a self-constructed concept that you can change anytime. </li><li>Set goals out of passion and love, so that you enjoy their accomplishment. </li><li>To become successful, you must work constantly towards achieving your goals, and nor rely on occasional motivation. </li> </ol>

Top 3 Book Lessons 

Everybody views themselves in a certain way. Some people seem to have it all figured out, that’s why they feel confident and unshakeable. Others don’t think highly of themselves, and unfortunately, that shows as well. However, that can change at any time. The <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/boys-sex-summary/">impression we have on ourselves </a>is a construct of our own mind. And so we can always access it and change it for the better.

Lesson 1: Build a powerful image of yourself to improve

Of course, it’s not as easy as it sounds. To do so, you must first act and think like the person you want to be. To have your brain think that you are the confident and reliable person you wish to become, you need to set goals and objectives that you ought to follow every day. In other words, you need to work towards becoming that person.

You can’t underperform or even <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-passion-paradox-summary/">outperform your self-image </a>, especially in the long run. If you believe that you’re not capable of doing a certain thing, chances are you won’t succeed at doing it. Doesn’t matter if you try to trick your mind into thinking the opposite. As such, only by picking up good practices and acting right until you form the right habits, can you truly tap into the winning mentality.

Everybody has a dream, or at least something that they love doing more than anything else. Some people are lucky enough to call their passion a job, but what happens to the rest of us? The majority of the world works for financial security, and not out of love for their occupation. As such, when the rewards come, they don’t feel accomplished nor successful.

Lesson 2: Set goals effectively by following your passion

To step out of this undesirable approach to life, you must first learn how <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/the-4-disciplines-of-execution-summary/">to set goals effectively </a>. To start with, think about your passion and what you love doing most. All your endeavors should revolve around that particular thing that sparks motivation and fires up your soul, so that when you achieve it, you become fulfilled and reach the ultimate level of happiness.

If you follow money or social status, but that’s not what you truly desire in your heart, achieving these will leave you unfulfilled and miserable. As such, once you set a goal that speaks to your identity, you have to commit to it 100%. It won’t be fun, nor easy, and you’ll have to give up a lot of your free time to commit to your goals. However, once achieved, you’ll feel fulfilled and at peace with yourself.

Have you ever caught yourself in a particular moment having an unusual desire to just fix everything in your life, follow your ambitions and take charge of everything at once? Those sudden bursts of motivation can definitely fuel your ambitions, but they won’t take you too far in the long run.

Lesson 3: Success is a result of gradual improvement, not sudden motivation

Relying on motivation alone to get things done won’t do much, as those sudden moments of stimulus don’t happen too often. Instead, progressive efforts and gradual improvement will help you <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/think-small-summary/">achieve your goals </a>. To reach a state where the right practices, such as eating right, training everyday, or reading a certain amount of pages become a habit and a ritual incorporated in your routine is tough work.

However, only by doing these things automatically you’ll truly tap into a focused mindset and target your efforts in the most efficient way. Although difficult at first, you ought to take each day as it is and do your best, stick to your short-term objectives to meet your end goals, and you’ll find yourself doing all the right things without thinking in just a few months.

If you’ve ever found yourself feeling unproductive, lacking determination, or simply wanting to take charge of your life and reach your goals, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3514273-10-minute-toughness">10-Minute Toughness </a>is the book for you. Reading it will reveal the most effective ways of setting goals and sticking to them to achieve the ultimate level of fulfillment. If you’re looking to become the best version of yourself, give this book a read.

The 10-Minute Toughness - Book Review

If you’ve ever found yourself feeling unproductive, lacking determination, or simply wanting to take charge of your life and reach your goals, 10-Minute Toughness is the book for you. Reading it will reveal the most effective ways of setting goals and sticking to them to achieve the ultimate level of fulfillment. If you’re looking to become the best version of yourself, give this book a read.

Who would I recommend the 10-Minute Toughness to?

10-Minute Toughness is a hands-on guide to becoming the best version of yourself and achieving success through consistent good practices.

10-Minute Toughness Summary

Focus is critical component of success in both personal and professional life. It is the ability to concentrate one's efforts, thoughts, and energy toward a specific goal or task.

How to stay focused in Life and on Goals 

1. Set clear and specific goals - The first step towards focus is setting clear and specific goals. This means you need to determine what you want to achieve, why you want to achieve it, and by when. A clear goal provides direction and motivation, making it easier to stay focused.

Here are some tips for staying focused on your goals 

2. Eliminate distractions - Distractions are one of the biggest obstacles to focus. It's essential to eliminate them as much as possible. This means turning off your phone, closing your email, and finding a quiet place to work.

3. Stay organized - Organization is key to focus. When you have a clear and organized workspace, you can find what you need quickly, and you don't waste time searching for it.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38390751-the-infinite-game">The Infinite Game </a>argues that business is not a competition but an infinite journey, and that to do well in it, leaders must advance a “Just Cause,” build trusting teams, learn from their “Worthy Rivals,” and practice existential flexibility.

Book Summary 

"Our lives are finite, but life is infinite. We are the finite players in the infinite dame of life. We come and go, we're born and we die, and life still continues with or without us."-Simon Sinek

Author Quote 

At one point, both <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/steve-jobs-summary/">Apple </a>and <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/hit-refresh-summary/">Microsoft </a>invited <a href="https://simonsinek.com/simons-bio/">Simon Sinek </a>to present at their education summits within the span of a few months. Comparing the two experiences after the fact, Sinek noticed something: “At the Microsoft event, the majority of the presenters devoted a good portion of their presentations to talking about how they were going to beat Apple. At the Apple event, 100% of the presenters spent 100% of their time talking about how Apple was trying to help teachers teach and help students learn.”

This marks the difference between a company that thinks with a finite mindset and one that thinks with an infinite mindset. The concept stems from a 1984 book by James Carse, called <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/finite-and-infinite-games-summary/">Finite and Infinite Games </a>. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38390751-the-infinite-game">The Infinite Game </a>, Sinek applies the concept to business.

Infinite-minded companies last longer, achieve more, and are generally kinder and more beneficial to the world. Maintaining this mindset requires following a continuous, five-step cycle, Sinek says:<ol><li>Advance a “Just Cause”</li><li>Build trusting teams</li><li>Learn from your “Worthy Rivals”</li><li>Practice existential flexibility</li><li>Demonstrate the courage to lead</li></ol>

<ol><li>There are finite and infinite games. Business is an infinite game and must therefore be played as such. </li><li>A Just Cause is an appealing vision of the future that pulls people in, and it must satisfy 5 criteria to work. </li><li>Every infinite-minded business needs a Worthy Rival to learn from. </li> </ol>

Top 3 Book Ideas 

Soccer is an excellent example of a finite game. There’s a limited field on which the game is played. The rules are clear. There’s a set time for when the game begins and ends, a mechanism for keeping score, and a list of winners and losers after the fact. Naturally, finite games inspire short-term thinking. You have to win immediately , and the only way to win is to kick your opponent out of the game. Elections, casting shows, and all sporting competitions are finite games.

Lesson 1: The world is full of both finite and infinite games

Business, relationships, and education, on the other hand, are infinite games. There’s no defined beginning or end. New players join all the time. Others leave. There are rules, but they too constantly change. What the players do once they’re on the field is largely up to them, and the goal is to stay in the game rather than win. The world is full of both finite and infinite games, and problems occur when we play infinite games with a finite mindset.

When the FIFA gave the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup">2022 World Cup </a> to Qatar, for example, they did so primarily because <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattcraig/2022/11/19/the-money-behind-the-most-expensive-world-cup-in-history-qatar-2022-by-the-numbers">they paid a lot of money </a>. They also reneged on fan and player privileges, like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/sports/soccer/world-cup-beer-qatar.html">alcohol in stadiums </a>and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/world-cup-2022-what-is-onelove-armband-why-did-fifa-ban-it-2022-11-24/">the LGBT armband </a>. Fans slammed the FIFA for its short-term thinking. They boycotted ticket sales, jerseys, and even stopped watching altogether. Business is an infinite game. If you play it, <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/long-term-thinking-for-a-short-sighted-world-summary/">think long-term </a>, cooperate with others, and try to keep playing rather than win.

Sinek quotes a study that suggests S&P 500 company lifespans have declined by over 40 years, from 61 on average to 18. Why? Fewer and fewer companies try to advance a “Just Cause.”

Lesson 2: Infinite thinking requires a Just Cause

“A Just Cause is a specific vision of a future state that does not yet exist ; a future state so appealing that people are willing to make sacrifices in order to help advance toward that vision,” Sinek says. It must have the following five traits:<ol><li>It must be for something rather than just against something . Fighting for every human’s right to eat is better than fighting against famine and starvation.</li><li>It must be inclusive . We only get excited about a vision we can clearly see.</li></ol>

3. It must be service-oriented . The primary beneficiary of the cause must be someone other than the business itself.4. It must be resilient . Will you build trains instead of cars if that’s where the world is headed? You should!5. It must be idealistic . Your vision should provide inspiration for generations, not be something you can get done by next week.

For years, Sinek had a silent competition going with Adam Grant, author of <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/originals-summary/">Originals </a>. When he finally met him at an event, Sinek realized: “The way I saw him had nothing to do with him. It had to do with me.” Instead of trying to beat his “competitor,” Sinek finally appreciated Grant as a “Worthy Rival:” Someone whose strengths and skills he could learn from.

Lesson 3: Worthy Rivals feel like competitors

Most of the time in business, the pie is big enough for everyone, and it’s better to focus on growing the pie altogether than to try and snag pieces off your neighbor’s plate. Analyzing a worthy rival will make you better at what you do. It’ll also help you gain clarity on why you’re doing it. Embrace competitors as co-players, and you’ll slowly adopt a <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/mindset-summary/">mindset </a>of <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/abundance-summary/">abundance </a>rather than scarcity, which will get you to focus on your Just Cause more so than whoever’s about to beat you.

Having read about half of its chapters, I’m pretty sure this isn’t <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/simon-sinek-books/">Simon Sinek’s best book </a>but still well worth your time. For the basics of finite and infinite games, read <a href="https://fourminutebooks.com/finite-and-infinite-games-summary/">Finite and Infinite Games </a>. To learn more about your Just Cause, Worthy Rivals, and the other concepts, pick up this inspiring and thought-provoking book. Even if you end up skipping the more common-sense chapters, this will be a few hours well-spent.

The Infinite Game - Book Review

The 17-year-old ambitious athlete who throws a tantrum every time he loses a game, the 42-year-old CFO who sometimes fails to see the big picture for all the numbers, and anyone who wants to build a business that can survive for 100 years or more.

Who would I recommend  The Infinite Game to?

Read our summary of The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek to find your Just Cause and Worthy Rival, among other lessons. Read now.

business

Business

creativity

Creativity

The Infinite Game Summary

The first category of religions asks us to look at the highest good we can imagine and align ourselves with it. If we do this we wont need to worry about our day-to-day existence. They differ in moral principles but are similar in that if we follow the principles that the collective agrees too everything will work out to the greater good. Faith is key to staying aligned, and able to meet and become with God. All of the religions with star symbols, even those with multiple gods, fall under this category because theyre just fragmented stars across the metaphorical night sky of our consciousness.

Top-Down Spirituality

The second category of religions asks us to ground and become aware of the smallest things, notice our breath and the mind body connection. Through that practice develop the ability to notice everything else. We are called to build awareness until we understand causation and only embrace actions aligned with our natural rhythms. They differ slightly in practice depending on where on earth they developed, but similarly call to opening our eyes to reality and be able to flow with lifes cycles, see visions for how to move forward in the world, leading to an awarness that we are all one with God.

Bottom-Up Spirituality

Spirituality informs inspiration; the poetry of the finest elements, glowing and alive. Different paths towards the same end, Inward to reach the ultimate oneness around us, or outward to reach the ultimate oneness within us. Clearly the paths relayed here are only a sketch for a multi-dimensional truth relayed in a 2D array, an alternative to conformal mapping, in the sense that they achieve exactly the same results by a different path. Theyre both frameworks for cultivating practices, awareness and vision to ease human suffering and enable us to move towards more fulfilled lives.

The Ultimate Oness

Spirituality informs inspiration; the poetry of the finest elements, glowing and alive.

philosophy

Philosophy

religionandspirituality

Religion & Spirituality

mentalhealth

Mental Health

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

The 2 Spiritual Paths On Earth

Always believe that you can make it. Don’t ever give up on yourself.

Believe In yourself 

Have a plan for your work and life.

Create A Plan

Bad things happen. It is temporary. Stay positive.

Stay Positive 

Have a group of like minded people to be with

Build A Community

Set Boundaries

Practice Self Care

Watch some TV. Play some games. Read a book. Catch up with a friend.

Take A Break

Think of all the good things you have and are grateful for

Be Grateful

Remember why you are doing what you are doing.

Remember Your Purpose

Jot down your goals. Read it when you get up and when you go to bed.

Write Down Your Goals

To be successful, here are some tips as to how to build a strong mindset.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

meditation

Meditation

10 Ways To Build A Strong Mindset For Success

Getting ready can become a distraction.Being prepared is overrated: start before you feel ready.Being successful is not about your ability to plan, but your ability to act. You may make more mistakes at first if you decide to start acting before you feel ready, but the long-term compound effect of learning from these mistakes will get you closer to your goals than any amount of preparation. The illusion of a perfect time to start is holding you back.

A fine line between PREPARATION and PROCRASTINATION

“It takes a long time to feel ready. Everyone thinks it’s an overnight thing, but when you start out, it’s really hard.”

Procrastination is such an obstacle for creative perfectionists that sometimes we could use a reminder to just do things. Stop overthinking. 

You should start before you feel ready. Getting prepared feels good, but it’s a way to trick your brain into thinking you’re being productive.

Being prepared is overrated: start before you feel ready

Find 100+ Facts About Habits  - Curated from inspiring sources like Books, Podcasts & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!

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Being prepared is overrated: start before you feel ready

Quote by Ella Fitzgerald

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

7 ways to overcome procrastination

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9 Powerful Ways To Cultivate Extreme Self-Discipline

10-Minute Toughness Summary

How to stay focused in Life and on Goals

The Infinite Game Summary

The 2 Spiritual Paths On Earth

10 Ways To Build A Strong Mindset For Success

Being prepared is overrated: start before you feel ready

Quote by Ella Fitzgerald

It's time to Read like a Pro.

It's time to
Read like a Pro.