You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Meditations

<a href="https://www.inc.com/business-insider/elon-musk-says-you-need-to-work-80-hours-a-week-to-save-the-world.html">Elon Musk </a>is renowned for the number of hours he puts into his work. Rather than the usual 40-hour weeks, most employees churn out, he regularly works 80 to 100-hour weeks .

1. Nothing easy is worth having

Despite his enormously long work weeks, Musk is a massive advocate for <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/09/richard-branson-gives-elon-musk-some-advice-learn-to-delegate-and-get-some-sleep.html">delegation</a>. He has come to understand that he is just one man and can only do so much.

2. Learn to delegate early on

Musk has seen some amazing success in his time. From Paypal to Tesla it may seem that everything he touches turns to gold.

3. Don't be afraid to dream big and embrace failure

Throughout your college life, and professional life thereafter, you will have many things that attempt to demand your attention and time. In order to make headway, you must develop the ability to prioritize -- Afterall why obsess over getting an A if you don't really need it?

4. Learn to prioritize!

Not to beat a dead horse, but people like <a href="https://interestingengineering.com/elon-musks-timeboxing-method-to-manage-time-effectively">Musk </a>will be the first to tell you to sort out a schedule for yourself ASAP. Your time is your most valuable possession and it must be used as efficiently as possible.Set goals and then break them down into more manageable chunks, if needed. Avoid pointless meetings and conversations, for example.

5. Write a damn schedule and stick to it!

<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/books-elon-musk-thinks-everyone-should-read-2018-4">Musk </a>, like many other high-achievers, is a lifelong learner. Try to develop a habit, and love, for reading and learning from a young age.

6. Do not rest on your laurels

In order to become a high-achiever like <a href="https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/elon_musk_425639">Musk </a>, you will need to learn to question yourself constantly. Could I be wrong? What am I not seeing here? Is there a better way of doing this? What mistakes did I make in the past, and what did I learn?Musk is all about continuous improvement of the self. Study and judge yourself regularly.

7. Learn to be your own judge and jury

Opinions. Everybody has them but few are worth their salt.  If you know what you want, go for it. Ignore the naysayers.

8. Be highly selective of opinions

And finally, people like <a href="https://projectdoinggood.com/elon-musk-focused-on-the-future/">Elon Musk </a>know the importance of staying focused. While it is relatively easy to set goals, sometimes staying focused on them can be daunting. Learn to figure out what you want and why. And etch the reasons into your memory, or use a myriad of aide-mémoires .

9. "Stay on target!"

If you could travel back in time, what tips would give your younger self? Here are some of Elon Musk's suggestions.

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

startup

Startups

9 Life-Changing Tips for Students from Elon Musk

<ol><li>Sit on a straight-backed chair or cross-legged on the floor.</li><li>Focus on an aspect of your breathing, such as the sensations of air flowing into your nostrils and out of your mouth</li><li>Once you've narrowed your concentration in this way, begin to widen your focus. Become aware of sounds, sensations, and ideas.</li><li>Embrace and consider each thought or sensation without judging it good or bad. If your mind starts to race, re-turn your focus to your breathing. Then expand your awareness again.</li></ol>The benefits of mindfulness meditation tend to be related to the duration and frequency of your practice.

Mindfulness meditation.

A less formal approach to mindfulness can also help you to stay in the present and fully participate in your life. You can choose any task or moment to practice informal mindfulness, whether you are eating, showering, walking, touching a partner, or playing with a child or grandchild. Attending to these points will help:

Practicing awareness in daily life

<ol><li>Start by bringing your attention to the sensations in your body.</li><li>Breathe in through your nose, allowing the air to fill your lungs. Let your abdomen expand fully. Then breathe out slowly through your mouth. This pattern may slow down your heart rate and lower your blood pressure, helping you relax. </li><li>Proceed with the task at hand slowly and with full deliberation.</li><li>Engage your senses fully. Notice each sight, touch, and sound so that you savor every sensation.</li><li>When you notice that your mind has wandered from the task at hand, gently bring your attention back to the sensations of the moment.</li></ol>

If mindfulness meditation appeals to you, here are two mindfulness exercises you can try on your own.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

meditation

Meditation

Two mindfulness meditation exercises to try - Harvard Health

The decision making process that Dalio, Buffett and Munger use is:<ol><li> Make the most rational decisions you can;</li><li> Look for psychological bias that may have interfered with making a rational decision; and</li><li>Expose your hypothesis to very smart people who have a thoughtful contrary view and deeply understand their position.</li></ol>

Decision Making Process

“To better avoid errors, you should talk to people who disagree with you and you should talk to people who are not in the same emotional situation you are.”

What is most interesting to me about Ray Dalio is his decision-making process. This blog post is limited to a discussion of that process and not Bridgewater’s philosophy generally. If you are interested in understanding Bridgewater and Dalio more broadly, Dalio has a book coming out this fall which expands on his widely circulated "Principles"…

mentalhealth

Mental Health

How to Make Decisions like Ray Dalio

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Talk to your users before you came up with MVP</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Build MVP with limited functionality. You need to condense down what your user needs, what your initial user needs, to very simple needs </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Don't take too much time to build MVP try to build MVP within three weeks.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Don't fall in love with your MVP don't think it should be perfect and spent a lot of time.Treat it as one of the steps to be completed </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Ask feedback from real customers and iterate it.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Always be more flexible to change your solution according to your customer's needs and try to be in contact with your customer.</li></ul>

Minimum Viable Product

YC CEO and Partner Michael Seibel shares his approach to building an MVP and getting your first users as a pre-launch startup.

How to Plan an MVP: Getting Started, Building Product

<ul><li>Bootstrapping is founding and running a company using only personal finances or operating revenue.</li><li>This form of financing allows the entrepreneur to maintain more control, but it also can increase financial strain.</li></ul>

What Is Bootstrapping?

<ul><li>Seed capital is the money raised to begin developing an idea for a business or a new product.</li><li>This funding generally covers only the costs of creating a proposal.</li><li>After securing seed financing, startups may approach venture capitalists to obtain additional financing.</li><li>Some seed capital may come from angel investors—professional investors who have a high-net-worth.</li></ul>

Seed Funding

<ul><li>Series A financing follows initial seed capital, generally bringing in investments in the tens of millions of dollars.</li><li>A start-up will generally draw this level of financing only after it has demonstrated a viable business model with strong growth potential.</li><li>Series A financing enables a start-up that has potential but lacks needed cash to expand its operations through hiring, purchasing inventory and equipment, and pursuing long-term goals.</li><li>Series A financiers typically gain a large or controlling interest in the start-up company in exchange for their investment and the risk they are taking.</li></ul>

Series A Financing

<ul><li>Series B financing is the second round of funding for a company that has met certain milestones and is past the initial startup stage.</li><li>Series B investors usually pay a higher share price for investing in the company than Series A investors.</li><li>Series B investors typically prefer convertible preferred stock vs. common stock due to the anti-dilution feature of preferred stock.</li><li>Series B funding can come from private equity investors, venture capitalists, crowdfunded equity, and credit investments.</li></ul>

Series B Funding 

<ul><li>Businesses that make it to Series C funding sessions are already quite successful.</li><li>Companies look for additional funding to help them develop new products, expand into new markets, or even acquire other companies</li><li>Cycle C funding is focused on scaling the company, growing as quickly and as successfully as possible.</li></ul>

Series C Funding 

Series A, B, and C funding rounds are important opportunities for new companies to gain crucial financial support.

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

Series A, B, C Funding: How It Works

Stoicism is a Hellenistic philosophy that’s been around for over 2,300 years. Stoicism is a life philosophy that helps you think and approach reality in an effective way.Stoic philosophers have been known throughout history for their logic and practical advice. In essence, they were early model thinkers. Modern psychotherapies like Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) draw extensively from Stoicism. The scientific method and academic community have proven the Stoics right.

Stoic philosophy

“Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions. “ ﻿

Martin Seligman, co-founder of the positive psychology movement. He came up with the PERMA model, which describes how we can achieve a life of fulfillment, happiness, and meaning.Positive emotion —The ability to stay optimistic and look at situations constructively.Engagement —Full attention on a present activity that absorbs you, leading to a flow state.Relationships—Realize we are social animals and need other people to thrive.Meaning —Find your strengths and ways to contribute, or: “why am I on earth?”Accomplishments —Find realistic goals that add value to your life and of those around you.

PERMA Model

Morning Journal:<ol><li> Write about three things you're grateful for. </li><li>Also, think ahead of what is your plan for the day, and try to decide what situations might challenge your calm or healthy habits. </li><li>Then think of ways of how I can act virtuously, and write a piece of advice to yourself on how to behave. </li></ol>Evening Journal: In the evening ask yourself four-question :<ol><li>What did I do well today?</li><li>What did I do poorly today?</li><li>What bad habits have I checked today?</li><li>What opportunities did I miss today?</li></ol>

Journaling

People often come to me with their problems. Yet, I rarely offer a solution, and almost always ask many difficult questions. So why me? What do I have to offer that even people who barely know me…

philosophy

Philosophy

How to Make Smart Decisions

<ul><li>Engaging in exercise diverts you<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30032703"> </a>from the very thing you are anxious about.</li><li>Moving your body decreases muscle tension, lowering the body’s contribution to feeling anxious.</li><li>Getting your heart rate up changes brain chemistry, increasing the availability of important anti-anxiety neurochemicals, including serotonin, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28319590"> </a>endocannabinoids.</li><li>Exercising regularly helps to control the amygdala, our reacting system to real or imagined threats to our survival and builds up resources that bolster resilience against stormy emotions.</li></ul>

How does exercise help ease anxiety?

Millions of Americans report having an anxiety disorder. Evidence shows engaging in any sort of physical activity is one of the best ways to ease symptoms of anxiety. Regular activity is best, but even a single bout can help.


Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

health

Health

exerciseandfitness

Exercise & Fitness

sports

Sports

Can exercise help treat anxiety? - Harvard Health

Mental models are tools to get clarity on how things work and helps make good decisions. This two concepts underlie everything you do.For example, how does a rocket engine work (system)? And which type of rocket fuel should you use (decision)?

What Is Mental Model ?

80/20 ruleFor example, 80% of the value you get from socializing comes from the top 20% of your friends. So, preferentially strengthen relationships with those friends and drop many of the rest. Be cognizant of nourishing the friendships that matter.Another example: 80% of your procrastination comes from 20% of your indulgences. So, place those 2-4 top indulgences out of arm’s reach, and you’ll see an outsized gain in weekly output.

Pareto principle

Make long-term life decisions using Regret Minimization: choose whichever option you’ll most regret not having pursued when looking back at the end of your life. This is how you optimize for long-term fulfillment.

Long-term Decision: Regret Minimization

Make short-term decisions using the ICE model: When facing many options needing prioritization, score each on three variables using a scale of 1-10: <ol><li>How much positive Impact the option would have if it succeeded.</li><li>The Confidence you have that this option will succeed if you attempt it.</li><li>How Easy (low resource, low time) it would be to pursue this option.</li></ol>Add the 1-10 scores together then divide by three to get your average. Repeat this exercise for each option you're considering then rank all the options by their ICE scores.

Short-term: ICE

The Eisenhower Matrix helps you make day-to-day decisions: Make a 2x2 grid with its axes labeled "Important" and "Urgent." Categorizse your daily tasks into the four quadrants and prioritize them in this order: important and urgent, important but non-urgent, unimportant but urgent, and unimportant and non-urgent.

 Immediate: Eisenhower Matrix

A blog post that makes mental models actionable. How do you rethink your life through the lens of mental models?

Mental model examples: How to actually use them

I think we cannot evolve or leave our identity behind in this world if our decision is based on what others think.Imagine what your life would be like if someone dragged you to another place and left you there, and from there another person took you to another place without knowing the right destination. If you care so much about what others think and make decisions to please them, your life will be the same.You will be like a puppet on the other hand.Always ask one simple question: is it right to do this? No matter what others think, will it improve me as a person? That's it