Ira Varma

Self-Authorship is a kind of mind-framing, which states that we can discard all the instructions and behavioural patterns we learned since childhood, and create our own belief system and identity.

We are released from what others think of us and can define our own goals, crafting a unique life without using the blueprint of society.

More and more psychologists are realizing that people can score highly on one or more psychopathic personality traits without having criminal or violent tendencies, such as:

• Self-centered impulsivity (how selfish you are)
• Cold heartedness (who switched off you are from other people's suffering)
• Fearless dominance (being less susceptible to fear, stress, and anxiety)

Many people feel uncomfortable when they hear their own voice in audio recordings.

Your voice sounds deeper and richer when you speak but thinner and higher on recordings. The reason for the variance is this:

• When listening to a recording of your voice, the sound travels through the air and into your ears.
• When you speak, some sound travels through the air, but much of the sound is internally conducted through your skull bones and boosts the lower frequencies.

1. Start with an incredibly small habit, one that is easy enough that you don't need motivation to do it
2. Increase your habit in very small ways - start small and gradually improve
3. As you build up, break habits into chunks
4. When you slip, get back on track quickly.

We understand success as something relative to others and not something by itself. Status, power, wealth and position is by default a relative rank to the rest of the contenders of society. This constant comparison is designed for unending misery for all rank holders, from the first to the last.

Real success is individual, and true happiness comes from identifying and cultivating your own inner strength and contentment.

Introversion is how you’re wired, whereas social anxiety is something that is holding you back due to fear instead of a choice you're making.

Non-anxious introverts are very happy to leave a party early, but people with social anxiety often leave because they feel so worried and want relief.

Psychiatrist Victor Frankl, whose classic book Man’s Search For Meaning promotes better mental and emotional health by discovering meaning in our lives, provided us with a dilemma: To savour the world or to enjoy it.

The main drive of life, according to many philosophers, is to find meaning in all the suffering we all inevitably go through. Troubling, bleak and disturbing news can be a source of anxiety or a call to action, depending on a person’s mindset.

Is the act of selecting a target or objective you wish to achieve.

Goal setting is not only about choosing the rewards you want to enjoy, but also the costs you are willing to pay to achieve your goals.

Everyone's purpose is different and where they stem from holds variety. We have no "one true purpose" but we are in charge of what it may be.

In spite of the truth it holds, purpose is something we can cultivate through conscious action and reflection, and it easily wax and wane throughout our lives.