Personal Development Archives — Page 8 of 9

“Breath” by James Nestor

January 22, 2021 by Rich

8 Key Takeaways from the book

Shut your mouth. Breathe through your nose as much as you can.
1. Buy some mouth tape to help – 3m Medical Tape
1. Even while you exercise, breathe through your nose. You’ll experience less exhaustion and your body will absorb oxygen more efficiently. The result is an improvement in endurance.
Exhale – take bigger and fuller exhales. Move the diaphragm up and down a bit more.
Breathe less. This is not the same as breathing slower. Humans have an overbreathing problem now, which purges carbon dioxide.
Breathe slower. When breathing at a normal rate, our lungs will absorb only about a quarter of the available oxygen in the air. The majority of that oxygen is exhaled back out. By taking longer breaths, we allow our lungs to soak up more in fewer breaths.
The perfect breath is 5.5 breaths per minute – inhaling 5.5 seconds and exhaling 5.5 seconds.
Chew more – It can involve tougher foods, gum, or chewing devices. This will help with bone development.
Practice Mewing – lips together, teeth slightly touching, and tongue on the roof of the mouth.
Incorporate conscious heavy breathing practices into your daily life. There is Tummo, the Wim Hof Method, Holotropic breathing, etc.

INTRODUCTION

Breathing can influence our body weight, overall health, the size and function of our lungs. It can hack into our own nervous system, control our immune system, restore our health, and help us live longer.

No matter what we eat, how much we exercise, how resilient our genes are, how skinny of young or wise we are — none of it will matter unless we’re breathing correctly. That’s what these researchers discovered. The missing pillar in health is breath. It all starts there.

MOUTH BREATHING

Mouth breathing is destroying our health – changes the physical body and transforms airways, all for the worse. Issues from mouth breathing:

Stage 1 hypertension, increase blood pressure, cause heart attacks, strokes, constant state of stress.
Increased change for snoring, sleep apnea, and lack of deep sleep.
- Mouth breathing causes body lose 40% more water > kidneys to release water to trigger to need to urinate and need to drink more water (and wake up during the night to pee).
Periodontal disease, bad breath, leading cause of cavities.

Simply training to breathe through your nose could cut total exertion in half and offer huge gains in endurance. Athletes felt invigorated rather than exhausted while nasal breathing (vs. mouth breathing).

Mouth breathing begets more mouth breathing, nasal breathing begets more nasal breathing.

2. THE LOST ART AND SCIENCE OF BREATHING

NOSE

The right nostril is a gas pedal. When you’re inhaling primarily through this channel, circulation speeds up, your body get hotter, and cortisol levels, blood pressure, and heart rate all increase.

The left nostril is more deeply connected to the parasympathetic nervous system, the rest-and-relax side that lowers temperature and blood pressure, cools the body, and reduces anxiety.

The nose is the first line of defense for the body.

The health benefits of nose breathing are undeniable. One of the many benefits is that the sinuses release a huge boost of nitric oxide that increases circulation and delivers oxygen into cells. Immune function, weight, circulation, mood, and sexual function can all be heavily influenced by the amount of nitric oxide in the body.

Nasal breathing alone can boost nitric oxide sixfold, which is one of the reasons we can absorb about 18 percent more oxygen than by just breathing through the mouth.

EXHALE

Just a few minutes of daily bending and breathing can expand lung capacity. With that extra capacity we can expand our lives.

The smaller and less efficient lungs became, the quicker subjects got sick and died. The cause of deterioration didn’t matter. Smaller meant shorter. But larger lungs equaled longer lives.

The most important aspect of breathing wasn’t just to take in air through the nose. Inhaling was the easy part. The key to breathing, lung expansion, and the long life that came with it was on the other end of respiration. It was in the transformative power of a full exhalation.

Limited use of our diaphragm when breathing overburdens the heart, elevates blood pressure, and causes a rash of circulatory problems.

Over time, shallow breathing will limit the range or our diaphragms and lung capacity and can lead to the high-shouldered, chest-out, neck-extended posture common in those with emphysema, asthma, and other respiratory problems.

SLOW

The best way to prevent many chronic health problems, improve athletic performance, and extend longevity was to focus on how we breathed, specifically to balance oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the body.

The body needs more carbon dioxide to function properly, not faster or deeper breathes. Breathing less allowed animals to produce more energy, more efficiently.

For a healthy body, over breathing has no benefit – we breathe it back out. When breathing at a normal rate, our lungs will absorb only about a quarter of the available oxygen in the air. Much of that oxygen is exhaled back out. By taking longer breaths, we allow our lungs to soak up more in fewer breaths.

The most efficient breathing rhythm is when the length of respirations and the total breaths per minute were locked to 5.5 second inhales followed by 5.5 second exhales and is exactly 5.5 breaths a minute.

LESS

Most of us breathe too much, and up to a quarter of the modern population suffers from more serious chronic over breathing.

The key to optimum breathing, and all the health, endurance, and longevity benefits that come with it, is to practice fewer inhales and exhales in a smaller volume. To breathe, but to breathe less.

Slower, longer exhales, of course, mean higher carbon dioxide levels. With that bonus carbon dioxide, we gain a higher aerobic endurance. This measurement of highest oxygen consumption, called V02 max, is the best gauge of cardiorespiratory fitness. Training the body to breathe less actually increases V02 max, which can not only boost athletic stamina but also help us live longer and healthier lives.

All of them claimed to have gained a boost in performance and blunted the symptoms of respiratory problems, simply by decreasing the volume of air in their lungs and increasing the carbon dioxide in their bodies.

Potential health issues form over breathing: hypertension/headaches, asthma, osteoporosis and increase of bone fractures, heart disease/hemorrhoids/gout/ cancer/100+ diseases from cardon dioxide deficiency.

Mammals with the lowest resting heart rate have the live the longest. The only way to retain a slow resting heart rate is with slow breaths.

CHEW

Our ancient ancestors have excellent teeth, while civilized men have terrible teeth. Ancestors chewed for hours a day and their mouths, teeth, throats, and faces grew to be wide and strong and pronounced. Modern food requires hardly any chewing and creates smaller mouths, narrower airways, and crooked teeth.

Removing teeth and pushing remaining teeth backward only made a too-small mouth smaller. A smaller mouth offers less room to breathe.

The first step to improving airway obstruction wasn’t orthodontics but instead involved maintaining correct “oral posture”. It just meant holding the lips together, teeth lightly touching, with your tongue on the roof of the mouth. Hold the head up perpendicular to the body and don’t kink the neck. When sitting or standing the spine should form a J-shape — perfectly straight until it reaches the small of the back, where it naturally curves outward. While maintaining this posture, we should always breathe slowly through the nose into the abdomen.

Try “mewing” After a few months, mewers have claimed their mouths expanded, jaws became more defined, sleep apnea symptoms lessened, and breathing became easier.

The more we gnaw, the more stem cells release, the more bone density and growth we’ll trigger, the younger we’ll look and the better we’ll breathe.

Our noses and mouths are not predetermined at birth, childhood, or even in adulthood. We can reverse the clock on much of the damage that’s been done in the past few hundred years by force of will, with nothing more than proper posture, hard chewing, and perhaps some mewing.

3. BREATHING+

MORE, ON OCCASION

Tummo-style breathing (Wim Hof Breathing) relies on breathing really fast and heavy on purpose. It controls the vagus nerve, which controls how which organs respond to stress. This heavy breathing teaches us to consciously access the autonomic nervous system and control it, to turn on heavy stress specifically so that we can turn it off. Wim Hof’s breathing techniques earned him over 26 world records of physical endurance with extreme heat and cold.

This flip-flopping — breathing all-out, then not at all, getting really cold and the hot again — is the key to Tummo’s magic. It forces the body into high stress one minute, a state of extreme relaxation the next. Carbon dioxide levels in the blood crash, then they back up. Tissues become oxygen deficient and then flooded again. The body becomes more adaptable and flexible and learns that all these physiological responses can come under our control.

HOLD IT

Breath holding can prevent panic attacks by simply breathing slower and less, increasing their carbon dioxide. The simple and free technique reversed dizziness, shortness of breath, and feelings of suffocation.

FAST, SLOW, AND NOT AT ALL

Breathing slow, less, and through the nose balances the levels of respiratory gases in the body and sends off maximum amount of oxygen to the maximum number of tissues so that our cells have the maximum amount of electron reactivity.

7/10

What We Do Is Who We Are by Ben Horowitz

March 8, 2020 by Rich

I. Key Takeaways: Cultural Checklist

1. Cultural Design – make sure your culture aligns with both your personality and your strategy. Anticipate how it might be weaponized and define it in a way that’s unambiguous.

2. Cultural Orientation – an employee’s first day at work may not be as indelible as Shaka Senghor’s first day out of quarantine (someone was stabbed first day in prison), but it always makes a lasting impression. People learn more about what it takes to succeed in your organization on that day than on any other day. Don’t let that first impression be wrong or accidental.

3. Shocking Rules – any rule so surprising it makes people ask “why do we have this rule” will reinforce key cultural elements. Think about how you can shock your organization into cultural compliance.

Rules for writing a rule so powerful it sets the culture for many years:

3a. It must be memorable – if people forget the rule, they forget the culture.

3b. It must raise the question: why? – Your rule should be so bizarre and shocking that everybody who hears it is compelled to ask, “are you serious?”

3c. Its cultural impact must be straightforward – The answer to “why?” must be clearly explain the cultural concept.

3d. People must encounter the rule almost daily – If your incredibly memorable rule applies only to situations people face once a year, it’s irrelevant.

Examples:
Tom Coughlin (NY Giants) – if you are on time, you are late. Late 5 minutes – fined $1,000.
Amazon – no powerpoint presentations in meeting.
Facebook – move fast and break things – evolved to move fast with stable infrastructure once it got to scale.
Yahoo – nobody is allowed to work from home.

4. Incorporate outside leadership – sometimes the culture you need is so far away from the culture you have that you need to get outside help. Rather than trying to move your company to a culture that you don’t know well, bring in an old pro from the culture you aspire to have.

5. Object Lessons – what you say means far less than what you do. If you really want to cement a lesson, use an object lesson. It need not be a Sun Tzu-style beheading, but it must be dramatic

6. Make ethics explicit – one of the most common and devastating mistakes leaders make is to assume people will do the right thing even when it conflicts with other objectives. Don’t leave ethical principles unsaid.

Examples: “We do the right thing. Period.” – Uber’s new CEO – Dara Khosrowshahi – makes it a priority and the period makes it simple and therefore trivial.

7. Give cultural tenets deep meaning – make them stand out from the norm, from the expected. If the ancient samurai had defined politeness the way we define it today, it would have zero impact on the culture. Because they defined it as the best way to express love and respect, it still shapes Japanese culture today. What do your virtues really mean?

– Samurai Code – Honor, Politeness, Sincerity

8. Walk the talk – “do as I say, not as I do” never works. So refrain from choosing cultural virtues that you don’t practice yourself.

9. Make decisions that demonstrate priorities – it was not enough for Louverture to say his culture was not about revenge. He had to demonstrate it by forgiving the slave owners.

II. Key examples

A. Netscape – “We have three rules at Netscape. The first rule is if you see a snake, don’t call committees, don’t call your buddies, don’t form a team, don’t get a meeting together, just kill the snake.”

“The second rule is don’t go back and play with dead snakes. Too many people waste too much time on decisions that have already been made.”

“And the third rule of snakes is: all opportunities start out looking for snakes.”

B. Shaka Senghor Learnings

B1. Your own perspective on the culture is not that relevant – your view or your executive team’s view of your culture is rarely what your employees experience. What Shaka experienced on his first day out of quarantine transformed him. The relevant question is, what must employees do to survive and succeed in your organization? What behaviors get them included in, or excluded from, the power base? What gets them ahead?

B2. You must start from first principles. Every ecosystem has a default system. Don’t just blindly adopt it.

– You may be adopting an organizing principle you don’t understand (e.g. Intel – casual dress policy)

Ask new employees – what behaviors do they perceive will help them fit in, survive, and succeed? Ask them in their first week and make sure they tell you the bad stuff, the practices, or assumptions that made them wary and uncomfortable. Ask them whats different from other places that they’ve worked – not just what’s better, but what’s worse.

– If you were me, how would you improve the culture based on the first week here? What would you try to enhance?

Diagnose the power struggle – who can get the things done and why? What did they do to get in that position? Can you replicate it? T the same time, how you behave on arrival – how other people see you – affects your standing and potential in the company and determines your personal brand

C. Suresh Khanna – AdRoll – Identifying Good Employees

C1. Smart – not just high IQ, it means disposed toward learning. GOod interview questions: “Tell me about the last significant thing you learned about how to do your job better” or “what’s something that you’ve automated” or “what’s a process that you’ve had to tear down at a company.”

C2. Humble – people want you to succeed if you’re humble. Foundation for collaboration.

C3. Hardworking – When you’re here, you’re disciplined, professional, and focused. You should also be competitive, determined, resourceful, resilient, ad gritty.

C4. Collaborative – being collaborative means providing leadership from everywhere. Good interview question: “Tell me about a situation in your last company where something was substandard and you helped fix it.”

III. Other Takeaways

A. How to tell your culture is messed up?

A1. The wrong people are quitting too often – if your business is going well, yet people are leaving at a higher rate than industry expected rate, you have a problem. If you have good people leaving, there’s something wrong.

A2. You’re failing at your top priorities – customer service still sucks even with improvements – some fundamental items are wrong – e..g product/sales/marketing.

A3. An employee does something that truly shocks you? (e.g. lying middle manager)

B. Good Cultures: Trust, Openness to Bad News, Encourage Bad news

B1. Trust

Delivering bad news –

B1a. State the facts clearly – “we have to lay off 30 people because projections came in $4 million short.”

B1b. If your leadership caused or contributed to the setbacks that necessitated the layoff, cop to that – did we think that we would grow faster than what we did?

B1c. Explain why taking the action you’re taking is essential to the larger mission and how important that mission is?

B2 – Openness to Bad News

– “Kimchi problems” – the deeper you bury them, the hotter they get. Get these addressed immediately!

Why employees don’t volunteer bad news:

B2a. conflicts with an ownership culture – don’t bring me a problem without bringing me a solution – what if they can’t solve the problem? What if they don’t have the authority?

B2b. the company’s long term goals may not align with an employees short term incentives

B2c. Nobody likes getting yelled at – no one likes to admit guilt

B2d Encourage Bad news – be ecstatic about it – “isn’t it great that we found out about this before it killed us” or “this is going to make our company so much stronger once we solve it.”

B2e Focus on issues and not people – most times the root cause of the issue was communication or prioritization or some other soluble problem rather than an employee.

B2f Look for bad news in the regular course of business – ask: “is there anything that’s preventing you from getting your job done?” Or “if you were me, what would you change about the company?”

B3 Loyalty – it’s about quality of your relationships. People don’t leave companies, they leave managers. If there is no relationship between a manger (or a bad relationship), you won’t get loyalty regardless of your cultural policy.

Take a genuine interest in the people she meets, stay true to her word, and is known throughout the organization as someone you want to get behind, she can create deep bonds and loyalties even in the most dynamic industries.

7/10

Secrets of the Millionaire Mindset by T Harv Eker – 17 Principles & Action Steps

February 16, 2020 by Rich

#1: Rich people believe “I create my life”. Poor people believe “Life happens to me”.

Every time you catch yourself blaming, justifying, or complaining, slide your index finger across your neck, as a trigger to remind yourself that you are slitting your financial throat. It will eventually work to alleviate the destructive habit
Do a “debrief.” At the end of each day, write down one thing that went well and one that didn’t. Then write the answer to the following question: “How did I create each of these situations?” If others were involved, ask yourself, “What was my part in creating each of these situations?” This exercise will keep you accountable for your life and make you aware of the strategies that are working for you and the strategies that are not

#2: Rich people play the money game to win. Poor people play the money game to not lose.

Write down two financial objectives that demonstrate your intention to create abundance, not mediocrity or poverty. Write “play to win” goals for your:
- Annual income
- Net worth
- Make these goals achievable with a realistic time frame, yet at the same time remember to “shoot for the stars.”
Go to an upscale restaurant and order a meal at “market price” without asking how much it costs. (If funds are tight, sharing is acceptable.) P.S. No chicken!

#3: Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.

Write a short paragraph on exactly why creating wealth is important to you. Be specific
Meet with a friend or family member who is willing to support you. Tell that person you want to evoke the power of commitment for the purpose of creating greater success. Put your hand on your heart, look that person in the eye, and repeat the following statement:
“I _______ [your name], do hereby commit to becoming a millionaire or more by ________ [date].”
- Tell your partner to say “I believe in you.” Then you say, “Thank you.”

#4: Rich people think big. Poor people think small.

Write down what you believe to be your “natural talents.” These are things you’ve always been naturally good at. Also write how and where you can use more of these gifts in your life and especially your work life
- Write some or brainstorm with a group of people how you can solve problems for ten times the number of people you affect in your job or business now. Come up with at least three different strategies. Think “leverage.”

#5: Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.

Get in the game. Consider a situation or project you’ve wanted to start. Whatever you’ve been waiting for, forget it. Begin now from wherever you ate with whatever you’ve got. If possible, do it while working for or with someone else, first, to learn the ropes. If you’ve already learned, no more excuses. Go for it!
Practice optimism. Today, whatever anyone says is a problem or an obstacle, reframe it into an opportunity. You’ll drive negative people nuts, but, hey, what’s the difference? That’s what they’re constantly doing to themselves anyway!
Focus on what you have, not on what you don’t have. Make a list of ten things you are grateful for in your life and read the list aloud. Then read it each morning for the next thirty days. If you don’t appreciate what you’ve got, you won’t get any more and you don’t need any more

#6: Rich people admire other rich & successful people. Poor people resent rich & successful people.

Practice the Huna philosophy “bless that which you want.” Drive around or buy magazines, look at beautiful homes, gorgeous cars, and read about successful businesses. Whatever you see that you like, bless it, and bless the owners or the people involved
Write and send a mutter or e-mail to someone you know of (not necessarily personally) who is highly successful in any arena, telling them how much you admire and honor them for their achievements

#7: Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people.

Go to the library, a bookstore, or the Internet and read a biography of someone who is or was extremely rich and successful. Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Mary Kay, Donald Trump, Warren Buffett, Jack Welch, Bill Gates, and Ted Turner are some good examples. Use their story for inspiration, for learning specific success strategies, and most importantly, for copying their mind-set
Join a high-end club, such as tennis, health, business, or golf. Mingle with rich people in a rich environment. Or, if there’s no way you can afford to join a high-end club, have coffee or tea in the classiest hotel in your city. Get comfortable in this atmosphere and watch the patrons, noticing they’re no different from you
Identify a situation or a person who is a downer in your life. Remove yourself from that situation or association. If it’s family, choose to be around them less
Stop watching trash TV and stay away from bad news

#8: Rich people are willing to promote themselves and their value. Poor people think negatively about selling and promotion.

Rate the product or service you are currently offering (or you are planning to offer) from 1 to 10 in terms of how much you believe in its value (1 being the lowest. 10 being the highest). If your rating result is 7-9, revise your product or service to increase the value. If your result is 6 or below, stop offering that product or service and start representing something you truly believe in
Read books, listen to audios and CDs, and take course on marketing and sales. Become an expert in both of these arenas to a point where you can promote your value successfully and with 100 percent integrity

#9: Rich people are bigger than their problems. Poor people are smaller than their problems.

Whenever you are feeling upset over a “big” problem, point to yourself and say, “Mini me, mini me.” Then take a deep breath and say to yourself, “I can handle this. I am bigger than any problem.”
Write down a problem you are having in your life. Then list ten specific actions you can take to resolve or at least improve this situation. This will move you from problem thinking into solution thinking. First, there’s a good chance you’ll solve the problem. Second, you’ll feel a heck of a lot better

#10: Rich people are excellent receivers. Poor people are poor receivers.

Practice being an excellent receiver. Each time someone gives you a compliment of any sort, simply say, “Thank you.” Do not return a compliment to that person at the same time. This allows you to fully receive and own the compliment instead of “deflecting” it, as most people do. This also allows the giver of the compliment the joy of giving the gift without it being thrown back at them.
Any, and I mean any, money you find or receive should enthusiastically be celebrated. Go ahead and scream out, “I’m a money magnet. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” This goes for money you find on the ground, for money you get as gifts, for money you get from the government, for money you get as a paycheck, and for money you get from your business. Remember, the universe is set up to support you. If you keep declaring that you are a money magnet, and especially if you have the proof, the universe will simply say, “Okay,” and send you more.
Pamper yourself. At least once a month do something special to nurture yourself and your spirit. Get a massage, a manicure, or a pedicure, take yourself for an extravagant lunch or dinner, rent a boat or a weekend cottage, have someone bring you breakfast in bed. (You might have to trade with a friend or family member.) Do things that will allow you to feel rich and deserving. Again, the vibrational energy you emit from this kind of experience will send a message to the universe that you live abundantly, and again, the universe will simply do its job and say, “Okay, “and give you opportunities for more

#11: Rich people choose to get paid based on results. Poor people choose to get paid based on time.

If you are currently in a job getting paid based on an hourly wage or salary, create and propose a compensation plan to your employer that would allow you to get paid at least partly based on your individual results as well as the results of the company
If you own your own business, create a compensation plan that allows your employees or even primary suppliers to get paid based more on this result and the results of your company. Put these plans into action immediately
If you are currently in a job and not being paid what you are worth based on the results you are producing, consider starting your own business. You can begin part-time. You could easily join a network marketing company or become a coach, or offer independent consulting services back to the company you originally worked for, but this time, paid on performance and results rather than only for your time

#12: Rich people think “both”. Poor people think “either/ or.”

Practice thinking and creating ways of having “both.” Whenever alternatives are presented to you, ask yourself, “how can I have both?”
Become aware that money in circulation adds to everyone’s life. Each time you spend money, say to yourself, “This money will go through hundreds of people and create value for all of them.”
Think of yourself as a role model for others – showing that you can be kind, generous, loving, and rich!

#13: Rich people focus on their net worth. Poor people focus on their working income.

Focus on all four net worth factors: increasing your income, increasing your savings, increasing your investment returns, and decreasing your cost of living by simplifying your lifestyle
Create a net worth statement and commit to tracking and revising his statement each quarter. To do this, add the current dollar value of everything you own (your assets) and subtract the total value of everything you owe (your liabilities). Commit to tracking and revising this statement each quarter. Again, by virtue of the law of focus, what you track will increase
Hire a financial planner who is highly successful and works with a well-known, reputable company. Again, the best way to find a great financial planner is to ask friends and associates for their referrals.

#14: Rich people manage their money well. Poor people mismanage their money well.

Open your Financial Freedom bank account. Put 10% of all your income (after taxes) into this account. This money is never to be spent, only invested to produce passive income for your retirement
Create a Financial Freedom jar in your home and deposit money into it every day. It could be $10, $5, $1, a single penny, or all your loose change. Again, this will put daily attention on your Financial Freedom, and where attention goes, results show
Open a play account or have a play jar in your home where you deposit 10 percent of all your income. Along with your play account and your financial freedom account, open four more accounts and deposit the following percentages into each:
- 10 percent into your Long-Term Savings for Spending Account
- 10 percent into your Education Account
- 50 percent into your Necessities Account
- 10 percent into your Give Account
Whatever money you have, begin managing it now. Do not wait another day. Even if you only have a dollar. Manage that dollar. Take ten cents and put it into your FFA jar, and another ten cents and put it into your play jar. This action alone will send a message to the universe that you are ready for more money. Of course, if you can manage more, manage more.

#15: Rich people have their money work hard for them. Poor people work hard for their money.

Get educated. Take investment seminars. Read at least one investment book a month. Read magazines such as Money, Forbes, Barron’s, and the Wall Street Journal. I’m not suggesting you follow their advice, I’m suggesting you get familiar with what financial options are out there. Then choose an arena to become an expert in and begin investing in that area.
Change your focus from “active” income to “passive” income. List at least three specific strategies with which you could create income without working, in either the investment or the business field. Begin researching and then take action on these strategies.
Don’t wait to buy real estate. Buy real estate and wait

#16: Rich people act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them. –

List your three greatest worries, concerns, or fears regarding money and wealth. Challenge them. For each, write down what you would do if the situation you fear actually happened. Could you still survive? Could you make a comeback? Chances are that the answers are yes. Now quit worrying and start getting rich!
Practice getting out of your comfort zone. Intentionally make decisions that are uncomfortable for you. Speak to people you normally wouldn’t speak to, ask for a raise in your job or raise your prices in your business, wake up an hour earlier each day, walk in the woods at night. Take the Enlightened Warrior Training. It will train you to be unstoppable!
Employ “power thinking.” Observe yourself and your thought patterns. Entertain only thoughts that support your happiness and success. Challenge the little voice in your head whenever it tells you “I can’t” or “I don’t want to “or “I don’t feel like it.” Don’t allow this fear-based, comfort-based voice to get the better of you. Make a pact with yourself that whenever the voice tries to stop you from doing something that would be supportive to your success, you will do it anyway, to show your mind that you are the boss, not it. Not only will you increase your confidence dramatically, but eventually this voice will get quieter and quieter as it recognizes it has little effect on you.

#17: Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know.

Commit to your growth. Each month read at least one book, listen to one educational tape or CD, or take a seminar on money, business, or personal development. Your knowledge, your confidence, and your success will soar!
Consider hiring a personal coach to keep you on track.
Attend the Millionaire Mind Intensive. This amazing event has transformed the lives of thousands and thousands of people and will transform your life too!

Overall, good insights and you need to implement the action steps to become rich! 7/10

The Book That Changed My Life: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey 10/10

April 1, 2018 by Rich

I read this book at the right time. My father had just passed away and I decided I wanted to live a better life. This book laid the foundation for my journey. Here are my key learnings from this book:

Principle Centered, Character Centered, and an Inside-Out approach is necessary to obtain personal and interpersonal effectiveness. If you want to be more effective, everything must begin with yourself. To become effective, you need to alter your principles (integrity, honesty, service, quality/excellence, etc.), character, attitude and behaviors. Living a principles based lifestyle will enable you live the life you want and focus on what’s important to you.

In a world, that wants things now and immediate gratification, we must start with the basics and realize that there is no get rich quick shortcut. Like a baby, they first learn to roll over, sit up, crawl, and then walk and run. The book structure is:

Habits 1, 2, and 3 focuses on mastering oneself (private victories). These habits help move people from dependence to independence.
Habits 4, 5, and 6 focuses on developing teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills, and moving from independence to interdependence (public victories).
Habit 7 focuses on renewal. The balance of four basic dimensions of life (physical, mental, social/emotional and spiritual). This is a cycle of continuous growth and improvement to improve upon each of the prior habits.

Habit 1: Be Proactive – The most important habit is to be proactive. We must recognize that we are responsible for our own lives. There are always issues that are arising and a corresponding response to that issue. We have the ability to choose how to respond to those issues. If you wait to be acted upon, you will be acted upon.

This lesson is found in the Viktor Frankl’s book – Man’s Search for Meaning. He survived the Nazi Concentration Camps as he found meaning in their suffering. His fundamental principle about the nature of man is: “Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.”
What matters most in life is how we respond to what we experience in life.
Here are two statements: “there’s nothing I can do” vs. “let’s look at our alternatives” or “he makes me so mad” vs. “I control my own feelings”. There is a big difference between the reactive vs. proactive thoughts.
Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence – Effective people only worry about things that are within their circle of influence and circle of concern. They do not worry about things outside their control/influence such as the weather, traffic, or the national debt. Effective people focus their efforts on things that they can change.
This positive energy enlarges the Circle of Influence, while the negative energy from reactive people reduces their Circle of Influence.

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind – Picture your funeral and imagine what people are saying about your life. What character would you like them to have seen in you? What are you doing today to help influence that thought? If you do not make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default.

“It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busyness of life, to work harder, and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it’s leaning against the wrong wall. It is possible to be busy, very busy, without being very effective.”
“How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and, keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most. If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster. We may be very busy, we may be very efficient, but we will also be truly effective once we begin with the end in mind.”
All Things Are Created Twice – There is a mental (first) creation and then a physical (second) creation. Imagine building a house without a blueprint. We need to figure out what our personal mission and vision statements are in life. This is our blueprint to determine what success is. There are a few ways to help determine your mission/vision statement. It begins by understanding what are your principles (family, work, friends, spouse, self, possessions, etc.)
“Habit 1 says, “You’re the creator.” Habit 2 is the creation.” Once you know you can shape your own life, you start to build it.
Once you have the mission/vision statement, translate it into daily activities and begin to live your life in congruence with your values. It is also worthwhile to visualize your goals every day and have daily affirmations to yourself to reinforce your goals.

Habit 3: Put First Things First – To be effective, you must have the discipline to prioritize the day/week and focus on things that are most important to you and your life. Habit 3 is the physical creation, fulfillment, the actualization and the natural emergence of Habit 1 and 2

One must build the discipline to do the things you hate/dislike in order to have the strength and determination to reach your goals.
There are 4 quadrants of the Time Management Matrix, based upon what is important and what is urgent.
- Quadrant I – we are managing crises and putting out fires, which leads to stress and burnout
- Quadrant III – we are reacting to things that seem urgent, assuming they are also important. These are actually priorities and expectation of others. One can feel victimized or out of control.
- Quadrant IV – This is living an irresponsible life and can result in a termination of our job.
- Quadrant II – is the heart of effective personal management. It focuses on building relationships, planning, exercising, preventative maintenance, and preparation. These are tasks that we should be doing, but are not because they are not urgent.

One should think about how much time they are allocating in each of these buckets and then try to focus more on Quadrant II deliverables.
- “The way you spend your time is a result of the way you see your time and the way you really see your priorities”
- “The key is to not prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities” – The book recommends looking at your schedule weekly and ensuring that each of your priorities are on your calendar.
“Again, you simply can’t think efficiency with people. You think effectiveness with people and efficiency with things.“ We need the time with people (friends/family/co-workers) and building relationships to set the foundation for Habits 4-6.

After one develops independence, there are 6 things to establish great relationships through making deposits in the Emotional Bank Account:

Understanding the Individual – To make a deposit, what is important to another person must be as important to you as the other person is to you. You must understand them deeply as individuals, the way you want to be understood, and then to treat them in terms of that understanding. The Golden Rule Principle.
Attending to the Little Things – In relationships, the little things are the big things. Small acts of kindnesses and courtesies are important just as small discourtesies/unkindness can make large withdrawals.
Keeping Commitments – Failure to keep a promise may be one of the biggest withdrawals. Trust is lost and may be difficult to regain once the promise has been broken.
Clarifying Expectations – Unclear expectations in the area of goals or roles can undermine communication and trust.
Showing Personal Integrity – This includes honesty, but in addition to telling the truth, it is also conforming our words into reality and fulfilling expectations. One of the best ways to manifest integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present.
Apologizing Sincerely When You Make A Withdrawal – We need to own up to our actions and be sincere to those we hurt with those actions. We need to quickly and genuinely apologize.

Habit 4: Think Win-Win – ensuring that both parties get what they want in a mutually beneficial way is the best approach. There are a few combinations other than Win-Win:

Win-Lose – Most people tend to be in this mentality since birth. They are prone to use position, power, credentials, possessions, or personality to get their way.
Lose-Win – “I’m a peacemaker and I’ll do anything to keep peace.” These people are quick to please and seek strength from popularity and acceptance.
Lose-Lose – Both parties are stubborn, determined, or ego-invested individuals. They are vindictive and want to “get back” or “get even” with the other party.
Win – People with the Win mentality do not necessarily want someone else to lose – that is irrelevant. What matters is that they get what they want. This is common approach in everyday negotiation.
Win-Win or No Deal – A higher expression of Win-Win. If there cannot be a Win-Win, then the parties agree to disagree. This helps us feel liberated because we do not need to manipulate people, to push our agenda, or drive for what we want.
The biggest part of the Win-Win habit is the Abundance Mentality, where there is enough out there for everyone.
- Most people view life in the Scarcity Mentality. Life is like a pie; if someone were to get a bigger piece, there would be less for him or her. Everything is a zero sum game. People with the Scarcity Mentality have a difficult time sharing recognition and credit, power, or profit.
- The Abundance Mentality takes the personal joy, satisfaction and joy from Habits 1, 2, and 3 to bring the Public Victory not over others, but sharing it and creating unlimited possibilities that are beneficial to all involved.
Organizations must align themselves appropriately with the right systems, processes, and incentives in order for the win-win method to work.

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand then to be Understood – One must use empathic listening (getting inside another person’s frame of reference) before trying to prescribe a solution to their problem. Once you understand their point of view, you can offer your advice.

There are 5 levels of listening:
- Ignoring – Not paying attention
- Pretending – “Yeah. Uh-huh. Right”
- Selective Listening – Only hearing certain parts of the conversation
- Attentive Listening – paying attention and focusing energy on the words that are being said
- Empathetic listening – listening with the intent to understand, not just with the ears, but also with your eyes, your brain, and your heart.
We tend to listen with our own perspective as our frame of reference and respond in one of the four ways. We must try to respond back with the other persons frame of reference in mind.
- Evaluate – agree or disagree
- Probe – ask questions from our own frame of reference
- Advise – give counsel based on our own experiences
- Interpret – try to figure people out, to explain their motives, their behavior, based on our own motives and behaviors
Being a good listener is vital to achieving the win-win approach and expanding your circle of influence as you understand people.

Habit 6: Synergize – the ability for the whole to be greater than the sum of the parts by creating new alternatives and opening new possibilities.

With high trust and high cooperation, both parties are able to get to the Win-Win scenario and need to think with the Abundance Mentality.
Value the difference of other people – The discussion with another person who views it differently will help you understand their perspective and perceptions. If two people have the same opinion, one is unnecessary. It’s not going to do me any good at all to communicate with someone who sees things in the same way.
- By inviting a discussion with someone who has a different opinion, this creates a positive environment to allow synergies to happen. People will have the courage to express their ideas, feelings, and experiences. The key is that you do not need to agree with them, but affirm them and seek to understand. They will value you listening to their opinions.
Always try to find the third alternative – there are usually three opinions/options – yours, the “wrong” and the third alternative, which can usually benefit both parties.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw – This habit surrounds all other habits as it allows preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have, yourself. There are four key dimensions of yourself:

Physical
- Exercise – doing a combination of cardio and strength training, along with being flexible.
- Nutrition – eating the right kinds of goods
- Stress Management – getting sufficient sleep and relaxation
Mental
- Reading – read good literature and avoid time spent watching TV and other things that waste our time and our minds.
- Planning – being organized will help with Habits 2 and 3 to align the priorities of the day/week to achieve your mission and vision.
- Writing – keep a daily journal of our thoughts, experiences, insights, and learnings will promote mental clarity.
Social/Emotion
- Service –a long, healthy, and happy life is the result of making contributions, of having meaningful projects that are personally exciting, contribute to, and bless the lives of others. “Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.” – N. Eldon Tanner
- Empathy – being a great empathetic listener
- Synergy – finding the third alternatives in a Win-Win scenario
- Intrinsic Security – living a life of integrity in which our daily habits reflect our deepest values and we live in congruence with those values.
Spiritual
- Virtual Clarification & Commitment – “The greatest battles of life are fought out daily in the silent chambers of the soul.” Having the personal mission statement and understanding of your values will help you live each day to the mission.
- Study & Meditation – meditation in the morning will help set the day off on the right foot.

There are many great lessons in this book that is hard to condense in this blog post. I hope you all find this book as valuable as I did. I try to refresh myself in these 7 habits on an ongoing basis and continue to sharpen the saw.

7 Key Learnings from The Alchemist

February 25, 2018 by Rich

8 out of 10. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is one of the most popular books in the world and now I know why. Although this is a fiction book, it could be easily considered a self-help book. There are so many golden nuggets in the short book that it’s worth reading twice to reinforce the concepts. Here are the 7 Key Learnings that I took from The Alchemist.

1. Chase Your Dreams – This is the main theme in the book and showcases characters that chase their dreams (Santiago and the Englishman) and those that don’t (Crystal Merchant). Santiago has a recurring dream of finding treasure in the Pyramids in Egypt. It leads him to an old women who could interpret dreams and confirms that he should begin his journey.

Santiago later meets Melchizedek (King of Salem) in a plaza and he tells Santiago that he has discovered his Personal Legend, which is defined as “what you have always wanted to accomplish.” We all have dreams as a young child and Melchizedek mentions that as we get older, a “mysterious force” convinces people that Personal Legends are impossible to achieve. And when we really want something, “it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe.” Once we fulfill this desire is when we really truly achieve our Personal Legend. He later sells his all of his sheep and is off to Africa to find his treasure.

Santiago further pursues his dream even after finding the love of his life at the Oasis. He is at a crossroads and does not want to leave Fatima. The Alchemist tells him his fortune if he decides to stay at the Oasis – “You’ll walk around, night after night, at the oasis, and Fatima will be unhappy because she’ll feel it was she who interrupted your quest.” He leaves Fatima behind and trusts that his connection with Fatima is true love.

Contrary to Santiago, the crystal merchant is someone who doesn’t pursue his dream to make a trek to Mecca. “Maktub” in Arabic means “it is written.” This is the merchant’s philosophy on life and believes that everything is a result of fate and not of his own freewill. The merchant doesn’t go to Mecca because it’s the thought of the dream that keeps him live and says “I’m afraid that if my dream is realized, I’ll have no reason to go on living.”

What’s also interesting is that Fatima also says Maktub when he decides to leave her in the Oasis. She says: “If I am really a part of your dream, you’ll come back one day.”

2. Don’t be Afraid of Failure – “The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” Santiago suffers many setbacks throughout his journey on finding his treasure. He loses all of his money to a man in Tangier that promises to take him to the Pyramids. Instead of moping and turning back around, he regains his fortune by working with the Crystal merchant.

The crystal merchant, on the other hand, is living in the fear of disappointment if his trek to Mecca didn’t meet his expectations. He decides not to pursue his dreams and remains in his shop. He later regrets not taking more action: “Now that I see how immense my possibilities are, I’m going to feel worse than I did before you arrived. Because I know the things I should be able to accomplish, and I don’t want to do so.”

Another great moment of this lesson is when Santiago is learning from the Alchemist. “People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly.”

The Alchemist later mentions that “the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.” Our mind and hearts often prevent us from taking action and getting out of our comfort zone.

3. Be Proactive/Take Ownership – “I’m like everyone else – I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does.” Rather than being a victim of a crime, Santiago decides to take ownership and be proactive about his choices in life. “He realized that he had to choose between thinking of himself as a poor victim of a thief and as an adventurer of in quest of his treasure.” He chooses to become an adventurer and embrace his experiences and move forward with his purpose to achieve his Personal Legend. We need to be responsible for the actions in our life and be proactive to live life in a way to achieve our own goals.

4. Take Action – “There is only one way to learn. It’s through action.” This theme is reiterated by the pursuit of the Personal Legends between Santiago and the Englishman. When Santiago was a shepherd, he learned mainly from books. He begins to learn throughout his travels in Tangier (learning to trust people, sell, and be resourceful) to the desert (reading omens and signs). Santiago is able to master and learn alchemy much quicker through action rather than reading.

The Englishman believes he can learn alchemy based on the text in his books. He is immersed in his books throughout the travel and is unaware of the various omens surrounding him. The Englishman ultimately begins his path towards alchemy when he begins to build a furnace to create gold. He states: “It was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the Master Work. Now, I’m beginning what I could have started ten years ago. But I’m happy at least that I didn’t wait twenty years.”

5. Grit – “The darkest hour of midnight comes just before dawn.” Santiago is learning from the Alchemist and he is attempting to listen to his heart and come to understand it. He is warned that “every search begins with beginner’s luck. And every search ends with the victor’s being severely tested.”

This is one of the keys to success as Angela Duckworth has examined in her book, “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.” Success is not based on how smart you are, but through hard work and perseverance. Grit and his determination to finding his treasure allows Santiago to succeed.

6. Being in the Present – “Because I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man.”

This is a lesson from Santiago’s camel driver. He tells his story of his former life as a farmer where he lost his farm due to a flood of the Nile, which forced him to be a camel driver. He’s not concerned with the war between the tribes is because he lives only in the present.

The seer in the Oasis reads the omens within the environment to predict the future. He states: “If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings.”

This message is especially important in this day and age of technology that is programmed to keep us addicted to our phones and applications. It’s hard to feel connected to the things around us when we have so much information at our fingertips. We need to keep our mind focused on the task at hand and give our full attention to the in front of us, otherwise, we will never enjoy and appreciate the things in life.

7. New Perspectives – There is a famous quote by T.S. Elliot: “We must not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.” This quote personifies the book in one sentence. Santiago finds himself right where he began. The treasure was buried in the old church back home where he had his recurring dream. However, he had to travel all the way to the Pyramids in Africa to see this.

He comes back home with a new set of enlightened eyes and can see what he could not see before (possibly due to a lack of maturity, contemplation or experience). Santiago is able see his home in a new perspective after experiencing and learning new things on his journey.

The ending is very powerful and a key lesson that I try to look at my surroundings and appreciate the details in my normal routine.

Overall, this is a great book and I would highly recommend this book to people of all ages.

8 Key Learnings from Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

January 15, 2018 by Rich

9 out of 10.

Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning documents his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II and his meaning centered therapeutic practice called logotherapy. Here are 8 key learnings/lessons that I took from the book:

1. “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how,”

Viktor recounts many prisoners who lost their “why” and quickly lost their life within a matter of days. By having a greater sense of purpose, one can overcome anything. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life. Logotherapy is an attempt to assist the patient to find meaning in their life.

According to logotherapy, we can discover this meaning in life in three different ways:

By creating a work or doing a deed (doing something significant);
By experiencing something or encountering someone (in love – caring for another person)
By the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering (in courage during difficult times). Suffering in and of itself is meaningless; we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it.

This last part is the most important understanding to the meaning of life.

“Even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation, facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself, may grow beyond himself, and by so doing change himself.”
- I felt this way as my father was suffering from countless battles with the flu and pneumonia. I could see his suffering and had to bear witness to the slow gradual deterioration of his former self. The tragic event in my life had stood as my key reason to grow and to become a better husband, son, father, friend, co-worker, and human being.
“If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.”
“When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.”
“In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.”

2. “The salvation of man is through love and in love.”

Frankl was able to survive in the concentration camps by thinking of his wife, who was also in another concentration camp. By picturing her and having conversations with her in his mind, it gave him hope that he would see her again once the war was over. He didn’t know if she was alive and had no ways of communicating to her.

“Had I known then that my wife was dead, I think that I would still have given myself, undisturbed by that knowledge, to the contemplation of her image, and that my mental conversation with her would have been just as vivid and just as satisfying”
He further reiterates this fact, “Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance.”
“Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.”

3. “They offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

This is a powerful mindset change. You have the capabilities of deciding how to react to a situation. How can you be proactive in your life and decide on your reaction?

“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you.”
“Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”
“It is we ourselves who must answer the questions that life asks of us, and to these questions we can respond only by being responsible for our existence.”
“Most important, he realized that, no matter what happened, he retained the freedom to choose how to respond to his suffering.”
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”

4. “Thus it can be seen that mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become”

Once you know your why, you can set your goals to get to your ultimate vision and mission in life.

“Such a tension is inherent in the human being and therefore is indispensable to mental well-being. We should not, then, be hesitant about challenging man with a potential meaning for him to fulfill.”
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.”
“Man is responsible and must actualize the potential meaning of his life”

5. “Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!”

This one hit home for me. After the death of my father, I realized that I have been wasting a lot of my time on trivial matters. I was spending too much time watching TV, going on social media, or perusing through reddit. I didn’t have a clear why on my existence and needed to evaluate my vision and my mission in life. There are other quotes that I also love:

Confucius: “We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”
Mark Twain: “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

6. Logotherapy bases its technique called “paradoxical intention” on the twofold fact that fear brings about that which one is afraid of, and that hyper-intention makes impossible what one wishes.

This is a new term that I picked up from the book. You don’t get what you aim so desperately try to get. I always feel this way when I have trouble falling asleep and keep focusing on why I can’t fall asleep! He mentions a few great examples in the book:

The Pleasure Principle: “The more a man tries to demonstrate his sexual potency or a woman her ability to experience orgasm, the less they are able to succeed. Pleasure is, and must remain, a side-effect or by-product, and is destroyed and spoiled to the degree to which it is made a goal in itself.”
- This was enough to incapacitate the patient for the peak experience of sexual pleasure, since the orgasm was made an object of intention, and an object of attention as well, instead of remaining an unintended effect of unreflected dedication and surrender to the partner.
“Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.”
“One must have a reason to “be happy.” Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically.”
- “As we see, a human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, last but not least, through actualizing the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation.”
If you want anyone to laugh you have to provide him with a reason, e.g., you have to tell him a joke. In no way is it possible to evoke real laughter by urging him, or having him urge himself, to laugh.

7. “The existential vacuum,” a feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness.”

Man has lost two key human elements – some basic animal instincts like security and “No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism).” Our basic instincts are not necessary in the new world and many millennials may feel boredom with the new free time and lack of vision. As a result of the lack of meaning in their life, we have three syndrome’s that have increased: depression, aggression, addiction”

“The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom.”
“Sunday neurosis,” that kind of depression which afflicts people who become aware of the lack of content in their lives when the rush of the busy week is over and the void within themselves becomes manifest.”
- This is where depression, aggression, and addition can occur when you “many of these (people) will not know what to do with all their newly acquired free time.”

8. “The meaning of your life is to help others find the meaning of theirs.”

This was Frankl’s own personal meaning of life, to inspire others to help find meaning in their lives. There are great nuggets and gems throughout the book. I highly recommend the book and hopefully you can help Frankl achieve his personal life’s meaning.

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