Love the practical nature of this book. Scott’s storytelling makes this a must-read. Would highly recommend for anyone interested in psychology, persuasion, or how to live an incredible life.
- When your energy is right, you perform better at everything you do (similar to Kevin Kelly’s rule: enthusiasm is worth 25 IQ points).
- Market rewards execution over good ideas.
- Systems > Goals
- Goal: Lose 20 pounds
- System: Eating right
- If you do something every day, it’s a system. Systems have no deadlines, and on any given day, you can’t tell if they’re moving in the right direction.
- Used affirmations. Wrote every day 15 times – “I, Scott Adams, will be a famous cartoonist.”
- If you want success, figure out the price, then pay it.
- Take care of yourself first so you can do a better job of taking care of others.
- If you pursue selfish objectives, and do well, eventually your focus will turn outward to taking care of others.
- Every second you look at a messy room and think about fixing it is a distraction from more important thoughts.
- Pay attention to your mood after you exercise. Typically always positive.
- Ideas change the world every day, and often from ordinary people.
- You almost always learn something valuable in the process of failing. (!!)
- Things that will someday work out well start out well. (Interesting hypothesis)
- Practice is obvious. You have to figure out what to practice.
- Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success. (Good + Good > Excellent)
- Simplicity trumps accuracy
- Everything you learn becomes a shortcut for something else.
- Don’t think of the news as information. Think of it as an energy source.
- If you see something that impresses you, you are morally obligated to voice your praise.
- We don’t always have an accurate view of our own potential.
- Psychology = lifelong study
- People don’t use reason for important decisions in life. The reality is that reason is just one of the drivers of our decisions, and often the smallest one
- How to be a top 10% conversationalist: Smile, ask questions, avoid complaining and sad topics, and have some entertaining stories ready to go
- How to overcome shyness: pretend you are an acting instead of interacting
- The most effective way of getting people to stop trying to persuade you is to say “I’m not interested.”
- Spend time with and around people who represent what you would like to become without trespassing, kidnapping, or stalking. Their good energy will rub off on you.
- The biggest trick for manipulating your happiness is being able to do what you want, when you want.
- Work can become pleasure if you have the ability to decide when you’re going to do it
- Anything that you can make slow and steady improvement at makes you feel you’re on the right track
- Pessimism is often a failure of imagination. If you can imagine a future being brighter, it lifts your energy and produces a sensation of happiness
- Happiness is the natural state for most people whenever they feel healthy, have flexible schedules, and expect the future to be good
- Happiness formula: Eat right, exercise, get enough sleep, imagine incredible future, work a flexible schedule, do things you can steadily improve at, help others, reduce daily decisions
