The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck-Mark Menson

1. The deeper the pain, the more helpless we feel against our problems, and the more entitlement we adopt to compensate for those problems. This entitlement plays out in one of two ways:1. I’m awesome and the rest of you all suck, so I deserve special treatment.2. I suck and the rest of you are all awesome, so I deserve special treatment.
2. if everyone were extraordinary, then by definition no one would be extraordinary.
3. Being “average” has become the new standard of failure. The worst thing you can be is in the middle of the pack, the middle of the bell curve. When a culture’s standard of success is to “be extraordinary,” it then becomes better to be at the extreme low end of the bell curve than to be in the middle, because at least there you’re still special and deserve attention. Many people choose this strategy: to prove to everyone that they are the most miserable, or the most oppressed, or the most victimized.
4. A lot of people are afraid to accept mediocrity because they believe that if they accept it, they’ll never achieve anything, never improve and that their life won’t matter.
5. We all have emotional blind spots.
6. The trick with negative emotions is to 1) express them in a socially acceptable and healthy manner and 2) express them in a way that aligns with your values.
7. Emotions are just feedback.
8. “One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”
9. “self-improvement” is really about: prioritizing better values, choosing better things to give a fuck about.
10. The first failure is taking responsibility for everything that occurs in your life, regardless of who’s at fault.
11. The second is uncertainty: the acknowledgment of your own ignorance and the cultivation of constant doubt in your own beliefs.
12. The willingness to discover your own flaws and mistakes so that they may be improved upon. The fourth is rejection: the ability to both say and hear no, thus clearly defining what you will and will not accept in your life.
13. The final value is the contemplation of one’s own mortality; this one is crucial because paying vigilant attention to one’s own death is perhaps the only thing capable of helping us keep all our other values in a proper perspective.
14. It’s the idea of taking control over her own thoughts and feelings and being happy again.
15. The beauty of poker is that while luck is always involved, luck doesn’t dictate the long-term results of the game.
16. A person can get dealt with terrible cards and beat someone who was dealt with great cards.
17. “Outrage is like a lot of other things that feel good but over time devour us from the inside out. And it’s even more insidious than most vices because we don’t even consciously acknowledge that it’s a pleasure.” 
18. Many people become so obsessed with being “right” about their life that they never end up actually living it.
19. Evil people never believe that they are evil; rather, they believe that everyone else is evil.
20. The man who believes he knows everything learns nothing.
21. We cannot learn anything without first not knowing something. The more we admit we do not know, the more opportunities we gain to learn.
22. The only way to solve our problems is to first admit that our actions and beliefs up to this point have been wrong and are not working.
23. Manson’s law of avoidance on them"The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it."
24. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
25. Avoiding failure is something we learn at some later point in life.
26. Our proudest achievements come in the face of the greatest adversity.
27. Our pain often makes us stronger, more resilient, more grounded.
28. Death scares us. And because it scares us, we avoid thinking about it, talking about it, sometimes even acknowledging it, even when it’s happening to someone close to us.
29. All the meaning in our life is shaped by this innate desire to never truly die.
30. “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”

The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma

Just finished reading "The 5 AM Club". Some of the best lines are:

1. “Adults are deteriorated, children,”
2. The tragedy is nature’s great purifier. It burns away the fakeness, fear, and arrogance that is of the ego.
3. ‘One who sweats more in training bleeds less in war.’
4. ‘High victory is made in those early morning hours when no one’s watching and while everyone else is sleeping.’
5. “We only hear what we’re ready to hear,”
6. Winning starts at your beginning. And your first hours are when heroes are made.
7. Take excellent care of the front end of your day, and the rest of your day will pretty much take care of itself. Own your morning. Elevate your life.
8. We falsely believe that material from the outside will fill what’s empty within ourselves.
9. “All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.”
10. “Own your morning. Elevate your life.”
11. Rising at 5 AM truly is The Mother of All Routines.
12. The way you begin your day really does determine the extent of focus, energy, excitement, and excellence you bring to it. Each early morning is a page in the story that becomes your legacy.
13. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.
14. Nothing works for those who don’t do the work.
15. Tolstoy once noted that “only people who are capable of loving strongly can suffer great sorrow,” while the Sufi poet Rumi wrote, “You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.”
16. “One of the big lessons I’ve learned over the years is that giving to other people is a gift you give to yourself.
17. “Own your morning. Elevate your life.
18. “Please remember that appearances can be misleading and clothing doesn’t convey one’s character. Yesterday you met a great man.
19. Looks really do not reveal the quality of a person.”
20. “Mark Twain wrote, ‘Mauritius was made first, and then heaven, and heaven copied Mauritius,’”
21. An addiction to distraction is the end of your creative production. Empire makers and history-creators take one hour for themselves before dawn, in the serenity that lies beyond the clutches of complexity, to prepare themselves for a world-class day.
22. Excuses breed no genius. Just because you haven’t installed the early-rising habit before doesn’t mean you can’t do it now.
23. All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end.
24. Everything you now find easy you first found difficult. With consistent practice, getting up with the sun will become your new normal. And automatic.
25. “A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.” —Steven Pressfield
26. most people stay the same their entire lives.
27. The old ‘you’ must die before the best ‘you’ can be born.
28. A bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul. And what your voice of fear claims is a mean season the light of your wisdom knows is a splendid gift.”
29. ‘Give up the drop, become the ocean.’”
30. Being a high-impact leader never requires being a disrespectful person.
31. The more powerful a person truly is, the less they need to promote it. And the stronger a leader is, the less they need to announce it.”
32. “George Orwell said that,“‘The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it,’” 
33. Alice Walker said that.”Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul,’” the artist carried on.
34. Philip of Macedonia in a message to Sparta: “You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people and raze your city.” Sparta’s reply: “If.”
35. Virtuosity is a voyage.
36. “What will those who know you whisper about how you lived once you’re no longer here?”
37. “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
38. “Dedication and discipline beat brilliance and giftedness every day of the week.
39. “Victims have big TVs. Leaders own large libraries.”
40. Alexander the Great once said: ‘I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.’”
41. ‘Most people take the limits of their vision to be the limits of the world.
42. We become our associations. And you’ll never have a positive influence in your field and make a beautiful life if you hang with negative people,”
43. there’s a staggering difference between being busy and being productive.
44. Freedom from Distraction.
45. Simplify. Streamline everything. Become a purist.
46. “Stop managing your time and start managing your focus,”
47. One of the fascinating traits of our ancient brain is its negativity bias. To keep us safe, it’s far less interested in what’s positive in our environment and significantly more invested in letting us know what’s bad.
48. ‘If you plan on being anything less than who you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.’
49. Early in the morning ‘there is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write.’”
50. The hours that The 95% waste The Top 5% treasure.
51. Everything you do in your outer world is an absolute consequence of what’s happening within you.
52. Your influence in the world mirrors the glory, nobility, vitality, and luminosity you’ve accessed in yourself.
53. Mahatma Gandhi: “The only devils in the world are those running in our own hearts. That is where the battle should be fought.”
54. Your past is a place to be learned from, not a home to be lived in.”
55. Calibrating your mindset is an essential move to make toward the personal mastery that will then lead to a legendary outer reality.
56. ‘unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and they will come forth later in uglier ways.’
57. Consistency really is a key ingredient of mastery. And regularity is a necessity if you’re amped to make history.”
58. Often, a bad example teaches us more about who we wish to become than a good one could ever provide.
59. World-class willpower isn’t an inborn strength, but a skill developed through relentless practice. Getting up at dawn is perfect self-control training.
60. Personal discipline is a muscle. The more you stretch it, the stronger it grows.
61. Increasing self-control in one area of your life elevates self-control in all areas of your life.
62. Victory demands consistency and persistence.
63. The way you practice in private is precisely the way you’ll perform once you’re in public.
64. The single best way to build your willpower is to voluntarily put yourself into conditions of discomfort.
65. Legendary performers practice being spectacular for so long that they no longer remember how to behave in non-spectacular ways.”
66. you shouldn’t have any technology in your bedroom.
67. You become undefeatable in the world by what you do when no one’s watching.”
68. We make our worst decisions and our lowest choices when we’re exhausted.
69. When faced with a choice, always choose the one that pushes you the most, increase your growth, and promote the unfoldment of your gifts, talents, and personal prowess.
70. The old you must die so a better you can be reborn.
71. “Nothing’s as valuable as my happiness. Nothing’s as priceless as my peace of mind,”
72. Life is too short to take things too seriously.
73. Mother Teresa: “If everyone would only clean their own doorstep, the whole world would be clean.”
74. To make a habit last, never install it alone.
75. The teacher learns the most.
76. When you most feel like quitting is the time you must continue advancing.
77. Procrastination is an act of self-hatred.
78. Our thinking creates our results. And the less we value ourselves and our powers,” he went on, “the less power we have access to.”
79. ‘Train harder. Live longer’
80. Carrying past pain is so exhausting.
81. Calm performers are the highest achievers.
82. “The early morning has gold in its mouth.”
83. “Rise First. Die Last.”
84. Seven and a half hours of sleep each night.
85. ‘If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change toward him. We need not wait to see what others do.’”
86. A happy wife means a happy life.
87. “Everyone dreams of being a legend until it comes time to do the work that legends do.”
88. “The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.”
89. The Tight Bubble of Total Focus.
90. For the next ninety days, schedule yourself to invest the first ninety minutes of your workday on the one activity that, when completed at world-class, will cause you to own your field.
91. During the second pocket of your Victory Hour, list the five tiny targets you wish to accomplish over the day ahead for you to feel it was one well-spent.
92. Naturalist John Muir expressed it well when he said: “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
93. “With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?” —Oscar Wilde
94. The 5 Assets of Genius,” continued Mr. Riley as he looked at the diagram, “are your mental focus, your physical energy, your personal willpower, your original talent, and your daily time.
95. All work and no break depletes your greatness, over time.”
96. “Growth happens in the resting phase—not in the performing stage. it’s okay to have a few days off every week.”
97. Take at least two full days off each week. No technology.
98. “Your heart is always wiser than your head,” he repeated softly. “It knows where you must be. Follow it. Trust it. You’ll find the magic.”
99. To Create Magic in the World, Own the Magic within Yourself.
100. “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
101. “Every ending marks a new beginning. All we experience happens for a helpful reason. And when one door closes, another will always open for you,” noted the billionaire. “Trust—always—that life has your back—even if what’s unfolding makes no sense.”
102. Failure Inflates Fearlessness.
103. “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default,” said J.K. Rowling.
104. Avoid Bad People.
105. Continue Raising Your Life Standards Toward Absolute World-Class.
106. Invest in the finest books you can buy, and you’ll be rewarded in multiples.
107. Be around flowers often—they raise your frequency as well as your ability to see the alternate universe all visionaries tap into.
108. “Live like a hero. That’s what the classics teach us. Be the main character. Otherwise, what is life for?” —J.M. Coetzee
109. As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.’
110. ‘Suffering can either embitter us or ennoble us.’
111. “All the best men and women of the world have one thing in common,” said The Spellbinder: “extreme suffering. And each of them evolved into their greatness because they chose to leverage their circumstances to heal, purify, and uplift themselves.”

Bottom Lines

1. Listen to your intuition.
2. Learn to laugh at yourself.
3. Knowledge is power.
4. Avid confrontations but don’t run from them.
5. When in doubt follow your own moral compass.
6. Don’t talk negatively about your colleagues.
7. Foolish things said by many is still a foolish thing.
8. If you're not going forward, you are going backward.
9. The creative mind spots wrong questions, the uncreative mind spots wrong answers.
10. Never burn bridges.
11. Be in charge of your own reputation.
12. Slay your enemies with kindness.
13. Slep on it before making monumental decisions.
14. Catch an employee doing something good.
15. Genius is in the details.

The 5 second rule By Mel Robbins

1. I ignored how I felt. I didn’t think. I did what needed to be done, Instead of hitting the snooze button, I started counting 5..4..3..2..1
2. There’s a reason why “Just Do It” is the most famous tagline in the world and resonates across all cultures. Do you know what makes the tagline so powerful? It’s the word “JUST.”
3. There is a “Golden Rule of Habits” and it is very simple: In order to change any bad habit, you must replace the behavior pattern that you repeat.
4. If you have the courage to start, you have the courage to succeed.
5. Everyday life is full of moments that are scary, uncertain, and difficult. Facing these moments and unlocking the opportunity, magic, and joy in your life requires tremendous courage.
6. "You can achieve anything that you are passionate about and are willing to work for.”
7. “The time had just come that I had been pushed as far as I stand to be pushed, I suppose.”
8. Courage is a birthright. It is inside each and every one of us.
9. A different part of our brains is activated when we think about what’s possible rather than what’s required.”
10. courage is just a push.
11. Wayne Gretzky quote: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
12. you never regret the shots you do take but you always regret holding back.
13. You push yourself to get out of your comfort zone and you begin. There is no other way. You stop waiting for “the right time” and you start.
14. You can feel uncertain and be ready. You can be afraid and do it anyway. You can fear rejection and still go for it.
15. The moment you feel too tired, you’ll decide not to go for a run, but 5- 4- 3- 2- 1-GO, and you could make yourself go for one.
16. You can’t control how you feel. But you can always choose how you act.
17. If you can change your morning routine, you can change anything.
18. Either you run the day or the day runs you.
19. The fact is that thinking about being healthier won’t make you healthier. Even meditation, which is a mental exercise, still requires that you DO IT. There is no getting around this. You must take action.
20. There’s only one thing you must do: Stop thinking about how you feel. Your feelings don’t matter. The only thing that matters is what you DO.
21. —“The first step—getting out of bed—is the hardest. But so worth it.”
22. Life is about the choices we make.
23. Go the extra mile. It’s never crowded.
24. How you wake up is just as important as how you sleep
25. SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely).
26. Procrastination is not a form of laziness at all. It’s a coping mechanism for stress.
27. The first thing research tells us: you need to forgive yourself for procrastinating. “
28. it amazes me how hard it is to force myself to spend (time on it) and actually do it due to the fear of failure.”
29. “Win or lose, at least I’m doing something!”
30. If procrastinating is a habit, you have to replace the bad behavior pattern (avoidance) with a new positive one (getting started).
31. You’ll either find a way or you’ll find an excuse.
32. There will always be someone who can’t see your worth. Don’t let it be you.
33. Confidence is created by the small things you do every single day that build trust in yourself.
34. Speak from your heart, even if your voice shakes.
35. The answers are inside of you if you have the courage to listen.
36. Don’t tell people your dreams. Show them.
37. Leave nothing important unsaid.
38. Waiting for the right time to get real in your relationships is a fool’s errand.
39. Leave nothing important unsaid.
40. All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. - Walt Disney

Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp

1. “He who walks with the wise becomes wise.”As a wise parent, your objective is not simply to discuss but to demonstrate the freshness and vitality of life lived in integrity toward God and your family.
2. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
3. Some children grow up never knowing how much money Dad earns, while others know the checkbook balance on any given day. Some parents keep secrets from their children. Some children share secrets but not with their parents. Sometimes Mother and the children have secrets from Dad. Sometimes Dad and the children have secrets from Mom. Every family has established family boundaries. They may not be spoken or thought through, but they exist.
4. Good Education
5. Communication is Dialogue, Not Monologue
6. You must become a good listener. You will miss precious opportunities when you only half-listen to your children. The best way you can train your children to be active listeners is by actively listening to them.
7. If a child is going to honor his parents, it will be the result of two things: 1) The parent must train him to do so. 2) The parent must be honorable in his conduct and demeanor.
8. When you give reasons for your sin, you are not asking forgiveness, you are simply justifying your sin.
9. You must be a person of long-term vision.
10. Your relationship with your children must be honest. You must never give advice that suits your convenience or that spares you trouble or embarrassment. You must be parents who have demonstrated that you are not using your children in any way.
11. In adult relationships, it is possible to disagree with each other and remain friends. The same should be true in your relationships with your children. They don’t have to agree with you on everything in order to respect you.
12. Don’t waste your influence on things that don’t matter.

किन्नर देश में

राहुल सांकृत्यायन की " किन्नर देश में " पढ़ी  और बहुत ही प्रभावित हुआ हूँ।  कुछ पंक्तियाँ जो ज्यादा पसंद आयीं वो नीचे हैं :
१ ) जैसे हम दूसरों के काम से लाभ उठाते हैं वैसे ही हमारे काम से दूसरे  लाभ उठायें तो क्या हरज।
२ ) ढाई से डेढ़ नहीं छिपा करता।
३ ) पहाड़ में रोग दब जाता है, मैदान में दबा रहे तब है असली दबोचना।
४) जिसने एक बार घुमक्कड़ धर्म को अपना लिया उसे फिर चैन कहाँ आराम कहाँ।
५) मैं समझता हूँ की जाति के उत्थान में घुमक्कड़ों का सबसे बड़ा योगदान है।
६ )सच्चा घुमक्कड़ धर्म जाति देश काल सभी सीमाओं से मुक्त होता है। 
७) एक घुमक्कड़ जब दुसरे घुमक्कड़ से मिलता है तो उसी मात्रा में आत्मीयता दिखाई देती जिस मात्रा में घुमक्कड़ी साधना में वह ऊपर पहुंच चूका है। 
८) सच्चा घुमक्कड़ सर्व साधन संपन्न हो अपनी तपस्या से लेखक, कवि और चित्रकार के रूप में अपनी सेवाएं मानव समाज के सामने प्रस्तुत करता है। 
9) मनुष्य अपने व्यक्तित्व को जितना फैलता है बाहरी घात प्रतिघात और वृत्त प्रवर्त्ती का उसके ऊपर उतना ही अधिक प्रभाव होता है।
१०) हर्ष की बात का उतना प्रभाव नहीं होता जितना विषाद की बात का।

How To Be Creative By Hugh McLeod

Just finished "How to be creative by Hugh Mcleod". Sharing some important lines:

1. Ignore Everybody.
2. The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs. One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills.
3. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.
4. A fancy tool just gives the second-rater one more pillar to hide behind.
5. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
6. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.
7. “The first rule of business,” he said, chuckling at my naiveté, “is never sell something you love. Otherwise, you may as well be selling your children.”
8. The most important thing a creative person can learn, professionally, is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.
9.  When I see somebody “suffering for their art,”“it’s usually a case of them not knowing where that red line is, not knowing where the sovereignty lies. 
10. Selling out is harder than it looks. 
11. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.