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Tim Ferriss is a self-help guru and host of The Tim Ferriss Show, one of the most popular podcasts online. He's known for conducting experiments on himself to find the perfect way to live his life, and his podcasts feature a host of who's who in the self-help world.
Tools of Titans is Ferriss' attempt to bundle all the knowledge contained in those podcasts into one tome. At over 700 pages, it covers a lot of ground. It's divided into three parts: Healthy (mostly exercise), wealthy (mostly entrepreneurial advice) and wise. Because I don't exercise a lot and because I don't really own my own business (save for my publishing company), I didn't get a lot out of the first two sections. The meat was in the last section. Here's what I found interesting:
- More than 80% of the interviewees have some sort of daily mindfulness or meditation practice.
- A surprising number of males over 45 never eat breakfast, or eat only a small amount.
- Gabby Reece on going first: "I always say that I'll go first. . . . That means if I'm checking out at the store, I'll say hello first. If I'm coming across somebody and make eye contact, I'll smile first.
- Tim Ferriss: "If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole."
- "If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense o f pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. . . Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.
- The use of a Morning Pages or 5-Minute Journal
- Meditation. If you spend even a second noticing your mind wandering and bringing your attention back to you mantra (or whatever), that is a successful session.
- The Joy of Living. - If Mindfulness practice feels like a chore, it's not sustainable.
- Just Note Gone - Train the mind to notice that something previously experienced is no more. For example, at the end of a breath, notice that the breath is over. Gone. As a sound fades away, notice when it is over. At the end of a thought, notice that the thought is gone. At the end of an experience of emotion - notice it is over.
- Loving-kindness - Once an hour, randomly identify two people and just think, "I wish for this person to be happy."
- Go to all the meetings you can, even if you're not invited to them, and figure out how to be helpful. If people wonder why you're there, just start taking notes.
- Marc Andreesen - "The question I'll never answer is, 'What would you have done differently had you known X?' I never, ever play that game because you didn't know X."
- Be so good they can't ignore you.
- Derek Sivers - "You can do everything you want to do. You just need foresight and patience."
- Tony Robbins - "What you can always compete on, the true egalitarian aspect to success, is hard work. You can always work harder than the next guy.
- Scott Adams - "All you do is you pick a goal and you write it down 15 times a day in some specific sentence form. And you do that every day."
- If you want an average, successful life, it doesn't take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths: 1) Become the best at one thing. 2) Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.
- Neil Strauss - "Draft ugly and edit pretty."
- Paulo Coelho - "Keep it simple. Trust your reader. He or she has a lot of imagination. Don't try to describe things. Give a hint, and they will fulfill this hint with their own imagination."
- Stephen J. Dubner - "Worst advice: 'Write what you know.' Why would I want to write about what little I know? Don't I want to use writing to learn more?"
Bryan Johnson - "Where in hour life are you pacing in a 10-by-10-foot patch of grass?. . . Oftentimes, everything you want is a mere inch outside of your comfort zone. Test it."
Tools of Titans is Ferriss' attempt to bundle all the knowledge contained in those podcasts into one tome. At over 700 pages, it covers a lot of ground. It's divided into three parts: Healthy (mostly exercise), wealthy (mostly entrepreneurial advice) and wise. Because I don't exercise a lot and because I don't really own my own business (save for my publishing company), I didn't get a lot out of the first two sections. The meat was in the last section. Here's what I found interesting:
- More than 80% of the interviewees have some sort of daily mindfulness or meditation practice.
- A surprising number of males over 45 never eat breakfast, or eat only a small amount.
- Gabby Reece on going first: "I always say that I'll go first. . . . That means if I'm checking out at the store, I'll say hello first. If I'm coming across somebody and make eye contact, I'll smile first.
- Tim Ferriss: "If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole."
- "If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense o f pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. . . Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.
- The use of a Morning Pages or 5-Minute Journal
- Meditation. If you spend even a second noticing your mind wandering and bringing your attention back to you mantra (or whatever), that is a successful session.
- The Joy of Living. - If Mindfulness practice feels like a chore, it's not sustainable.
- Just Note Gone - Train the mind to notice that something previously experienced is no more. For example, at the end of a breath, notice that the breath is over. Gone. As a sound fades away, notice when it is over. At the end of a thought, notice that the thought is gone. At the end of an experience of emotion - notice it is over.
- Loving-kindness - Once an hour, randomly identify two people and just think, "I wish for this person to be happy."
- Go to all the meetings you can, even if you're not invited to them, and figure out how to be helpful. If people wonder why you're there, just start taking notes.
- Marc Andreesen - "The question I'll never answer is, 'What would you have done differently had you known X?' I never, ever play that game because you didn't know X."
- Be so good they can't ignore you.
- Derek Sivers - "You can do everything you want to do. You just need foresight and patience."
- Tony Robbins - "What you can always compete on, the true egalitarian aspect to success, is hard work. You can always work harder than the next guy.
- Scott Adams - "All you do is you pick a goal and you write it down 15 times a day in some specific sentence form. And you do that every day."
- If you want an average, successful life, it doesn't take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths: 1) Become the best at one thing. 2) Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.
- Neil Strauss - "Draft ugly and edit pretty."
- Paulo Coelho - "Keep it simple. Trust your reader. He or she has a lot of imagination. Don't try to describe things. Give a hint, and they will fulfill this hint with their own imagination."
- Stephen J. Dubner - "Worst advice: 'Write what you know.' Why would I want to write about what little I know? Don't I want to use writing to learn more?"
Bryan Johnson - "Where in hour life are you pacing in a 10-by-10-foot patch of grass?. . . Oftentimes, everything you want is a mere inch outside of your comfort zone. Test it."