Inspired by the Theodore Roosevelt quote: "Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to be an oyster."
The views represented here are my own and not those of any employer or organization.
When you meet a woman who is intimidatingly witty, stylish, beautiful, and professionally accomplished, befriend her. Surrounding yourself with the best people doesn’t make you look worse by comparison. It makes you better.
Shine Theory: Why Powerful Women Make the Greatest Friends - The Cut
Yes times one million.
(via rebeccaschinsky)
(via rebeccaschinsky)
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living. Each day is the same, so you remember the series afterward as a blurred and powerful pattern.
One who tries to stand on tiptoe cannot stand still. One who stretches his legs too far cannot walk. One who advertises himself too much is ignored. One who is too insistent on his own view finds few to agree with him. One who claims too much credit does not get even what he deserves. One who is too proud is soon humiliated. These are condemned as extremes of greediness and self-destructive activity. Therefore, one who acts naturally avoids such extremes.
Those who know do not speak;
Those who speak do not know.
Stop your senses: Let sharp things be blunted,
Tangles resolved, The light tempered
And turmoil subdued;
For this mystic unity in which the wise man is moved
Neither by affection,
Nor yet be estrangement
Or profit or loss
Or honor or shame.
Accordingly, by all the world,
He is held highest.
Lao Tzu in The Way of Life: Tao Te Ching
Song: “I Wasn’t Born to Follow” by Beth Orton
5. Be a lifetime learner.
This last point was a very small moment in the meeting, but one that shouldn’t be overlooked. When the duo was asked by a shareholder for a list of the 10 books that influenced them the most that weren’t written by Ben Graham or Phil Fisher, Munger responded:I can’t name 10 books that I regarded that much better than the next 10, my mind is a blend of so many books that I can’t even sort it out anymore. [emphasis mine]
This is such a great line because it conveys the idea that there isn’t one, two, or 10 books that are suddenly going to turn someone into a brilliant investor. Instead of burning cycles trying to find the “secret book” that will suddenly turn them into the next Buffett, investors should instead focus on being lifetime learners that are constantly learning, reading, and experiencing new things.
To change one’s life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions.
I agree.
Interweb rule #76 requires that we reblog any time Lisa Simpson talks about books.
We must try to contribute joy to the world,” said Roger Ebert. “That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.
I wrote a little note to Mother Nature tonight. Hope she reads my blog.
“Good habits are worth being fanatical about.” ~ John Irving
Complement with William James on habit, then learn how to rewire your habit loops.
And, then the quote from William James also included in the excellent Brain Pickings article:
- The acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible. Accumulate all the possible circumstances which shall reenforce the right motives; put yourself assiduously in conditions that encourage the new way; make engagements incompatible with the old; take a public pledge, if the case allows; in short, envelop your resolution with every aid you know. This will give your new beginning such a momentum that the temptation to break down will not occur as soon as it otherwise might; and every day during which a breakdown is postponed adds to the chances of its not occurring at all.
- Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. Each lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of string which one is carefully winding up; a single slip undoes more than a great many turns will wind again. Continuity of training is the great means of making the nervous system act infallibly right … It is surprising how soon a desire will die of inanition if it be never fed.
- Seize the Very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you
aspire to gain. It is not in the moment of their forming, but in the moment of their producing motor effects, that resolves and aspirations communicate the new ‘set’ to
the brain.
