(2021-01-25) Young10 Ideas That Shaped My Life

Scott Young: Ten Ideas That Have Shaped My Life. Looking back, I can think of a number of ideas that shaped my life.

Below are the ten that had the greatest impact on me.

1. Reality is Malleable

Ideas can only change your life if you first accept the idea that life can be changed.

2. Most Actions are Automatic

The vehicle for change is not ideas, but actions. Merely thinking up a new life for yourself does no good.

Harder goals produce better results, provided they’re committed to. Specific targets work better than vague suggestions to “do one’s best.” (actionable goal setting)

3. Ambitious Goals Increase Effort

4. Some Progress Slows, Others Accelerate

Diminishing returns happen when efforts crowd each other out.

Compound growth occurs when each past improvement helps further growth.

5. Life is Largely Positive-Sum

For most of recorded history life has been overwhelmingly zero-sum

In modern times, however, the major way that we have become rich isn’t through plunder, but through invention and service

6. Fear is Overcome Through Exposure

Public speaking, talking to strangers or taking tests can all create a paralyzing anxiety. Knowing how to dial them down, even if it takes more work than flipping a switch, can make a big difference.

7. Success is Stamina

Most of the activities we care about in life are infinite games

if you can keep going you haven’t lost

8. Attention Determines Your Direction

Like weeds overrunning a garden, much of our minds’ space gets filled up with things that neither improve our lives nor prepare us for danger.

you can choose what you let grow in your mind. The conversations you have, books you read and news you follow are all seeds you can choose to water.

9. We’re Fundamentally Free

there’s a more basic sense of freedom, one understood by Alexandre Dumas as he wrote about the character of Abbe Faria. This freedom isn’t always pleasant to contemplate. Jean-Paul Sartre even described it as nauseating. As such, we often try to rid ourselves of it. Yet, if we accept it and make our choice there’s joy on the other side.

10. Happiness is in the Pursuit, Not the Possession

Even when you achieve your dreams, your mind creates problems to fill the gaps

we are what we do, much more than what we have