Author: ben

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Marcus Aurelius

---

Marcus Aurelius — a man whose wisdom never died

Meditations is an ever-unique collection of notes written by the Stoic Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius to himself.

Meditations helped Marcus Aurelius, a trained Stoic, define a personal life philosophy and cultivate an exemplary character he himself could strive toward. Their purpose was also to reflect upon his responsibilities and obligations as the empire’s accomplished military leader. However, the insights in Meditations are so priceless and ageless that they have resonated with people from all walks of life for thousands of years.

So, who was Marcus Aurelius? Born Marcus Annius Verus on April 26, A.D. 121, Marcus Aurelius served as the emperor of the Roman Empire from A.D. 161 to 180. It was the age of the Imperial Cult when Roman emperors were perceived as divinely sanctioned rulers with vast wealth and power.

As a soldier, Marcus was both capable and successful; he embarked on several campaigns in the interests of his empire and people and was triumphant in almost all of them. In a similar vein, he was prudent and conscientious as an administrator.

However, the emperor still faced domestic and personal troubles. His wife, Faustina, passed away early, and his children died one by one. By the end of Marcus’ life, only one of his sons still lived — Commodus, who became emperor upon Marcus’ death and ruined his father’s life legacy during his short reign.

⚡️Stoics state that you are the main director of your reactions. Take charge and guide your path to your desired destination.

Yet Marcus’s humility and objectivity remained unwavering through all his numerous afflictions. And during those years of trouble, Marcus Aurelius wrote twelve books in his journal “Meditations,” which have become one of history’s most practical and influential philosophy books. Stay tuned to dive deeper into the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius’ philosophy and discover how the lessons learned many centuries ago can be relevant even in the 21st century!

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

---

Seneca’s makeover of Stoicism

From a frail adolescent facing a bleak future to the ancient Roman luminary we still quote today, Seneca’s journey is nothing short of inspiring.

Imagine evading death sentences from not one but two ruthless emperors, Caligula and Claudius. Instead of the cold grasp of death, Seneca faced eight years of solitude in exile. However, every cloud has its silver lining; in his isolation, he discovered the power of philosophy.

Jump forward to 49 CE — the exile was over, and Seneca began tutoring a twelve-year-old boy who would later become the emperor Nero. And when the latter came to power, Seneca became the unofficial chief minister. He acquired much wealth, yet claimed that riches hadn’t swayed his mindset.

In 62 CE, the philosopher’s friends warned that Nero might attempt to overthrow him, realizing Seneca’s potential to replace Nero. So, he retired and focused on philosophy, almost immediately putting pen to paper and writing his legendary letters. These letters are not merely casual correspondence but moral essays; this summary aims to decipher them for you.

You might have heard about Stoicism before. It’s a school of thought that values wisdom, perseverance, and self-sufficiency. Its followers considered humanity a unified community that can find peace by living harmoniously with nature and focusing only on the essentials. Some went so far in pursuing self-sufficiency that their unattainable ideals drove them to social isolation.

⚡️True wealth lies not in what you have but in who you become.

While many believe Seneca founded Stoicism, he humanized its dogmatic notions, acknowledging humans’ emotional and imperfect nature. Moreover, his belief in equality improved the enslaved people’s position in Ancient Rome and indirectly inspired the French and American revolutions.

So, let’s get to the revolutionary ideas of a wise man ahead of his time.

A book (📕 / 🎧) by Edward de Bono

---

Thinking is our most precious resource, and we should learn to use it efficiently

Edward de Bono revolutionized the way we think by introducing the concept of the Six Hats method. Researchers from IMB laboratories, teachers, jurors, and world-famous companies (such as Siemens) utilize the technique in the working process. All claim that six hats make whatever they are doing astonishingly efficient. The meetings take less time, and the decision-making has become more manageable.

⚡️Efficiency skyrockets with the Six Hats method.

Thinking is a skill, and we can’t master it completely. There’s no limit to learning. While improving and utilizing this skill, however, we encounter a big issue: confusion. Thinking comes in different colors. Logic, emotions, creativity, and facts infuence n. The viraney a de lonerwhelmin inheres where the six hars come into play This method makes your Typical Western thinking mainly relies on three things:

• Argument
• Categorization
• Searching for the ultimate truth

Edward de Bono proposes parallel sensitization that accounts for various possible truths. This method focuses on what can be, not only what is. Thinking based on the argument is not sufficient for an ever-changing world. Parallel thinking presupposes looking at a given subject from all possible perspectives. While disagreements dictate that only one opinion can be right, six hats allow various correct viewpoints.

The directions parallel thinking can take are defined by different hats, each with unique characteristics. There are various ways to use hats. Single-use is helpful when we want to engage in a particular thinking style. We can also use hats in sequence, either an evolving one or a pre-set one.

“In practice, one of the most striking things about the use of the Six Hats method is that decisions seem to make themselves.”

Edward de Bono

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Don Miguel Ruiz

---

Reality exists in the mind: you are what your beliefs say you are

Have you taken out time to consider why our world is the way it is? And if there could be an alternate version if we just did some things differently?

Truth is, our world is ruled by the sets of unchanged beliefs that humans pass on to each other from generation to generation. It’s our beliefs that build expectations, rules, and results.

⚡️The set of beliefs pervasive in the universe is responsible for what society considers normal and acceptable, or not.

The general beliefs create an atmosphere under which humans are raised.

For instance, a child grows up with the sets of belief systems injected into him from — first — his immediate family, then school, church, friends, and the society at large.

This wouldn’t have been a problem if over 90% of what we believe wasn’t wrong. But unfortunately, it is.

Our beliefs create a special cage for each and everyone of us. We can’t move past this cage unless we change what we believe about ourselves, and how the world works. We got these beliefs because we agreed to them — and if we want to change them, we have to agree on something else, because, unfortunately, the mind is the driver of our lives and it can’t be empty of beliefs.

It’s easier to inherit belief systems as children than to debunk them and gain new ones, but the good news is, each time you break an agreement or belief, you regain the power you used to create it in the first place, and this power can be used to break other agreements.

⚡️Positive agreements will make enough personal power available for you to break other negative agreements.

Wondering what personal agreements you should begin to create? Worry not, because the proceeding sections of this summary will take you through the four personal agreements that will not only change your life but also create enough willpower for you to debunk your negative beliefs.

Ready for them? Let’s dive in.

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Sonja Lyubomirsky

---

You have to work hard to be happy

Happiness is something we all strive for. We attach different meanings to it. For some, happiness is a successful career; for others, it is a large family with strong relationships. It may even be an opportunity to travel. We talk about happiness in the future tense: “I will be happy when I buy an expensive car or go on a trip around the world or move to live by the sea.” Sometimes we can’t even say exactly what makes us happy. However, we agree that contentment is an unattainable dream, something far away that may come to us one fine day. We live in anticipation of pleasure. “The How of Happiness” opens an entirely different understanding of joy and satisfaction. It shows that we can learn to be delighted.

⚡️You are the only one who can give yourself lasting and stable happiness.

Here you will find 12 strategies to become happy and learn to choose the ones that are right for you. You will also know that happiness doesn’t depend on the conditions in which you live and that you can be happy even without a lot of money and all the material things. What do you think is hidden behind the hedonic adaptation? What is the role of genes in our ability to be happy? Why is overthinking destructive? Here you will find answers to these questions. Years of research have proven that happiness can be a habit. You don’t have to look for it or wait for it because it is a consequence of your actions. You are the master of your own fulflling life. Choose your strategy for achieving happiness and implement it regularly.

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Daniel Kahneman

---

Your thoughts determine how you view life, and that’s why you need to learn how to control them

Your brain is always looking for the most natural way out, which could be the death of your ethical judgment-making.

Where there is a chance to preserve energy and assume something without overthinking, your brain will exercise this option. It usually ends up substituting effort for creativity, thanks to your thoughts.

Several factors — illusion, availability, and experience — influence your decisions. These factors lead you to make biased conclusions. Thinking is not as easy as it seems; it is an art we must master. People use intuition, the so-called gut feeling, instead of facts when making decisions. The same goes for problems that are too difficult to solve using logic and intellectual ability — people go with what they “feel” is correct. This phenomenon represents fast thinking, which does not waste too much energy and allows you to evaluate the situation and make relevant decisions quickly. Slow thinking, however, is the type that requires a conscious and energy-consuming thought process but uses logic rather than memory and emotions. Therefore, mastery of thoughts comes from understanding what constitutes intuition and assumptions.

⚡️Experiments and facts shape your thinking, which is why you should know when to switch between intuition and empirical facts.

Daniel Kahneman is a master of his trade. His knowledge of behavioral economics, cognitive thinking, and psychology put him among the best. He believes in placing facts over assumptions and that behavioral patterns can be easy using relative examples and instances

Follow this detailed summary to find out how your brain deceives you and hurts your decision-making process and what you can do to prevent this.

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Ryan Kiyosaki

---

Why do we keep falling for the rat race?

Like many other things, we choose our jobs to please others — mainly our parents. But what do we want for ourselves?

Today, many people choose to be trapped in a race against themselves. The rat race idea is that you keep doing tons of hard and often unnecessary work to make ends meet. You do everything it takes, and your employer, the government, and utility bills take away nearly everything you’ve earned, leaving you with little or nothing to save.

⚡️The rat race is an endless quest where you must work hard to catch up with bills and taxes.

Sadly, many individuals are aware of the rat race and hate to be part of it but are worried about backfiring from their social circle; they keep racing anyway.

We’ve all heard conventional advice: “Go to school, study hard, get a good job, and everything will be alright.” The truth is, this advice is a clear indication of how the poor and the middle class see financial security. The rich don’t see things that way. This is no longer the recipe for a life free of financial struggles. Good education and high grades no longer guarantee success.

⚡️Financial education is robust, while money is where this power manifests.

You can go to college, graduate with a summa cum laude, get a white-collar job, and never have financial growth. You need to realize that no matter how hard you work, you will never be the one who benefits from your endeavors. One day you may have it all and lose it the next day. However, you can gain power over money and start building wealth from scratch with financial literacy.

A more significant percentage of people in our society still follow the “go to school” advice. These people may avoid being poor, but they never grow wealthy. Societal disapproval prevents us from quitting the rat race and building wealth.

“One of the reasons the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class struggles in debt is that the subject of money is taught at home, not in school.”

Robert Kiyosaki

Did you know? Adjectives “broke” and “poor” have different connotations. The first is a temporary state; however, the second is an eternal quality.

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by James Clear

---

Good habits produce results that multiply rapidly, just like money that grows through compound interest

Whether good or bad, habits accumulate. Positive fusion occurs in terms of productivity, knowledge, and relationships.

Negative aggregation appears in times of stress, negative thoughts, and outrage.

freedom to think about more important things.

⚡️By becoming a lifelong learner, you leverage on the compounding ability of knowledge

There are several ways to practice aggregation. For example, reading challenges you to think differently and introduces new ideas. Growing in kindness also produces compound interest in terms of your relationships. People are predisposed to helping others who have been kind to them.

Negative things are also prone to accumulation. Minor stressors may seem isolated at first, but over time, they fuse into serious health issues. Parenting, traffic jams, a slight increase in blood pressure, etc., are common sources of worry.

Feeling stressed then compounds into more significant problems.

emineorge can i groute cumtaris thoughs has ort enge it, i renegitive reality for you.

microaggressions that burst into protests and civil unrest. But we like to pin it on a single event as if it was isolated.

Small changes appear insignificant until they reach a tipping point or threshold. This threshold is known as the “Plateau of Latent Potential.” To get the results you seek, you need patience.

Did you know? According to James Clear, a daily improvement or regression of 1% will leave you 37 times better or worse at the end of a year.

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Brené Brown

---

The essence of effective leadership

Every human reacts and responds differently to situations. That’s why we occasionally act negatively without meaning to do so. These different reactions often affect us at work, for instance, how we choose goals and deadlines and how we go about our workday.

Few leaders set realistic deadlines for their team members, often motivated by a need to get something done quickly or personal ambitions.

But the main problem is that the team doesn’t know about any of that; they simply see the deadline and how difficult it is to achieve and then see a poor leader who can’t be pleased.

It’s also possible that setting these deadlines might be something a person does out of fear or worry that their leadership skills are lacking.

⚡️Courage pushes an excellent leader to succeed. Believe in yourself; fear will not help!

A team should have a shared understanding of all required work, achieved through effective communication. For example, the leadership team working with Dr. Brené Brown decided that each person needed to take notes during meetings and work together on estimating deadlines. Doing this allowed them to communicate effectively and see where others needed help.

Binary thinking patterns often surface in organizations and are dangerous because they do not maximize employees’ full potential. Examples of such binary thinking include:

• Operations versus marketing
• Finance versus creative
• Spenders versus savers
• The heart versus analytics
• The dreamer versus the stick-in-the-muds

Tagging people with stereotypes or just one quality limits their ability to explore and expand. But people are capable of different things, and this summary shows how that knowledge can be helpful to you. The following sections will help clarify the different types of leadership and how you can stand out.

A book (📕 / 📀 / 🎧) by Joshua Medcalf

---

Success is not an easy thing to achieve; you need to be prepared to fight for it

Success and excellence in our personal and professional lives come down to our seemingly insignificant daily choices.

Some decisions are pleasant; some are more akin to chores. The achievements we gain and the sacrifices we make along the way comprise our life journey. If done correctly, they become powerful stepping stones on our road to success.

Life is not a bed of roses for anyone. Often, to enjoy roses, we may need to go out to get them or have someone fetch them for us. Either way, we are still doing something to get the roses. Likewise, we need to do something to be successful in life. We need to stretch our hands to receive the help we need. We also have to give up some of our desires to pursue others. Essentially, we must chop wood and carry water to get anywhere. By doing this, we discover new things, give up some, submit to people, and learn from others, ourselves, and life.

We all love the awe and aura of greatness so much that we look forward to being great one day. We want it more than anything, but there is something else we must love to achieve greatness — the process.

⚡️The process of greatness begins with the dream to be remarkable.

Fantasizing about being magnificent is the easiest part. We imagine without any stress. Sitting down and imagining yourself in a mansion is sweet, but taking the steps necessary to build it is not as sweet. We must wake up from those dreams and take the essential step toward greatness — action.

You can never be great without chopping wood and carrying water; there’s no house without foundation. Wood and water mean different things to different people. It may be writing more for some, while for others, it is taking a course, reading a book, or going on a trip.

In this summary, you will discover general principles explaining how to become friends with the process of achieving greatness and how to take action toward glory in life.

Use tedious activities as learning material

See the process of carrying water and chopping wood as an opportunity to grow. It is the period when you become the judge of your success and learning process. Do not see the period as a test or competition; doing that hampers your seting i nas do sering on your one senter mia leaning spear isragardin mundane thinou, our

the truth is, they are an essential part of your road to success and hold teaching value.

⚡️To maximize your time doing the ordinary, you must identify what wood or water you need to carry.

Knowing the right thing will help you make the best of the period. Your water or wood may be you working under someone; if so, do it with joy and diligence and learn as much as possible. It might be working in a field where you need more experience. This could expand your horizons and available resources. Though it might seem scary and confusing, it’ll bring you much new and valuable knowledge. Wood and water can also be teamwork. It might be challenging if you’re not used to working with many people and making decisions together. But it could teach important lessons about finding common ground with someone and making compromises.

“The only thing that is truly significant about today, or any other day, is who you become in the process.”

Joshua Medcalf

The process may not be smooth or the best pathway you may encounter, but all that will not matter. What will matter in the long haul is what you use this road for, how it influenced you, and what became of you in the aftermath. Your journey is about the lessons you learned along the way, with all victories and downfalls.

Many successful people you hear about today learned their most valuable lessons during their wood and water season.