Timeless Ideas | January 17, 2021
Here’s your weekly dose of timeless ideas to sharpen your mind, make smarter decisions, and live better.
Quotes
I.
Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.
— Friedrich Schiller
II.
You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.
— Abraham Lincoln
III.
Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
— Chinese Proverb
Ideas
I.
It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.
Viktor E. Frankl in Man's Search for Meaning
II.
It is very interesting how the human mind works. We have the need to justify everything, to explain and understand everything, in order to feel safe. We have millions of questions that need answers because there are so many things that the reasoning mind cannot explain. It is not important if the answer is correct; just the answer itself makes us feel safe. This is why we make assumptions…We make all sorts of assumptions because we don’t have the courage to ask questions…We have agreed that it is not safe to ask questions; we have agreed that if people love us, they should know what we want or how we feel. When we believe something, we assume we are right about it to the point that we will destroy relationships in order to defend our position.
Miguel Ruiz in The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
III.
Trust does not emerge simply because a seller makes a rational case why the customer should buy a product or service, or because an executive promises change. Trust is not a checklist. Fulfilling all your responsibilities does not create trust. Trust is a feeling, not a rational experience. We trust some people and companies even when things go wrong, and we don’t trust others even though everything might have gone exactly as it should have. A completed checklist does not guarantee trust. Trust begins to emerge when we have a sense that another person or organization is driven by things other than their own self-gain. With trust comes a sense of value—real value, not just value equated with money. Value, by definition, is the transference of trust. You can’t convince someone you have value, just as you can’t convince someone to trust you. You have to earn trust by communicating and demonstrating that you share the same values and beliefs. You have to talk about your WHY and prove it with WHAT you do.
Simon Sinek in Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Articles Worth Reading
I.
Matias Slavov | Aeon
Two centuries before Einstein, Hume recognised that universal time, independent of an observer’s viewpoint, doesn’t exist. In Einstein’s autobiographical writing from 1949, he expands on how Hume helped him formulate the theory of special relativity. It was necessary to reject the erroneous ‘axiom of the absolute character of time, viz, simultaneity’, since the assumption of absolute simultaneity unrecognisedly was anchored in the unconscious.
II.
What the distinctive brains of resilient people can teach us
Laura Moreno-López | Psyche
Resilient people are likely to find it easier to focus their attention towards specific positive memories. As humans, we have a bias toward negative feelings and emotions. This has served us well from an evolutionary perspective but, for certain individuals, focusing too much on negative memories and emotions can lead to poor mental health. In contrast, being able to focus and recall specific positive memories could have a protective function. Practicing the ability to switch the focus of attention to include positive memories, situations and feelings that make us feel good could be a powerful strategy.
III.
5 Simple Things I Removed from My Life to Become Happier
Anthony Yeung | Medium
Sure, it’s easy to think that a few life hacks, breathing exercises, and affirmations are going to transform everything and make you content. But it’s far easier to be happy in life when you’re not actively engaged in making yourself unhappy. So rather than adding more things to your life, it’s far more effective and practical to eliminate what hurts our happiness in the first place.
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