From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Think about anything you've ever achieved in your life that you're proud of... It will have taken a huge amount of sustained focus and attention. When your ability to focus and pay attention breaks down, so too does your ability to achieve goals.
My whole life I'd thought of Earth as this place where we're in control of our lives. I'd wake up, go to the grocery store, take my kid to a baseball game. It was this safe, stable cocoon. Now it wasn't that anymore. In space I could see the Earth in relation to the stars and the sun and the moon. The Earth is a planet. It's a spaceship. We're zipping around the universe, hurtling through the chaos of space with asteroids and black holes and everything else, and we think we're safe but, boy, we are right out there in the middle of it.
Firms like McKinsey are self-reporting that their people are 5x more productive in-flow than out of flow… 500% more productive. That means you can work Monday in-flow and take the rest of the week off – and you'd still get as much done as your peers.
When you shift from a personal attribution for not knowing—thinking, 'I don't know, but everyone else seems to, so I'll fake it or avoid the situation'—to a universal attribution—realizing, 'I don't know, you don't know, nobody knows'—you stand taller. This allows you to embrace what I believe is the most successful mindset: confident uncertainty.
I do this thing- I say something out-loud–announce it to the public–and then I'm forced to do it because people are excited and I don't want to let them down.
Those suffering Anorexia Nervosa are obsessed with weight, checking sometimes 30 times a day, and keeping a close reign on their weight. A pound gain in weight can be perceived as terrible.
When faced with the inevitable, get relative.
We spend a huge amount of our lives away from the immediacy of our existence, lost in reflections on the past or anxieties of the future. This misadventure in episodic memory takes a huge toll on us, leading to stress, anxiety, depression and exacerbating a range of complex medical and psychological conditions we may have.
I have learnt that situations in themselves are not inherently stressful. Our perception of situations is what creates stress for us. Some players thrive in the biggest sporting occasions and others struggle to cope.
Populism is the act of politicising and mobilising ignorance to the point of political and moral insanity.
Success is different for everyone, but for me success has always been about finding meaning and personal fulfillment. While that may have meant different things at different times in my life, learning, making meaningful connections with people and helping others achieve this same level of satisfaction has been a sign of success for me.
I remember writing myself a letter- it's something I encourage women to do today- listing the things they've achieved in their career and personal lives. Before you go into that next important meeting, event or anything outside your comfort zone it's a great tool to give yourself that boost. Women need to be their own cheerleaders and remind themselves of the amazing things they've achieved.