From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
It sounds strange but my system came to me in a sort-of almost otherworldly way. It was very powerful.
Dyslexics, like me, often possess above-average intelligence, but we grapple with sequential thinking. Instead of thinking linearly from A to B to C to D, we jump from A to B to Z. Over time, I've learned to turn a perceived 'weakness' into a strength.
The people in the advanced countries now face a choice: we can express justified horror, or we can seek to understand what may have led to the crimes. If we refuse to do the latter, we will be contributing to the likelihood that much worse lies ahead.
Many people assume that they understand what stress truly is. Yet, I believe our collective definition might be somewhat misguided. Hans Selye, often regarded as the pioneer in stress research, characterized it as the body's non-specific response to any demand. Rather than categorizing stress as either good or bad, we should understand it as the body's reaction to any non-specific challenge.
My identity, and that of the company, were one-and-the-same, and that's not just inaccurate, it's unhealthy. You don't want to be on the yo-yo of your company's wins and fails. You can keep doing the right things daily and getting 1% better every day, independently of how the business is performing!
The role of science is to educate us about our reality – and we shouldn't be afraid of it. Once we recognise reality, we can adapt to it. If you don't recognise reality, you act irresponsibly, and your actions won't match the environment.
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.
One interesting way to break the sunk cost is to think about the cost of staying to other people. You might be willing to absorb the abuse yourself — but are you willing to put your family through the effects of your staying?
Mirroring is a crazy skill, it's so insanely effective. Just repeating the last 3 words of what someone said or picking out 1-3 words from the middle of the statement, can get you the outcome you need. Using mirroring, you feel like you can work Jedi mind tricks!
One of the challenges in networking is everybody thinks it's making cold calls to strangers. Actually, it's the people who already have strong trust relationships with you, who know you're dedicated, smart, a team player, who can help you.
Caregiving taught me about the dual nature of love—it's both an internal and external commitment. As a caregiver, I realised the importance of self-care, not just for my own well-being, but so that I could be there for him. This created a symbiotic and reciprocal relationship; in giving, I received abundantly, and we both were uplifted.
What we perceive to be the absolute truth of the world around us is a complex reconstruction, a virtual reality created by the complex machinations of our minds. We have no idea about the world that we inhabit and what the brain is doing is really creating an entire shortcut that enables us to understand the world without being able to physically really understand the reality in which we inhabit, which is a mind-blowing concept.