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Tag: Perseverance
The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho
Santiago, humbly raised in the Spanish countryside, loved to read, wanted to travel, see the world and find his “treasure”.
Instead of being a priest like his parents desired, Santiago became a shepherd in order to wander throughout Andalusia.
The “Young Boy” was obsessed with discovering and accomplishing his Personal Legend.
The Discovery Of A Personal Legend
Everybody has a mission in life, a Personal Legend.
A Personal Legend is what you Always wanted to accomplish ever since you were young.
In your childhood, realizing your Personal Legend seems clear and feasible. However, the older we get, your belief that you can accomplish your Personal Legend seems to get dismantled by a mysterious force.
This mysterious force, made of negativity, deters you but also shows you how to accomplish what you truly want in Life.
The Courage To Pursue Your Personal Legend
Most people are afraid of following their dreams because they are:
- Told from childhood that they would never achieve their Personal Legend. So, the dream stays buried deep inside of them.
- Afraid of hurting the people closest to them, without realizing that those closest to them can help achieve their purpose.
- Frightened by the many obstacles and failures that arise while pursuing their dreams, even if their life is already challenging enough.
- Scared of realizing their dreams. They tend to fear success and self-sabotage.
On Your Quest Of Self-Discovery
According to Paulo Coelho, the Universe conspires to help us in accomplishing our Personal Legend.
It puts people on our way, good and bad, to guide us and redirect our course. The people we meet on our journey to accomplishing our Personal Legend are also part of the Journey.
Indeed, we can learn everywhere we go, with whomever we are and from everything.
For example, Santiago who has met a number of people on his quest of accomplishing his Personal Legend.
It first started out with a dream: one night, he had a wonderful dream about the Egyptian Pyramids. Then, he went to an old Gypsy woman to have his dream interpreted.
After that, he went to a village to change his book to a bigger one. While reading his new book at a well, he meets an old man who claims to be an old king of Salem and who encouraged the boy to accomplish his Personal Legend and to believe in Omens.
On his journey towards the Egyptian Pyramids, the Young boy sold his sheep and arrived in Tangier. There, needing to cross the Sahara, he met a Dangerous guide who would run away with his money.
After being robbed, the boy wandered to the door of a Crystal Merchant, whose unachieved dream was to travel to the Mecca and who against all odds gave him food, a place to stay, a job and who treated him fairly.
While crossing the Sahara desert, he bumped into an Englishman, believer in omens, avid reader, who introduced him to the discipline of Alchemy.
Stranded in an Oasis in the desert, he fell in love with Fatima, the woman of the desert who taught him Love and that Nothing should hold him back from accomplishing his Personal Legend.
Finally, while starting to learn the language of the desert, he bumped into the Alchemist who would teach him the language of the world and show him that lead can be turned into gold.
Review
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho explores the themes of following your dreams and achieving self-awareness while doing so.
The Alchemist, through the journey of Santiago the shepherd, helps you identify who and why you are.
This whole book is a metaphor for travel and purpose. Furthermore, each character represents a stage in the life of a person. In addition, I am not used to reviewing fiction but this book was long overdue.
The story of the protagonist Santiago is very relatable, applicable to every stage of our lives, and easily interpreted. Sometimes, we have ups and downs but if we stay focused on our dreams, we really achieve our purpose in the end.
I truly recommend this book for people who have spent their lives not achieving their purpose or who refuse to become bitter. It gives hope and comfort. It lets you know that it is never too late to accomplish your Personal Legend.
Let me know below what you think about this book!
Favorite quote(s)
The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.
If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.
“People learn, early in their lives, what is their reason for being,” said the old man, with a certain bitterness. “Maybe that’s why they give up on it so early, too. But that’s the way it is.”
[…]intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life[…]
[…] before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up.
Ratings 4/5
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Quote Of The Week #154
Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds By David Goggins
Western society has an obsession for mediocrity and complacency even though we have great resources to excel and even though our minds are strong and are built to endure whatever challenges we face.
Succeeding and functioning at your highest potential is all a matter of detaching yourself from that system of belief, gaining self-awareness and conquering the mind.
#1: Self-limiting beliefs
Inequalities in the system, systemic oppression will always exist but are not the core reason why you are not excelling and functioning at your highest potential.
The truth is you are the one limiting yourself.
That is why you must imperatively identify what is holding you back in life.
To do so, you can:
- Get a journal and write down your pain, the list of things that are causing you pain.
- Give shape and name to what is bothering you.
- Create rituals where you call yourself out, face the hard truth.
- Set tangible goals for yourself and keep yourself accountable.
By identifying what is limiting you and creating rituals, you will be able to renew your purpose and reinvent yourself.
#2: The path of most resistance
You must understand that in life, there will always be pain. But if you have a purpose, you can overcome that pain and borrow the path of most resistance.
Before starting your mission, you will have to objectively assess your current situation and abolish your ego for it is the cause of all your problems.
On your mission and on the path of most resistance, you might get depressed and discouraged but you have to be convinced that your depression is a sign that you are no longer in your comfort zone.
#3: Taking Souls
In life, you will be confronted with your own demons, bullies who will oppose you for no reason and will face many other challenges.
You have to prepare your mind for eventual opposition and understand that:
- Challenges reveal your character and your mindset.
- Pain is finite and you can take on any challenge you want.
- You must defeat your own demons before you can defeat your opponent.
The Taking Souls strategy is a game that you play with yourself and yourself only by tapping into your own reserve of energy and power. It allows you to easily defeat your opponent and find your inner beast:
- Know who you are and why you are here and why you are fighting.
- Find areas in your life that need improvement.
- Take on tasks that you deem impossible or that make you uncomfortable.
- List your strengths and weaknesses. Turn your weaknesses into your strengths.
- List the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent or bully. Bullies are already insecure and unstable so it’s easy to get into their heads.
- Remember that the easiest way to fight a bully is to help them.
#4: Flipping the script
Every negative experience creates callouses in the mind. When you know how to avoid negative self-talk, to manage your mind and your callouses, then you can choose fight over flight, push through any obstacles and overcome self-doubt.
To build the most stable callous mind there is, to acquire mental toughness and to improve your character, you need to accept your Self, stop running away from your past, face the source of your wounds, fear and insecurities.
For this reason, when you are facing opposition or a negative situation, you have to:
- Flip the script and stop seeing yourself as the victim of your circumstances.
- Work the hardest when you want to the least.
- Seek excellence to outdo your competition.
- Make your competition admire you and your abilities.
#5: Attaining your goals
Now that you are comfortable with the concept of pain and possess the ability to flip your negative experience, it is time for you to start:
- Feeding off your pain to overcome challenges and to live the life you want.
- Painting a picture of what success feels and looks like.
- Visualizing yourself achieving your goals or overcoming the obstacles standing in your way.
- Using your past achievements to fuel your news goals.
- Putting in the work to succeed.
When all is said and done, don’t forget to take the time to celebrate your success.
Review
Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds is David Goggins‘ raw and uncut autobiography.
In Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds, David Goggins aims to help you use your setbacks as fuel for your success, live a bolder life to your fullest potential, master the mind and use it to its maximum capacity.
David Goggins, intense and pragmatic, shares his hardships and successes in his civilian and military lives. Through his story, he encourages people to stop playing the victim and making self-limiting choices.
To make this short, his story is rooted in pain, very dramatic and hard to read. You basically need to brace yourself for the first chapters where David Goggins recalls his childhood.
Throughout his autobiography, we can observe:
- The evolution of his relationship with pain and suffering. He went from enduring pain, to insulating himself from it, to embracing it, to enjoying it a little bit too much, to diligently seeking it, to understanding that he is immune to suffering and finally using his pain as a pillar for his success.
- The shift from Victim to Warrior mentality.
- The catharsis from depicting his life and transferring his knowledge in a book.
- His willingness to open old wounds and repair the broken pieces of his life.
- His weight loss, brutal honesty, resilience, confidence and individual growth.
Furthermore, I couldn’t help to wonder about military life and how they recruit their candidates.
On one hand, does the military hire people who don’t know what to do with their lives, who completely lack purpose or are at their wit’s end? Then, the military breaks them down, builds them up into superhumans, gives them a patriotic purpose, and pours into them their way of thinking to get these superhumans to obey them and do whatever they want without asking questions?
On the other hand, according to David Goggins, “Hell Week is designed to show you that a human is capable of much more than you know. It opens your mind to the true possibilities of human potential, and with that comes a change in your mentality.”.
Needless to say, it’s amazing what these soldiers put their mind and body through but still survive. I wonder if they know how much they lose or gain mentally and emotionally doing so? If they are able to function outside of that institution and with that level of trauma?
Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds should definitely be called “How to make the best out of the worst”.
While reading this book, you will experience a lot of sadness, twisted experiences, inspirational and funny perspectives on life. Just life!
As much as I had a hard time reading this book, I couldn’t put it down.
Let me know below what you think about this book!
Favorite quote(s)
Nobody likes to hear the hard truth. Individually and as a culture, we avoid what we need to hear most. This world is fucked up, there are major problems in our society. We are still dividing ourselves up along racial and cultural lines, and people don’t have the balls to hear it! The truth is racism and bigotry still fucking exist and some people are so thin-skinned they refuse to admit that.
There is no more time to waste. Hours and days evaporate like creeks in the desert. That’s why it’s okay to be cruel to yourself as long as you realize you’re doing it to become better. We all need thicker skin to improve in life.
I looked at the people who were making me feel uncomfortable and realized how uncomfortable they were in their own skin. To make fun of or try to intimidate someone they didn’t even know based on race alone was a clear indication that something was very wrong with them, not me.
Self-improvement takes dedication and self-discipline.
The first step on the journey toward a calloused mind is stepping outside your comfort zone on a regular basis.
Until you experience hardships like abuse and bullying, failures and disappointments, your mind will remain soft and exposed. Life experience, especially negative experiences, help callous the mind.
Ratings 4.5/5
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Quote Of The Week #145
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success By Carol S. Dweck
According to Carol S. Dweck in Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, children are eager to learn and never worry about failing.
It is only when they grow up that they don’t want to look foolish, and start defining themselves by their failures and successes.
However, the most successful people don’t worry about failing and have developed a Growth Mindset.
What is a Growth Mindset?
Mindsets are just beliefs. They’re powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind. - Carol S. Dweck Click To Tweet
The Growth Mindset can be applied to different areas of our lives.
Growth Mindset consists in converting your past failures into successes.
It shows us how to:
- Love and cope with failures.
- Turn failures into a learning experience.
- Cultivate your intelligence and most skills through failures and perseverance.
- Challenge and stretch yourself.
- Do your best and put forth the effort where there needs to be.
- Change the beliefs about yourself and identify your personal qualities.
- Avoid a life of regrets.
On the other hand, the Fixed Mindset limits our achievements.
The Fixed Mindset has been instilled in us, unbeknownst to us, since our tender childhood.
When you don’t have a Growth Mindset, you tend to:
- Show more depression.
- Believe that you possess fixed traits.
- Look for outside validation or for people who are worse off than you are.
- Feel an urge to succeed and to prove yourself.
How leaders grow their mindset?
Fixed Mindset leaders only hire people who can boost their ego and make them feel superior. They use their company as a display of their superiority.
They tend to compare themselves to others, to become abusive and controlling, to pick on people who perform at their best.
- Monitor your surrounding and your thought patterns. Then, understand the implications and what you can learn from your experience.
- Learn to maintain a sense of confidence and devote yourself to growing.
- Make concrete plans that you can visualize.
- Understand that your plans will fail from time to time and that you will have to develop strategies to maintain your Growth Mindset.
- Don’t hide your mistakes and don’t be defensive about it.
- Take care of your people.
- Don’t allow groupthink and allow dissenting voices to speak up.
- Don’t feel threatened by high performing employees and help your employees improve on the job.
- Ask for feedback and for more information to learn.
- Stop beating yourself up when you have failed.
- Remember that everyday is an opportunity to learn.
Review
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck is a self-help book that encourages introspection and teaches us how to develop a “Growth Mindset”.
In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck shares poignant examples of people who have embraced the Growth Mindset, overcome challenges and achieved personal success.
In addition, Carol S. Dweck recaps all the ways we can be harboring a fixed mindset in our parenting, relationships and leadership.
She also asks significant questions to help us determine whether or not we have a Growth or Fixed Mindset.
I wish there were more detained and practical advice or a step by step guide on how to acquire a Growth Mindset.
Let me know below what you think about this book!
Favorite quote(s)
People may start with different temperaments and different aptitudes, but it is clear that experience, training, and personal effort take them the rest of the way.
Mindsets are just beliefs. They’re powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind.
Even in the growth mindset, failure can be a painful experience. But it doesn’t define you. It’s a problem to be faced, dealt with, and learned from.
Real self-confidence is not reflected in a title, an expensive suit, a fancy car, or a series of acquisitions. It is reflected in your mindset: your readiness to grow.
Ratings 3.5/5
Author
Unbeatable Mind: Forge Resiliency and Mental Toughness to Succeed at an Elite Level By Mark Divine
Unbeatable Mind: Forge Resiliency and Mental Toughness to Succeed at an Elite Level by Mark Divine provides methods and strategies to:
- Develop an unbeatable mind.
- Deal with harsh realities.
- Increase your personal power.
- Improve your thought pattern and find your positive focus.
- Master and outperform yourself.
- Train your team.
An Unbeatable Mind?
A person with an unbeatable mind is always original, cultivates excellence, seeks to magnify his or her potential and hates mediocrity.
In addition, an unbeatable mind follows universal laws and truths, is resilient, has great character and leadership qualities.
Furthermore, an unbeatable mind avoids group-thinking, procrastination and inaction.
According to Divine, it is imperative that you gain mental control, acquire mental toughness and develop leadership qualities.
How to find your positive focus and gain mental control?
Spending time alone and in silence, quieting your mind is discouraged in Western society.
We are rarely, if ever, encouraged to spend time in silence or get to know the depth of our character. - Mark Divine Click To Tweet
People are therefore prone to negative thinking. However, negativity destroys performance and brings down your energy.
In order to find a positive focus and gain mental control:
- Be aware of your negativity. To become self-ware, practice silence, define your passion, principles and purpose.
- Prohibit the negative self-talk.
- Focus on positive self-talk or affirmations. Add positive imagery and feelings to those affirmations.
- Find a mantra or an affirmation that will run in the background of your mind.
How to gain mental toughness?
Mental toughness is sustaining positive focus on one task, on the one thing that keeps you going.
Mental toughness helps you concentrate on your tasks for long periods of time without any distractions.
To develop mental toughness:
- Practice concentration on a daily basis.
- Understand that your overall success depends on every single choice that you make.
- Acknowledge that the small choices lead you towards excellence and shape your life the most.
- Educate yourself on how stress works, how you react to it and learn to eliminate it from your life.
Develop the disciplines of a Warrior
According to Mark Divine, Warriors are those who have achieved mental control and mental toughness.
They have learnt to discipline their mind so they can focus on the things that matter most, maintain positive focus when they need it most, avoid being distracted by negative emotions and negative beliefs.
Since the Warrior is committed to mastering himself or herself, he or she has mastered the following disciplines:
- Simplicity. They have learnt to detach themselves from material things that they don’t need.
- Dedication. They apply themselves daily but don’t take themselves too seriously.
- Authenticity. They are honest with themselves.
- Service. They build up their character.
Warriors with unbeatable minds:
- Develop a strong plan and discipline.
- Commit daily to the plan.
- Are mindful of their decisions.
- Stay in the present moment.
- Maintain their energy and their positive focus.
- Fulfill their purpose.
- Make change happen.
- Step up their game and take action.
- Lead themselves and work with an unbeatable team.
- Do what is best for their team.
- Align their team with their vision and purpose.
Review
Unbeatable Mind: Forge Resiliency and Mental Toughness to Succeed at an Elite Level by Mark Divine is a great guide for being and maintaining positivity no matter what.
Mark Divine gives sound and practical advice, using his 20 years of experience as a Navy Seal.
Mark Divine applies what he learnt with the NAVY to his regular life and work. He teaches you how to:
- Discipline yourself and manage your emotions.
- Reject mediocrity.
- Build up your resilience.
- get the life and career you want.
Unbeatable Mind: Forge Resiliency and Mental Toughness to Succeed at an Elite Level is useful for leaders, corporate teams and all those who want to condition their mind, body and soul.
I definitively loved the military aspect, principles and parallels in the book. However, because of his experience, some of his analogies are extreme and unrelatable.
Let me know below what you think about this book!
Favorite quote(s)
Consistency is the omnipotent force behind change.
We are rarely, if ever, encouraged to spend time in silence or get to know the depth of our character.
Negativity destroys performance in the short term and precludes success and happiness in the long term.
Lack of meaning and purpose is a major cause of despair and despondency in the world.
Ratings 4/5
Author
Mark Divine
Mark Divine is a retired Navy SEAL Commander and founder of the leadership development program Unbeatable Mind.
Mark Divine is also the author of Unbeatable Mind: Forge Resiliency and Mental Toughness to Succeed at an Elite Level.
The Obstacle is the Way : The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph by Ryan Holiday
Not everyone knows how to handle obstacles. Most people tend to quit at the sight of adversity.
Overcoming obstacles and standing tall in adversity are a learned behavior. To turn your trials into triumphs, you must:
- Change our bad perceptions of events.
- Take directive actions.
- Strengthen your will power.
Change your perception
Your perception has power over you and your decisions.
Building up your perception takes time and a lot of practice. You must discipline your emotions and objectively perceive your world for what it is and not for how it wants to be seen in order to :
- Temper your passions and primal feelings,
- Become objective and access the truth.
- Stay cool under pressure.
- Stay present and positive.
Your mind is a powerful tool. To actively change your perception:
- Understand that you cannot change the obstacles.
- Understand that you are in control of how you perceive the world and your obstacles.
- Believe that you can choose how to respond to different situations. You can always oppose negativity or shake it off.
- Trust that you are the one who decides of the outcome of the situation.
- Assume that there are no good or bad events in life. By thinking so, you make it so.
- Feel your emotions but get your emotions under control.
- Tell yourself the truth and be authentic.
- Use your personal resources wisely. For example, don’t waste your time trying to understand why a situation is the way it is. Those reasons don’t matter.
- See obstacles as challenges or opportunities to observe, to grow, to improve yourself, to acquire new skills and to try new tactics.
- Do not make assumptions.
- Be present, be bold and take calculated risks.
Take directive action
After you have corrected your perception, it is time to learn how to act it out.
Each and every one of your actions must serve a purpose.
To act towards your goals with your new perception:
- Remember that where you start is not where you will end.
- Start somewhere and fight to create momentum in whatever you undertake.
- Take the time to explore and to learn.
- Avoid complaining and take “directive action”. If you have taken action, persevere and don’t quit no matter what.
- Expect the execution of your plan will be difficult.
- See obstacles as a way to test your character.
- Turn negatives into positives.
- Do not dwell or waste time dwelling on the hand that life has dealt you.
- Take responsibility for your actions.
- Don’t let distractions or failed actions stop you. Instead, fail forward, learn from your failures and don’t take them personally.
- Manage your energy and always do your best with what you have.
Increase your will power
Your will power is something that can never be taken from you.
Maintaining it requires a deep understanding of life.
To increase your will power:
- Anticipate and prepare yourself for adversity so you do not get caught by surprise.
- Forge your strengths and take care of your weaknesses when there is not adversity.
Review
The Obstacle is the Way : The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph is a motivational book that encourages people to withstand adversity and to take action despite adversity.
Ryan Holiday shares a philosophical approach, rooted in stoicism, that will help you confront obstacles and turn them upside down.
The Obstacle is the Way : The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph is destined for leaders and entrepreneurs who:
- Face challenges on a daily basis,
- Need to make pragmatic decisions and take calculated risks,
- Want to take their career or business to the next level.
Holiday‘s entire book is based on classical references, historical figures and war leaders, who have distinguished themselves in life and who have adopted stoicism as a life strategy.
Finally, Ryan Holiday also incorporates reputable leaders and entrepreneurs as examples of resilience and will power.
If you want to stay motivated and push through your challenges, this book is for you.
Let me know below what you think about this book!
Favorite quote(s)
Our perceptions can be a source of strength or of great weakness. If we are emotional, subjective and shortsighted, we only add to our troubles.
Obstacles make us emotional, but the only way we’ll survive or overcome them is by keeping those emotions in check—if we can keep steady no matter what happens, no matter how much external events may fluctuate.
Focusing exclusively on what is in our power magnifies and enhances our power. But every ounce of energy directed at things we can’t actually influence is wasted—self-indulgent and self-destructive. So much power—ours, and other people’s—is frittered away in this manner.
If you mean it when you say you’re at the end of your rope and would rather quit, you actually have a unique chance to grow and improve yourself. A unique opportunity to experiment with different solutions, to try different tactics, or to take on new projects to add to your skill set.
Leadership requires determination and energy. And certain situations, at times, call on leaders to marshal that determined energy simply to endure.
Ratings 4/5
Author
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Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday is a speaker, writer and media strategist. Ryan Holiday is also the author of The Obstacle is the Way : The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.
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