Finished: July 2012
Rating: 4/5

The post Onward – by Howard Schultz appeared first on Justin Lee.

Like most human-beings, I’ve learned a lot of things in my 24 years of life, especially in the past 1–2 years as I transitioned from a University student (#lifeofastudent) into a working man.

I’ve done my best to stuff in as many tidbits as possible in this post, and I hope you take away something useful that can be applied in your own life.

Read Books in Your Free Time

Turn off the TV, turn off the computer after 9PM. There is no easier way to learn from someone’s life than to read a book that they’ve written. I’m mostly talking about non-fiction, although getting lost in fiction is just as fun.

Read paper books or on Kindle whitepaper. The screen from a phone, iPad, or computer screen strains your eyes (especially at night) and makes your brain produce an unnecessary amount of dopamine, in anticipation of a Facebook notification or an Instagram like.

 “In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time — none, zero.”

– Charles Munger

Find People (and Mentors) to Learn from Indirectly

Read their history, read their books, listen to their podcasts. The knowledge you gain from the resources they put online is just like them being your mentor in real life. Lots of smart people have spilled their guts online and it is to our benefit.

Who do I learn from? Ramit Sethi taught me how to identify and overcome the psychological barriers that we set around money, life, and business. Tim Ferriss taught me that there is always a more efficient way to get results. James Altucher taught me about the importance of sleeping 8 hours a day, generating ideas daily, practicing being grateful, and permission networking.

Books. Movies. You can outsource 90 percent of mentorship to books and other materials. 200–500 books equals one good mentor. People ask me, “What is a good book to read?” I never know the answer. There are 200–500 good books to read. I would throw in inspirational books. Whatever are your beliefs, underline them through reading every day.

– James Altucher

The 1% Rule

Every day, aim for 1% improvement in any aspect of your life. In one year you will improve 3700% or 37x.

For the math nerds: (1.01)^365 = 37.78

Produce, Don’t Consume

Always make time in your day to create something. Whether it is a business, website, blog, photograph, piece of music, whatever. Being a consumer deteriorates creativity.

As I wrote in another post, just hit publish.

Meditate

There are a lot of negative connotations around the word “meditation”, mainly because of the perceived spiritual baggage surrounding the practice. However, Vippasana meditation is a practice where you close your eyes, focus on the breath, and become aware of your thoughts. I’ve integrated Vippasana into my daily routine, and over the last 6 months I’ve found that my mind is clearer, I’m less distracted when working (dismissing unimportant thoughts when they creep up), and find myself zoning out less.

“If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things — that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.”

– Steve Jobs

It wasn’t easy to start though, sitting in silence for 5 minutes feels like an eternity when you first do it. But like anything, practice makes perfect.

Try it for 5 minutes a day, then 10. Here are some resources: this audio clip from Sam Harris and this book by Dan Harriss.

Put in the Hard Work

Chasing silver bullets and those “magic formulas”, usually seen in articles with titles “the one thing you absolutely need to know about ____”. There is no one easy solution to most problems we have and it pays to dig deeper to find the solution.

Where Do You Want to Be in 1, 5, and 10 Years?

Set goals (1, 5, and 10 years) and make a bucket list. Ask yourself the honest question if what you’re doing now is working towards those goals or aspirations. If not, change what you’re doing now.

Focus on the Process

Many people focus on events, rather than process. Many people want to get rich but don’t want to do the work. This is why the lottery is so popular, people want something for nothing. Put in the hard work and focus on the process.

Supply and Demand

Supply and Demand is all around us. It’s the reason behind low salaries, high housing costs, massive lineups at iPhone launches. Learn how to be in high demand or low supply. Drive your price up.

An Important Lesson on Life and Business

Reading this huge slideshow (1,800+ slides!) was a major change in the way I viewed life and business. There are just too many good lessons to recite here: LESSONS FROM MY 20s

Build a Morning Routine

Include these things: drinking a glass of water, meditating (Vipassana), stretching (Sun Salutations), getting some sunlight, eating breakfast, practicing being grateful. The slideshow above has some great tips on integrating these things.

Build your routine into a habit. Develop good habits.

“Champions don’t do extraordinary things. They do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking, too fast for the other team to react. They follow the habits they’ve learned.”

– Charles Duhigg

The Power of Five

You are the average of the 5 things you eat, read, talk about, and listen to. Choose wisely.

The Pareto Principle

Learn about the 80/20 rule. Apply it to everything you do. Apply it again and you’ll get the 64/4 rule. 4% of your inputs generate 64% of your outputs.

Say Cheese

Smile and make eye-contact with everyone you interact with. People will be friendlier to you and open themselves up more. I’m not talking about a creepy smile though, but a genuine smile. As if you are a mother looking at your kids.

If you’re feeling really uncomfortable staring into someone’s eyes when talking to them, just focus on looking at one of their eyes. Whew, that’s better.

Push Your Comfort Zone

Do something small every day that is outside of your comfort zone. Take an ice cold shower (you did the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge right?) or randomly ask your barista for 10% off your coffee next time at Starbucks. You know they won’t give it to you, but take note of how uncomfortable you feel when you ask.

Going outside the comfort zone put me in THE ZONE. THE ZONE is much bigger than the comfort zone. I want to live in the ZONE even though it’s scarier.

– James Altucher

Don’t Time Travel

Time travelling is unnecessary. No point dwelling in the past about your mistakes. No point in looking to the future and being overly anxious about it. Why do we spend so much time and energy worrying about things that we cannot control? There are much more things we could do instead. Live in the present.

In life, it doesn’t matter what happens to you or where you came from. It matters what you do with what happens and what you’ve been given. And the only way you’ll do something spectacular is by using it all to your advantage.

– Ryan Holiday

Thank you for making it this far, and I hope the above lessons have resonated with you in some way ☺

(Thank you Ryan Holiday for the idea)

The post What I Learned on the Road to 24 appeared first on Justin Lee.

Finished: August 1, 2013
Rating: 4/5

The post What Every Body Is Saying – by Joe Navarro appeared first on Justin Lee.

Why don’t we sit down and work on what we are TRUELY passionate about? It could be a combination of factors, but we know at the end of the day it never gets done.

Publish.
Push Start.
Press Play.
Submit.
Ship.

Words that we always hear. But why are we so hesitant to start or continue what we truly want to do? Don’t let today be another day of inaction.

Our hobbies, side projects, and passions sit on the back burner for days, months, until we regret not starting years ago. Think about the New-Years resolutions we started just six months ago. Yes, it’s almost half way through the year and I bet you’d be shocked to see little progress towards the things that your “younger self” set you up for.

I’m the perfect example. I wanted to write more this year. Priorities got in the way, and I didn’t write as much as I wanted. I’m not going to analyze the exact reasons why or cry about the wasted time. Instead, I’m now writing this post and currently brainstorming 5 other blog post ideas.

Luckily, we live in an era where the biggest enemy is ourself. Most of our struggles are internal.

In life, it doesn’t matter what happens to you or where you came from. It matters what you do with what happens and what you’ve been given. And the only way you’ll do something spectacular is by using it all to your advantage.
– Ryan Holiday

Open that notebook, start up Photoshop, dust off your camera/piano/guitar. Start today.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint, and small actions compound faster than you think.

(Image Credit)

The post Just Hit “Publish” appeared first on Justin Lee.

Finished: June 2014
Rating: 4/5

The post The Obstacle is the Way – by Ryan Holiday appeared first on Justin Lee.