## Highlights I realized my curiosity and intuition were going to be the source of my potential success. I could not rely on a preset path to make an income doing something I enjoy. Nor could I rely on it to teach me how to live a fulfilling, healthy, or worry-free life. The state of the modern world was the only evidence I needed to see this truth. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmb7b1t3qk3dd1gyf7kmyb80)) Go to school, get a job, let whatever happens in that multi-decade time period happen, and retire in a way where you have no meaningful work to balance the eternal rest you craved for so long. That was the depressing song that played on repeat in the minds of the masses. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmb7d6qnpjc9pkmt8rw4t8x9)) If I could learn everything myself, what was stopping me from doing it in a fraction of the time it took compared to taking the conventional path? This is when the power of the digital world made itself apparent to me. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmb7dkjtrpvsggbcetvxcrq4)) I’m an average guy that came from a middle-class, single-income family. There is nothing special about what I have accomplished. I am not living in a different reality from the rest of the population. Even if I grew up on the other side of the world, I would still have access to the information, human experience, and mental ability to maneuver my way to this position. It may have taken more time, yes, but that isn’t a valid excuse. There doesn’t seem to be a more worthwhile endeavor to dedicate your life to than to see what you are capable of. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmb7gmmyk1w4xb63wn5eeq1k)) The ability to moderate is cultivated with experience, but moderation is difficult without awareness, education, and forward progress. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hmb7pnpjp3qegtpgyms8nsff)) ### New highlights added January 18, 2024 at 10:59 AM Controlling the information that you hold in your focus is the key to overcoming the anxiety, boredom, stress, and overwhelm that plague today’s society. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hme15amgacn3jebf3ve3y6eh)) ### New highlights added January 25, 2024 at 5:57 PM The modern world – more so Western society – is designed not by man, but by years of evolution to keep you in chains. A slave to the system. A drooling bag of bones that craves instant gratification, free handouts, and constant stimulation. This is what our psyche craves, and never has it been so available. Mental mastery must become a top priority so that you can adapt to the times. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hn1pyjbp6078m327s71am77a)) ### New highlights added February 15, 2024 at 2:26 PM Forming good habits is powerful, but what is the resistance behind forming good habits? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hpqcrqat6d9z1vfejd7rf9qa)) - 💭 focus ### New highlights added February 20, 2024 at 9:24 AM I am leaving out details like my personal methods that are subject to change in the next decade. These methods, systems, and strategies can be found in the free content on my website, in my courses, and in other internet content. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq38b86nxngna610zxbk60fs)) - 💭 how can you make books timeless These are the tenets of the system that this book presents to create a good life. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq38k9zqv1qbw0e22af5wbjw)) Entropy is the supreme law of the universe, which illustrates that systems tend toward disorder, chaos, and destruction on all planes of existence unless energy is put into the system. Like how the roads get beaten down, need replacement, and may need to expand to fit a growing population. If the system does not evolve with the world, chaos ensues until a new system emerges ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq38w7c8mw8n0nc10597cqdm)) Routines, rituals, business systems, relationship tactics, sports, other self-help advice, and spiritual teachings allow individuals to prevent their mind’s decline into chaos for the temporary amount of time that they hold that form within consciousness. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq38y60htj3fctwrykby2h8w)) Knowledge must be acquired, but in order to understand, it must be brushed up against reality to see if it holds its weight. One can philosophize, fabricate, and hold hard-set beliefs by sitting behind a screen. But can they run a business? Nurture a relationship? Or apply their knowledge to the times they live in? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq394jp5p3qavdrtq2tmfjpz)) - 💭 you're wasting your knowledge if you're not acting on it? Like a good book, life unfolds in chapters and phases. There is a problem, call to adventure, curiosity, exploration of the unknown, struggle, insight, transformation, solution, climax, and more that happen more than once over the course of a lifetime. The problem is that most people are either distracted or stuck in a phase because they lack the ability to see the big picture. Nobody wants to get lost in the unknown and everybody wants to sustain the climax. This is a recipe for disaster. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq398rctkm4ns75c3by303nm)) - 💭 zooming out during struggles to see how it fits in the bigger picture Every problem you encounter in life demands an increase in your level of mind. Your level of mind is synonymous with the openness of your perspective. You must shed your attachment to expectations, concepts, and beliefs that prevent you from perceiving any situation for what it is. When you can perceive a situation for what it is, you can acquire the skill necessary to match the challenge that a problem presents. This is done with self-education, self-experimentation, and persistence to see that the problem is solved not by the prescription of another, but by your own ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq39fv8rw292sk4aj7df3avt)) Strip all judgments from your mind surrounding selfishness, as I’m assuming those were programmed into your head by the selfish desires of others. Self-education, self-reliance, self-experimentation, self-control, self- reflection, self-awareness, self-employment, and self-management. Those traits are to be prioritized ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq39mhk408s4a8e9aabsqmb7)) The ability to focus your attention on a meaningful goal, holding that in the back of your mind as a distraction repellent, knowing exactly how to achieve it through prior experience, and refocusing on the choice in front of you is a superpower ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq39s7e81wb544nzrecs93dw)) In short, I had created multidimensional freedom through the compounding nature of focus ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq39vttfrytt2kpq6rxaxjdp)) - 💭 focus is the meta skill for being able to benefit from life design systems like goals projects and habits. without the ability to focus, you wouldn't be able to create tangible results In this third millennium, mental energy is the most valuable resource. For this book, we will define mental energy as a term that encapsulates the effects of attention, intention, and will that are amplified with consciousness. When you focus your mental energy, attention plays a huge role, but the intention may be misaligned, and the will nonexistent. Focus is the vessel for mental energy. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq3a6fd7qc3w7btvvxzyd814)) You can focus on a positive potential future through visualization and feel an increase in positive energy in your body ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq3a6zzskh1f3x8bst878cbw)) And due to the raw power of negative energy, this is where most people mentally reside. An inescapable cycle of past emotions being experienced in the present. Unable to focus that energy toward a positive outcome. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hq3a797ttgxbaervgwqasyay))