Quotes

Question 1

The score takes care of itself

Answer 1

Bill Walsh

Question 2

If you see me in a fight with a bear, pray for the bear.

Answer 2

Kobe Bryant

Question 3

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

Answer 3

Carl Jung

Question 4

The easy way is the hard way

Answer 4

Bob Zirol

Question 5

Do the verb instead of trying to be the noun

Answer 5

Boom

Question 6

He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

Answer 6

Samuel Johnson

Question 7

Happiness is the space between one desire being fulfilled and a new desire forming.

Answer 7

Caed Budris

Question 8

Peace occurs when you don’t turn your observations into problems.

Answer 8

Clear, James. Atomic Habits (p. 260). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Question 9

Being curious is better than being smart.

Answer 9

Clear, James. Atomic Habits (p. 261). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Question 10

Being poor is not having too little, it is wanting more.

Answer 10

Seneca

Question 11

Make the bar so low that you can never accept procrastination. Make at least one positive contribution per day.

Answer 11

Ryan Holliday

Question 12

One thing all fools have in common is they’re always delaying to start or getting ready to start.

I’ll get to this someday, tomorrow, after this or that happens. Do the thing now.

Answer 12

Seneca

Question 13

It’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.

Answer 13

Dweck, Carol S.. Mindset (p. 5). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Question 14

Failure can be a painful experience. But it doesn’t define you. It’s a problem to be faced, dealt with, and learned from.

Answer 14

Dweck, Carol S.. Mindset (p. 33). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Question 15

Tom Brady was not obsessed with winning

Answer 15

He was obsessed with improving.

Question 16

Your aim as a reader is to understand WHY something happened, the what is secondary.

Answer 16

Ryan Holiday

Question 17

“Many people view their habits and routines as obstacles or, at the very least, obligations to get through. Making the morning coffee, driving your kids to the next activity, preparing the next meal—we often see our routines as chores to be completed.

But these are not moments to be dismissed. They are life. Making coffee can be a peaceful ritual—perhaps even a fulfilling one—if done with care rather than rushed to completion. It’s about the amount of attention you devote to these simple moments, and whether you choose to appreciate them or bulldoze through them on the way to the next task.

Find the beauty and joy in your daily rituals and you will find beauty and joy in your daily life. To love your habits is to love your days, and to love your days is to love your life.”

Answer 17

James Clear

Question 18

What are you practicing, training, and rehearsing for?

Answer 18

Greg Harden

Question 19

Decide what you want and then commit to getting it and work until you get it and repeat.

Answer 19

For this you’ll need big and little goals, then the process to achieve each. Do it until you reach your objective.

Question 20

You say — ‘It’s unfortunate that this has happened to me.’ No. It’s fortunate that this has happened and I’ve remained unharmed by it — not shattered by the present or frightened of the future. It could have happened to anyone. But not everyone could have remained unharmed by it.

Answer 20

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Question 21

The odds increase, the more you try.

Answer 21

James Clear

Question 22

“Arguably the most important skill is controlling your attention. This goes beyond merely avoiding distractions. The deeper skill is finding the highest and best use for your time, given what is important to you. More than anything else, controlling your attention is about being able to figure out what you should be working on and identifying what truly moves the needle.”

Answer 22

James Clear

Question 23

When you’re doing something hard, focus on the fun part.

Answer 23

James Clear

Question 24

In the end, no matter what you do, it’s not about talent. It’s about what’s going on inside your own head.

Answer 24

Greg Harden

Question 25

You don’t have kids with the intent of retaining a clean house

Answer 25

NDT

Question 26

There’s somebody out there, way less qualified than you are, living the life you want. Simply because they took action.

Answer 26

Jim Quick

Question 27

For some people, discipline is doing stuff. And for others, discipline is not doing stuff.

Answer 27

Ryan Holiday

If you’re a non-conformist, you need to turn that off sometimes, so that you don’t outsmart yourself thinking the earth is flat.

Question 28

The same people that are super contrarian are also super gullible about their “pet” theories.

Answer 28

Tim urban

Question 29

The three C’s of assertive communication are Confidence, Clarity, and Control.

Answer 29

Greg Harden

Question 30

Everything is an opportunity for excellence.

Answer 30

The now famous passage from Marcus Aurelius is that the impediment to action advances action, that what stands in the way becomes the way. But do you know what he was talking about specifically? He was talking about difficult people! He was saying that difficult people are an opportunity to practice excellence and virtue–be it forgiveness or patience or cheerfulness. And so it goes for all the things that are not in our control in life. So when I find myself in situations big and small, positive or negative, I try to see each of them as an opportunity for me to be the best I’m capable of being in that moment. It doesn’t matter who we are, where we are, we can always do this.

Question 31

Every event has two handles

Answer 31

Another way to say that is that there are multiple ways to look at every situation, multiple ways to determine how you’re going to react. Some of them are sturdy and some of them are not. Some are kind and resilient, some are not. Which will you choose? Which handle will you grab?

Question 32

The world is dyed by the color of your thoughts.

Answer 32

Marcus said, “The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes the color of your thoughts.” He also said, “Our life is what our thoughts make it.” If you see the world as a negative, horrible place, you’re right. If you look for shittiness, you will see shittiness. If you believe that you were screwed, you’re right. But if you look for beauty in the mundane, you’ll see it. If you look for evidence of goodness in people, you’ll find it. If you decide to see the agency and power you do have over your life (which as we’ve said is largely in how we think), well, you’ll find you have quite a bit.

Question 33

There is a tax on everything.

Answer 33

Taxes aren’t just from the government. Seneca wrote to his friend Lucilius, “All the things which cause complaint or dread are like the taxes of life—things from which, my dear Lucilius, you should never hope for exemption or seek escape.” Annoying people are a tax on being outside your house. Delays are a tax on travel. Haters are a tax on having a YouTube channel. There’s a tax on money too–and the more successful you are, the more you pay. Seneca said he tried to pay the taxes gladly. I love that. After all, it’s usually a sign of a good problem. It means you had a killer year financially. It means you’re alive and breathing. You can whine about the cost. Or you can pay and move on.

Question 34

Alive time or Dead time?

Answer 34

This isn’t from the Stoics exactly, but close enough. Robert Greene once told me there were two types of time in life: Alive time and Dead time. One is when you sit around, when you wait until things happen to you. The other is when you are using that time productively, actively. You’re stuck at the airport–you don’t control that. You decide whether it’s alive time or dead time (you read a book, you take a walk, you call your grandmother). I had a year left on a job when Robert gave me that advice. I could have just sat on my hands. Instead, it was an incredibly productive period of reading and researching and filling boxes of notecards that helped me write The Obstacle is the Way and Ego is the Enemy.

Question 35

Anxiety isn’t escaped. It’s discarded

Answer 35

It’s not your kids/wife that are frustrating you. They’re just doing what they do. You are the source of the frustration. That’s a little frustrating, but it’s also freeing. Because it means you can stop it! You can choose to discard it.

Question 36

It’s the surprise that kills you

Answer 36

Stuff is going to happen, but what makes it harder is when it catches us off guard. The unexpected blow lands heaviest, Seneca said. That’s why we should practice the art of premeditatio malorum–essentially, a pre-mortem of the things that could happen in a day or a life. This takes the sting out of them in advance…it also lets us prepare and prevent. And for no one is this more important than parents and leaders. Seneca said that the one thing a leader is not allowed to say is, “Wow, I didn’t think that was going to happen.”

Question 37

You can’t learn what you think you already know

Answer 37

This was the essential worldview of Socrates, the hero of the Stoics. Think of Socrates’ method. He didn’t go around telling people anything. He went around asking questions. That’s how he learned so much and ended up becoming so smart. If you want to get smarter, stop thinking you’re so smart. If you want to learn, focus on all the things you don’t know. Humility, admission of ignorance–these are the starting points. This is the attitude that gets you further in life.

Question 38

People are just doing their job.

Answer 38

I don’t just mean at work. After bumping into a particularly frustrating person, Marcus Aurelius asks himself, “Is a world without shamelessness possible?” No, he answers. “There have to be shameless people in the world. This is one of them.” This is just someone fulfilling their role. Seeing things this way not only prevents me from being surprised, but it makes me sympathetic. This person has a crappy job.It’s not fun to be them–they have to be one of the jerks that exist in the world. And then I remind myself that I am lucky that my job is to try to be a good person.

Question 39

They don’t want you to be miserable.

Answer 39

It’s strange that Stoics have the reputation for being unfeeling when Seneca wrote three very beautiful essays on loss and grief called Consolations. I read these essays whenever I lose someone or miss someone who I loved. Anyway, one of the lessons that hit me the most is when he is writing to the daughter of a now-deceased friend. He brings up a great point, basically saying, look, your dad loved you so much. Of course, he would be honored that you miss him, but do you think he would want his death to make you miserable? Would he want the mere mention of his name to bring you pain? No, that would be his worst nightmare. He would want you to be happy. He would want you to go on with your life. He wouldn’t want his memory to haunt you like a ghost–he would want the thought of him to bring you joy and happiness. Of course, we’re always going to feel sad when we lose someone, but then we can remind ourselves of this and try to smile too.

Question 40

Opinions are optional.

Answer 40

“Remember, you always have the power to have no opinion,” Marcus says. Do you need to have an opinion about the weather today–is it changing anything? Do you need to have an opinion about the way your kid does their hair? So what if this person likes music that sounds weird to you? So what if that person is a vegetarian? “These things are not asking to be judged by you,” Marcus writes. “Leave them alone.” Especially because these opinions often make us miserable! “It’s not things that upset us,” Epictetus says, “it’s our opinions about things.” The less opinions you have, especially about other people and things outside your control, the happier you will be. The nicer you’ll be to be around too.

Question 41

Death isn’t in the future. It’s happening now.

Answer 41

It’s easy to see death as this thing that lies off in the distant future. It’s a fixed event that happens to us once…at the end. This is literally true but it’s also incorrect. “This is our big mistake,” as Seneca points out, “to think we look forward toward death. Most of death is already gone. Whatever time has passed is owned by death.”

It’s better to think of death as a process—something that is always happening. We are dying every day, he said. Even as you read this email, time is passing that you will never get back. That time, he said, belongs to death. Powerful, right? Death doesn’t lie off in the distance. It’s with us right now. It’s the second hand on the clock. It’s the setting sun. As the arrow of time moves, death follows, claiming every moment that has passed. What ought we do about it? The answer is live. Live while you can. Put nothing off. Leave nothing unfinished. Seize it while it still belongs to us.

Question 42

Think about something you are facing right now. Have you been trying to think your way to a solution or act your way to a solution? Sometimes you need more action, sometimes you need a better strategy.

Answer 42

James Clear

Question 43

Many people have a hard time making decisions because they don’t know what is important.

When you have a clear mission and you are completely sure what is important to you, most decisions become easy. Once you’re fully committed, you don’t need rules for how to spend your time. It’s obvious which decision to make. It’s clear what to prioritize.

Many people don’t need productivity or time management advice. They need conviction

Answer 43

Jordan O’Connor

Question 44

Your mind tells your body who the fuck is in charge

Answer 44

Joe Rogan

Question 45

Every single item you own, is a subconscious mental burden

Answer 45

Kevin Rose

Question 46

The key to success is relentless practice with no expectations

Answer 46

Kevin Rose

Question 47

If more information was the answer, we’d all be billionaires and have six packs

Answer 47

Derek Sivers

Question 48

No one has it harder than the lazy. Choose your hard. The hard of discipline or the hard of being uncontrolled. The hard of health or the hard of living unhealthy. It’s going to be hard either way, you may as well do the hard that benefits you and others.

Answer 48

Discipline is destiny

Question 49

Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable

Answer 49

Theodore Newton Vail

Question 50

The most valuable personal finance asset is not needing to impress anyone

Answer 50

Tim Ferris show

Question 51

You’re entitled to the work, but not the fruits of the work

Question 52

The imperfect project you actually complete is worth more than the perfect project you never finish.

Answer 52

James Clear

Question 53

You won’t always get what you strive for, but you will definitely get what you settle for. You won’t magically outperform your standards.

Answer 53

James clear

Question 54

Time, energy, and resources are so precious. You have to be ferocious about cutting your priorities—more than you realize and certainly more than is comfortable.

You can only deeply commit to a few things. One or two? Maybe three?

Every pretty good, sorta nice, kinda fun thing you abandon is like shedding a weighted vest that lets you move at top speed. You were so busy focusing on how much you could carry, you never realized you could run this fast

Answer 54

James cheese

Question 55

asks itself that question. To children life is self-evident. Life goes without saying: whether it is good or bad makes no difference. This is because children don’t see the world, don’t observe the world, don’t contemplate the world, but are so deeply immersed in the world that they don’t distinguish between it and their own selves

Answer 55

Karl Ove Knausgard

Question 56

The pessimist criticizes, the optimist creates.

Answer 56

James Clear

Question 57

This may not seem good, but we can make it so

Answer 57

Daily Stoic email

Question 58

The days can be easy if the years are consistent. You can write a book or get in shape or code a piece of software in 30 minutes per day. But the key is you can’t miss a bunch of days.

Answer 58

Jane’s clear

Question 59

practice.

The graduation is an event, education is a practice.

The race is an event, fitness is a practice.

The heart, mind, and body are endless pursuits

Answer 59

James clear

Question 60

There is no win and no fail. There is only make.

Answer 60

Corita Kent

Question 61

You can be completely accurate and inadequate at the same time.

Answer 61

Chris Voss