Category: 2000 word book summaries

We have forgotten ourselves. It may be unavoidable that we will feel some of these negative emotions… but there is all the difference in the world between allowing them to take root… and accepting responsibility for them” ~ Derren Brown

Finally, on June 29, 2007, boredom was pronounced dead, thanks to the iPhone. And so our imaginations and deep social connections went with it” ~ Michael Easter

When you cut out the things you don’t need, you leave room for the positive things that you want to focus on” ~ Vicki Vrint

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion” ~ Dalai Lama XIV

It is even more liberating to reflect that everyone else is in the same boat, whether they’re aware of it or not ~ Oliver Burkeman

Being ‘indistractable’ means striving to do what you say you will do. Indistractable people are as honest with themselves as they are with others” ~ Nir Eyal

Choose life…You can come alive, and instead of worrying about your own existence, concern yourself with others. You’ll make a difference in the world” ~ Rabbi Manis Friedman

Your actions form the groundwork for your childrens’ personal code of behavior” ~ Ryan Holiday

If we have the courage to believe in human kindness, we may find it reflected back at us in the world we create” ~ Rutger Bregman

There are multiple great lives within you, and you get to choose which one to build” ~ Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

The three factors that seem to have the greatest influence on increasing our happiness are our ability to reframe our situation more positively, our ability to experience gratitude, and our choice to be kind and generous” ~ Dalai Lama XIV

In life, as in poker, the hand you’re dealt is often out of your control—but how you play it makes all the difference” ~ Maria Konnikova

The key to achieving success is to focus on the most important things, and to eliminate distractions” ~ Peter Bregman

Leaders who develop the right focus, create the right environment, and build the right team—consistently—are leaders whose organizations win.” ~ Michael Canic

What’s your dream? It’s a simple question, but one which very few of us ever really think about” ~ Simon Squibb

You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration” ~ James Allen

When you align with your purpose, everything in life becomes more meaningful” ~ Ben Renshaw

When you change the way you think, you change everything” ~ Nancy Kline

The biggest obstacle to improved performance isn’t not knowing what to do; it’s not doing what you already know” ~ Alan Fine

The key to achieving success is to focus on the most important things, and to eliminate distractions” ~ Peter Buffett

Fast is not always forward; sometimes, you must pause to gain momentum” ~ Damian D. Pitts

Our feelings do not come from external events, but from our own thinking about the events” ~ Joseph Nguyen

Ignoring your pain doesn’t make it go away; it amplifies it” ~ Whitney Goodman

Persistence is the vehicle that drives you from failure to success” ~ Eric Thomas

When you slow down, the world slows down with you” ~ Haemin Sunim

The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make, and could just as easily make differently” ~ David Graeber

“Slow productivity is my attempt at creating a sophisticated ethic of doing work that you’re actually proud of… that’s important… that’s meaningful” ~ Cal Newport

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The best possible way to prepare for tomorrow is to concentrate with all your intelligence, all your enthusiasm, on doing today’s work superbly today” ~ Dale Carnegie

You must retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties. And at the same time, you must confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be” ~ Jim Collins