tags: 📥️/🔖️/🟥️ publish: true aliases: - How to Live cover: '' general_subject: specific_subject: source: manual isbn: doi: url: author: "[[@Derek Sivers]]" guest: publish_date: reviewed_date: ---  ## Highlights - Never agree with anything the same day you hear it, because some ideas are persuasively hypnotic. (Page 2) - Expressing your anger doesn't relieve it. It makes you angrier. (Page 15) - Without memories, you have no sense of self. You have to remember your past to see your trajectory. You use your past to make your future. Making memories is the most important thing you can do with your life. The more memories you create, the longer and richer your life feels. (Page 30) - Be a monomaniac on a mission to be truly great at something difficult. Pick one thing and spend the rest of your life getting deeper into it. Mastery is the best goal because the rich can't buy it, the impatient can't rush it, the privileged can't inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status (Page 31) - You need ritual, not inspiration. Every day, no matter what, you must practice. Your practice ritual is your highest priority - an unbreakable commitment. Stubbornly protect this time against the demands of the world. Once you get momentum, never stop. It's easy to continue, but if you stop, it's hard to start again. Never miss a day (Page 33) - You don't get extreme results without extreme actions. If you do what most people do, you get what most people get. Don't be normal (Page 34) - Following rules is smart. It's efficient. You don't need to stop and re-think every situation. "Follow your passion" is terrible advice. or Fleeting interests are a bad compass. Passions pass so quickly that to follow them would have you dashing around like a dog chasing bubbles. Don't follow your heart. Your heart has been hacked. Your intuition is usually wrong because it's just emotion, subliminally influenced by amoral inputs. Emotions are a wild animal. You need rules to tame them. Rules give you freedom from your desires. When you rise above your instincts, you still feel them but no longer do what they say. Following your emotions is not freedom. Being free from following emotions is freedom. (Page 64) - Discipline turns intentions into action. Discipline means no procrastination. Discipline means now. Choose the pain of discipline, not the pain of regret. An undisciplined moment seems harmless, but they add up to disaster. Without discipline, the tiny things will be your downfall. (Page 65) - To appreciate something fully, picture losing it. Imagine losing your freedom, reputation, money, and home. Imagine losing your ability to see, hear, walk, or talk. Imagine the people you love dying tomorrow. Never take them for granted. Luxury is the enemy of happiness because you adapt to its comforts. Luxury makes you soft, weak, and harder to satisfy. (Pity people who can't enjoy anything less than the best.) Never accept luxury, or you'll find it hard to do without (Page 71) - Assume everyone is just as smart and deep as you. Assume their temperament is just their nature, and not their fault. Don't be mad at them for being that way, for the same reason you can't be mad at someone for being tall. (Page 77) - Imagine if you found out someone was going to die tomorrow. Imagine how much attention, compassion, and generosity you'd give them. Imagine how you'd forgive their faults. Imagine what you'd do to make their last day on Earth the best it could be. Now treat everyone like that, every day (Page 77) - Incorporate a company. Name it something you can take seriously. You own the company, and it owns your creations. That creates a healthy distance so the company can demand payment for its copyrights. It can be your guard dog and bill collector, so you can remain a pure artist. (Page 98)