Act like a Lady, Think Like a Man PDF Summary

What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment

We are all concerned about our performance as husbands, wives, workers, and even lovers.

To get the most out of someone is to make him/her aware of its urges. Steve Harvey implores people to accept the nature of the bond-building process and act accordingly.

No need to fight the current, just beware of veering off course.

Who Should Read “Act like a Lady, Think Like a Man”? And Why?

Are the ladies ready for the next big thing? This book was funny in one way but educational and inspirational in a totally different one.

In our humble opinion, anyone who struggles with relationships and wants to understand the core of men’s behavior should read “Act like a Lady, Think Like a Man.”

About Steve Harvey

Steve Harvey is a TV-icon, comedian, author, and a radio personality. His charisma and joke-telling have brought him at the top of the heap in the realm of comedy.

He continues to rock the showbiz world with his astonishing performances.

“Act like a Lady, Think Like a Man PDF Summary”

The book is subdivided into 3 main parts, all of which have a critical overview of men’s behavior and why they do some things. Steve Harvey, a comedian by profession, uses its humor, prejudices, facts and personal experience to portray men as accurately as possible.

Well, let’s roll, shall we?

Part One: The Mind-set of a Man

Truthfully, men are often upbraided for their lack of empathy and castigated for their aggressive approach, but are these claims essentially true? Let’s see what Steve thinks about it. He is one of those people who hate to beat around the bush and gives it to you straight!

The author starts by explaining the simplicity of men, as he believes this vantage point will give you the edge to absorb what’s coming. In other words, if you can latch onto to this, you may be able to get a bird’s eye view of the traits which describe men as they are:

Who they are
What they do
How much they make

According to Steve, if a man hasn’t fulfilled his longings based on these 3 questions, he’ll continue casting doubt on his worthiness. Just marinate on that for a minute and realize that boys are taught to push through life, not allow to be cast aside, and to accept their role.

For some, this burden is way overwhelming. This struggle lingers on even when a teenager enters its mid-20s. He takes into account his own life-trajectory – Steve, as a college dropout, found himself in a difficult predicament in his 20s.

Laid off by Ford, little money, and even fewer opportunities around him. One night, a woman for whom he used to write jokes, invited him to a local comedian club. Hesitant at first, he plucked up his courage and went.

The crowd loved him, and he earned 50$ which in today’s money don’t seem like much, but back then especially when you are broke – I am sure is a wonderful feeling.

In general, when men are not going after their dreams, they begin to dry out and lose confidence.

In this chapter, Steve doesn’t miss a chance to elevate woman’s love and support. Nonetheless, he calls into question women’s expectations regarding the kind of love they prefer to receive. In this regard, men are more direct with their expression of feelings.

A man who truly loves you is not going to call you at 6.00 pm to tell you that he loves you more than at 5:30 pm. When a man loves dearly, he is not afraid to show everyone who you are and that he is prepared to defend this bond till kingdom comes.

The 21st century thought drives women to act, think and be independent. However, when a man cannot make enough money to provide for his family, raise them and give them everything they deserve due to X-factors, his confidence starts shaking.

To this extent, Steve points out that men can provide more than just financial comfort, and take care of its loved-ones in an emotional way.

However, when he fails to satisfy the social norms, the feeling of dejection starts to take over. In addition, Steve mentions the three things all men need:

Love
Support
Cookie – in other words – Sex

Part Two: Why Men Do What They Do

Whether we like it or not, sometimes generalization is the best evaluation tool we have at our disposal. Steve Harvey, from his own life experience, understood that women, unlike men, are okay with talking and sharing opinions for no particular reason or chit-chatting should you prefer.

Men, on the other hand, want to cut through the bull*hit and say whatever they want to say. True, some relationships are a fizzle and others last longer, but on a general basis, you determine the scope of it.

Men are as simple as one can be – you like someone, you start a conversation; if you don’t, you don’t even pretend to be interested in that person’s opinions, lifestyle, religion, etc.

If you try to bring in a philosophical touch to this unshakable truth, you’ll see that the world has always been like this. And it would take a heck of social engineering to flip it on the other side, and we don’t believe that would be a good thing.

The next time, a man comes along – don’t think that he is just being friendly and want to hear your latest daily backup story. In most cases, that man was drawn by your physical appearance, charisma, or elegance and he is unconsciously willing to take the next step.

There is nothing wrong with that; it’s just how it works.

Let’s take a hypothetical situation for example. You are a woman, sitting in a bar or a café with your friends, and a man asks for your name or wants to start a conversation.

How come he happened to bump into you and is curious but doesn’t share that enthusiasm for the other girls nearby?

Think about it; he is not interested in hearing your best friend’s story but yours! What does that tell you? He is not there for chit-chatting, nor willing to embroil in a political debate, but to impress you and eventually get something from you (hold your horses, it’s not sex).

Now you know, and Steve Harvey didn’t mean to wipe out the mysteriousness of these first contacts, but to keep you abreast of the latest flirting trends. Remember girls; if you are not laying down the ground rules, you’ll sooner or later found yourself playing someone else’s.

In the next short section, Steve uses fishing as an example of the relationship men and women developed since the beginning of time. As all people know, a person can fish in two different way: Fun or so-called Sport-Fishing; and fishing to eat.

The story tells us that all men are natural hunters. In other words, they are on the lookout for prey, while women tend not to be too aggressive with regards to the extremes.

Just think about it – men invite women on a date (in most cases), men almost always make marriage proposals, and men ask for permission to take the girl out, etc.

However, what happens when the girl is attached to the hook – hypothetically speaking? Are we just doing sport-fishing, or we really plan to cook it (this sounds a bit harsh), but you get the symbolic meaning of it!?

Newsflash: it’s the woman who determines whether the guy is a sport-fisher or a keeper! And this is also true because a woman’s behavior dictates the men’s next steps – and the term “judgment” may seem too rude at one end of the line, but on the flip side, we all do it.

It’ not like you have a chance not to make decisions and form opinions on numerous topics. Even the ladies apt to judge another woman or man based on the vibe they evoke and attitude they nurture. It’s not rocket science to understand that all people are prone to go down this line.

Part Three: The PlayBook: How to Win the Game

The last intriguing part of this book is also the most comprehensible. We’ll try to boil it down as much as possible and share the key takeaways.

Here, Steve lays out 5 questions that every woman should ask herself prior to deciding to take the relationship on to the next level:

What are your short-term goals?
What are your long-term goals?
What are your views on relationships?
What do you think about me?
How do you feel about me?

When it comes to men, don’t feel like you are not obliged to answer them as well. A real and caring man will answer these questions as well, for the well-being of the potential partner.

Consciously or unconsciously our minds are hatching plans for every matter under the blue sky that at least for a second takes hold of your attention.

In the next brief section, the author critically addresses the process of increasing your value. In 1977, Steve recalls being on the verge of bankruptcy and how he managed to lift his spirits.

He was all whipped up when the Ford Management announced that if he in the next 90 days proves to be a valuable asset to the organization, they’ll provide him with all sorts of benefits.

The bottom line is – this process is pretty much the same regardless of the profession. Eagerness and hunger for learning can be your ticket out of misery. He expands on the importance of earning these benefits rather than having them bestowed upon you.

From top to bottom, this book is a great manual for nurturing relationships and understanding one another in a humorous but profound fashion.

Key Lessons from “Act like a Lady, Think Like a Man”

1. Adjust your thinking
2. Make strides towards the truth
3. Say no to ignorance

Adjust your thinking

Your mindset can be your best friend or your worst enemy; it’s up to you. Don’t sit on the fence, and adjust your thinking mechanism to help you understand men and women.

It will give you the upper hand in any situation that may befall you.

Make strides towards the truth

People love to sit on the safe side and never get out of their comfort zone. This book has some controversies in it, but that doesn’t detract from its quality and straightforward narrative.

Make no bargain with irrationality!

Say no to ignorance

Well, this is the hard one! To change something, you must know that the thing you’ve been doing is in need of alteration.

You can’t just magically turn the switch on and make everything work in your favor.

First, question your habits, your perspective, and understand the simplicity on one end and the complexity of the other in order to build an emotional connection with someone.

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“Act like a Lady, Think Like a Man Quotes”

You control what you can control—your image, the way you conduct yourself, the way you let men talk to and approach you—and use that to get the relationship you want. Click To Tweet Men can cheat because there are so many women willing to give themselves to a man who doesn’t belong to them. Click To Tweet Remember this: the number one cause of failure in this country is the fear of failure. Fear paralyzes you from taking action. Click To Tweet Dating is a lot like a business; the best way to become successful is to master and control things you have control over. Click To Tweet Nothing on this planet can compare with a woman’s love—it is kind and compassionate, patient and nurturing, generous and sweet and unconditional. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

Despite the comic prowess, Steve sure knows a lot about how people interact with each other.

We find most things to be 100% accurate, while others a bit controversial for some social groups.

Anyway, it will be a great addition on your bookshelf or Kindle Account!

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance PDF Summary

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance PDF Finding one’s life goal is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Even though we want clear directions, that doesn’t always pan out as one might have hoped.

This book speaks about a long and meaningful journey which laid the groundwork for fundamental alteration.

Let’s go through the key takeaways!

Who Should Read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”? And Why?

During the reading session of this 20th-century classic, we were on the verge of backing down the whole time. The reason was obvious – not knowing what picture succeeds the previous one.

To some extent, we loved the excitement and anticipation, and that’s why we recommend “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” to all knowledge-thirty seekers.

Robert M. Pirsig Biography

Robert M. Pirsig was indeed a philosophical icon of the 20th century.

He passed away on April 24th, 2017, at the age of 88 and left a legacy of written texts, which will remain a source of inspiration for new generations.

Plot

They key leitmotif throughout this 1974 novel, is the long motorcycle trip whose symbolic essence gave birth to ideas about the new way of life. So, instead of parsing sentence-by-sentence, one should advocate for confluence between Western and Eastern civilization to sympathize with Robert’s message.

The central premise tackles the rather superficial lifestyle, which can be improved through a series of reforms.

The narrative is in the first person, and it widely encompasses the trip scheme while reminiscing about the narrator’s past which abounds with interesting encounters.

The storyline commences with Chris revving up his motorcycle engine alongside John Sutherland and Sylvia (his wife). They are headed toward the Dakotas, and the weather turns bad. Dark clouds emerge above their heads and herald a rainstorm.

The narrator recalls a trip to Canada which resulted in a heavy rainstorm. He and Chris end up soaking wet because they forgot to dig a trench to support their tent. The bad motorcycle condition was just icing on the cake for them, and it only aggravated the problem even further.

What could have happened on that perilous journey – they wonder? He nails down this story in order to stay sharp if things go south once again. In the meantime, John says that they’ve veered off course, and need to adjust their route.

The crew takes a quick break at Hague to refuel and ask for directions. What shocks them the most is the fact that “Bismarck and Mobridge” are nowhere nearby. Even their existence is called into question. John believes that heading south to Mobridge might be their best chance. They take some time off to think and weigh their options at Herried.

Upon reaching Mobridge, they cross the river and go inland. The Narrator notices a shift in John’s perception of life, as it becomes more into line with the objective reality rather than embracing false imagery painted by the creative mind.

This mind-switch is even labeled as the Chautauqua point.

They make headway in their long journey, as they move toward Bowman during a sweltering heat wave whereas the crew comes across an old stockman. The narrator shows glimpses of adoration for this man’s conduct and embraces some tips on how to tame the mind.

The Phaedrus’ knife becomes the central hypothesis in this process as the narrator leans on the analogy of sorting the sand into piles in order to exemplify the analytical urges of the mind.

The Narrator’s objective hangs in the balance as a realization struck like a bolt of lightning. Too much analyzing can hasten your demise, and drain the life out of you. As they traverse the Marmarth region, they wind up at Montana.

The Phaedrus story emerges again, as the Narrator pinpoints that he lost his mind, and in order to get an aerial perspective of his life, one must put itself in its shoes. However, that’s easier said than done.

In Chapter 8, the narrator leads into a beautiful description of their mission in Miles City. It’s early in the morning, and they can’t seem to get enough rest due to the restless strives in the past few days.

The Narrator turns over to repairing its motorcycle and associates the scrutinization of the spark plugs with some religious deity.

The need for materials and precise equipment evokes a reaction from the narrator. This instrumental hierarchy reminds him of everyday concepts and how complex systems consist of these small elements and inject fire into the systematic way of thinking.

Upon fixing the motorcycle, he ponders about Phaedrus’ insights lodged into his photographic memory which was partly the reason for his demise. The Narrator keeps the ball rolling by highlighting the schools in which Phaedrus instilled a sense of organization.

Next day, the narrator is awakened by the morning breeze that sparks them to continue their voyage south through Yellowstone Park. They devise a route which will help them to reach Bozeman by crossing the fields of the Red Lodge.

The Narrator keeps the excitement in the air by sharing more of Phaedrus military career, and his daily encounters in Korea. The pursuit of truth and independence helped him to establish liberty, but at what cost?

As they approach Bozeman, the Narrator senses the tension in the air, fueled by inner turbulence. Their timidity doesn’t go unnoticed, as they ponder about turning back. Phaedrus’ mindset is still the subject of their discussions as they discuss the political impasse present in his days on campus.

During those times, Phaedrus conveyed mind-blowing words regarding the disparity between professors being labeled as employees and protectors of the truth. His igniting speech has stretched to various circles but didn’t circumvent the problem.

His behavior receives positive critics, but the impulsive fanaticism in terms of expression jeopardized the broad picture. The narrator takes a step further by attributing the lack of faith to anxiety and low self-esteem.

In the next chapter, the narrator puts him and Chris in the spotlight. They hit the road with an intention in mind to climb the mountains near the DeWeese. On the voyage, they ruminate on the spiritual connection with nature while remaining acutely aware of their surroundings.

Phaedrus is once again at the center of their thoughts, as they puzzle over his concept of quality.

They stumble upon two phases, which were brought to life by Phaedrus.

Phase 1: No definition of Quality and lot of flexibility
Phase 2: Rigid definition – impairing his thinking potential and destroying his life.

By drilling deep into Phase 1, the narrator bumps into the methodology of teaching which consists of genuine engagement and flexibility. Whereas the second Phase brings about contumacy as a way of perception which conflicts the receptive cognitive abilities of the students.

Next chapter opens up with thoughts regarding the statements and analysis conducted by Phaedrus. The narrator explains the process by providing a psychological overlook of Phaedrus’ tendencies. If you don’t define something, you are giving it a wide berth to crop up in different shapes and forms.

Chris’ indifference regarding the hike, adds to the Narrator’s outrage. Upon restraining himself, the narrator pays close heed to Phaedrus recent insightful revolution according to which Realism can justify Quality.

This finding led Phaedrus into believing that Quality is the only obstacle standing in the way of pure rationality. The attributes you give to Quality are meaningless in terms of getting the hang of the world to the maximum extent.

The narrator dreams of being in a white-painted room and facing his family members who are disposed on the other corner of the same room. He is disturbed by this nightmare, and upon awakening, Chris tells him that he had been “vocal” all night long.

He is worried that this scenario could lead him astray. Meanwhile, he is on the fence regarding the possibility of Chris dreaming, and him going nuts. Despite all the polemics, the narrator decides to forge ahead with the hike while overlooking the plan for rehydration.

In an effort to rejuvenate spiritually, he unwittingly starts the discussion about Quality. Phaedrus was the latest to succumb to this impulse which was a one-way ticket to disaster. While descending the mountain, they decide to take a breather and get some snack.

Chris, however, becomes increasingly aware of the Narrator’s paranoia and even proposes that he should be the one carrying the heavy load. As they mull over the metaphysical aspects of thinking, they come across a thick bush and are compelled to make their way through it.

The narrator elaborates on the exact correlation between Quality and Religion, and that a possible confluence could be the essence of “good.” While at it, he argues that value-free science has no place in the modern understanding of philosophy.

Upon descending from the mountains, they settle down at Bozeman and spend a night in a hotel.

As the storyline heathens up, the Narrator enters the depths of technological artifacts and make remarks on the basis for laying out these claims. In his opinion, the artifacts are not subjected to the proper Quality evaluation process.

To prove his point, the Narrator enlightens us by explaining the inseparable connection between technology and art. He finds it challenging to impugn the effectiveness of modern technology while advocating for Quality technology, like the wall in Korea.

The degradation that occurs is due to the existence and legacy of value-free thinking. Following after this discussion is their arrival in White Bird. They come to the conclusion that following the Salmon River would be their best option, regardless of the heavy traffic.

They set foot in Riggins, and are compelled to traverse the forest in an effort to reach Dew Meadows. The narrator is consistent in its intention to expose the value-free issue while trying to interpret the dream he had some time ago.

Chris however, takes some time off to write a letter to his mom. It seems like Chris is no longer brimming with excitement, and anxiety slowly starts to take over. Upon arriving at Dayville, they brush against the owner of the station, who helps them find some decent place to spend the night.

They indulge in a friendly and profound conversation.

At this point, he has little choice but to disclose the Phaedrus’ story to the full extent. This process entails interpretation of Greek Philosophy and their methods of scrutinizing the ideas. Prior to going too deep into this topic, they decide to take a quick break and head over to La Pine for a meal.

The next morning, Chris is awakened to help with the chores while the Narrator embarks on a quest to locate a chain guard.

His efforts don’t bear fruit, as he heads back home and enjoys a meal accompanied by Chris. They decide to try their luck elsewhere, as they mark California as their next destination.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Epilogue

The last three chapters are filled with ambivalence. As they have a meal, a sense of discomfort permeates the air, and on the way over to Chicago, they stumble upon the Platonic dialogue of Phaedrus.

In the meantime, Phaedrus gets a motivational boost to continue with unraveling its baffling mysteries. Also, this makes him feel invincible and dominant to the degree that he believes a solution to the metaphysical puzzle is nearby.

They are headed toward San Francisco on a rainy and cloudy day. The narrator exerts himself to find a motel and finally manages to locate one. This ultimately triggers the last discourse.

From a philosophical standpoint, the Narrator realizes that it’s not easy to integrate technology with humanistic elements in pursuit of the perfect lifestyle.

The plot comes to an end, as the narrator understands that Chris craves for Phaedrus and his theories.

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“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance PDF Quotes”

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands and then work outward from there. Click To Tweet When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called a Religion. Click To Tweet You look at where you're going and where you are, and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you've been, and a pattern seems to emerge. Click To Tweet Not if you have the right attitudes. It's having the right attitudes that’s hard. Click To Tweet If someone's ungrateful and you tell him he's ungrateful, okay, you've called him a name. You haven't solved anything. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

This is not an easy-going book, and you to be at your very best to understand the core message contained in it.

But don’t let this discourage you from taking the fast-track to insightful breakthroughs.

Word Power Made Easy PDF Summary

The Complete Handbook for Building a Superior Vocabulary

Want to find out what “circumlocution” and “perspicacious” mean?

And want to be sure to never forget their meanings.

Then Norman Lewis’ Word Power Made Easy is the book you’ve been looking for.

Who Should Read “Word Power Made Easy”? And Why?

As it states under its subtitle, Norman Lewis’ Word Power Made Easy offers a simple step-by-step method aimed at increasing your knowledge and mastery of the English language.

So, if that’s your goal – this is a book you don’t want to miss.

About Norman Lewis

Norman Lewis was an American grammarian and lexicographer, one of the leading authorities on English-language skills.

During his life he published many books on language-related topics, some of which – such as Roget’s New Pocket Thesaurus in Dictionary Form and 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary – are perennial bestsellers.

Word Power Made Easy was first published in 1949 and has gone through several editions since then.

“Word Power Made Easy PDF Summary”

How do you read – let alone -summarize – a book the first sentence of which is: “Don’t read this book”?

Well, the truth is, you can’t: just like Norman Lewis advises in the second sentence, the only thing you can do with a book such as Word Power Made Easy is to work with it, to “talk aloud to it, talk back to it,” to “use your voice, not just your eyes and mind.”

Because:

Learning, real learning, goes on only through active participation.

So why would we even bother summarizing Word Power Made Easy?

Well, because we’ve had many people asking us what’s the deal with this book and should they get a copy of it.

And because we really want to tell them that this is one of those books you’ll never get tired of, a book which, just like A Dictionary, you’ll never regret buying – since it will certainly come in handy to you at least from time to time.

And here’s our overview of its content, which, we are aware, doesn’t do this book – by the way, rife with very helpful quizzes, tests, and progress checks – enough justice.

Part One: Getting Off to a Good Start

1. How to Test Your Present Vocabulary

First thing’s first:

Now, why would you care about your vocabulary?

Lewis answers this question straight away by pointing out that there exists ample evidence in favor of a close relationship between vocabulary and success. Put that in the form of a simple equation: more words = more money.

And how many words do you currently know?

Look no further for the answer to this question. The first chapter of Lewis’ book is basically a string of tests aimed at helping you discover whether your current vocabulary is “below average, average, above average, excellent, or superior in range, verbal speed, and responsiveness.”

Let’s just say that we don’t want to share our score with you.

2. How to Start Building Your Vocabulary

Have you ever heard of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

If not, it states that language determines your thoughts; in other words, a Russian actually distinguishes more shades of the blue than an American only because there are more words for the nuances in the Russian language.

So, what does that tell you about the necessity of learning new words?

Even though the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is perhaps an exaggeration, its’s undeniable that building your vocabulary will enrich your thinking.

Why?

Because words are pictures of things, and because the more things you can name, the clearer you see – and can communicate – the world.

3. How to Talk About Personality Types

In chapter three, you’ll be able to learn numerous words “that describe all kinds and sorts of people, including terms for self-interest, reactions to the world, attitudes to others, skill and awkwardness, marital states, hatred of man, of woman, and of marriage.”

Through great examples, you’ll be able to pick up the difference between an egoist and an egotist, to learn what an ambivert is and that “misogamist” is also a word.

Lewis caps off the three sections of this chapter with the joyful revelation that, through them, you’ve probably already learned more words than you would have in a single year.

And we’re merely at the beginning.

4. How to Talk About Doctors

Have you ever noticed yourself skipping through the boring hospital talk in every second House episode?

Well, here’s your chance to act smart in front of your friends!

In chapter four you’ll learn many words related to both childhood diseases and skeletal deformities, heart and skin ailments, as well as disorders of the nerves and the mind.

5. How to Talk About Various Practitioners

This is the chapter in which you’ll be able to enrichen your vocabulary with some words such as “orthodontist” and “optometrist,” “podiatrist” and “gerontologist.” Also, here you’ll get acquainted with many related words and start becoming more and more conscious of how words work.

6. How to Talk About Science and Scientists

Here you’ll learn the names of some of the more important explorers of knowledge – i.e., the names (and meanings: always meanings) of many different scientific disciplines: “an anthropologist,” “a geologist,” “an entomologist,” “a semanticist,” “a sociologist,” etc. As always, Lewis adds a section in which he explains the etymology of these internationalisms, as well as many tests for self-assessment.

7. How to Talk About Liars and Lying

Not all people who lie are the same. Some of them are consummate liars, while others are congenital liars; the egregious liars are a story for themselves; and the glib liars are capable of distorting facts as effortlessly as saying their names.

8. How to Check Your Progress: Comprehensive Test

Each of the three parts of Lewis’ book ends with a 120-item comprehensive test. Don’t skip this one!

Part Two: Gaining Increased Momentum

9. How to Talk About Actions

Part two moves from nouns to other parts of speech. And chapter nine opens with a bunch of verbs which “accurately describe important human activities.” Learn what “disparaging,” “equivocating,” “militating,” and “obviating” means through examples and funny comments. Of course, all the related words and their etymologies are once again there for your pleasure.

10. How to Talk About Various Speech Habits

These are words “that explore in depth all degrees and kinds of talk and silence.” So, if you want to learn what “taciturn” or “garrulous” means and you don’t want to sound “inarticulate” and “banal” the next time you’re out with your friends – this is the chapter to work with.

11. How to Insult Your Enemies

Everybody is capable of insulting other people, but not everybody is a Shakespeare of insults (by the way, Shakespeare was, indeed, a Shakespeare of insults: look it up). So, here’s your chance to tell your enemies exactly what you think of them, be they sycophants or dilettantes, lechers or kleptomaniacs.

12. How to Flatter Your Friends

On a more positive side, there are also numerous words in the dictionary you can use to flatter your friends. They’re great, true, but some of them are certainly “ingenious,” while others are “magnanimous;” yet a third one may be “perspicacious” – which is why you’d go to him or her to gain some insight into your problems!

13. How to Check Your Progress: Comprehensive Test II

One more 120-item self-assessment test – this time for Part II.

Part Three: Finishing with a Feeling of Complete Success

14. How to Talk About Common Phenomena and Occurrences

The world is full of number of things, claimed once Robert Louis Stevenson, and it’s great when you have the words to name at least some of them. This chapter introduces you to the concepts of “ephemerality” and “cacophony,” while also teaching you what “parsimonious” and “opulent” mean.

15. How to Talk About What Goes On

Sometimes, when you’re not only completely exhausted but also frustrated, you’re, in fact, “enervated.” Other times, when you can’t reach a decision and you are constantly changing your mind, you’re probably “vacillating.” Learn more of the similar here.

16. How to Talk About a Variety of Personal Characteristics

This chapter will teach you some “adjectives that describe insincere humility, dissatisfaction, snobbery, courtesy to women, financial embarrassment, sadness, etc.” So this is where to look for if you want to learn the meaning of words such as “impecunious,” “obstreperous,” and “innocuous.”

17. How to Check Your Progress: Comprehensive Test III

We don’t have to explain to you what you’ll find in this chapter now, do we?

18. How to Check Your Standing as an Amateur Etymologist

Most of the chapters in Lewis’ book start with teaser questions; this chapter reveals the answer to them.

Key Lessons from “Word Power Made Easy”

1.      You Are an Amateur at Learning New Words – at Least Compared to Your Child
2.      Words Are So Powerful That They Can Radically Change Your Worldview
3.      To Get New Ideas – Get New Books

You Are an Amateur at Learning New Words – at Least Compared to Your Child

Norman Lewis starts is book with one rather insulting statement: “Once—as a child—you were an expert, an accomplished virtuoso, at learning new words. Today, by comparison, you are a rank and bumbling amateur.”

However, as he explains further on, this is nothing more but a simple fact!

You see, children are capable of learning at a rate of a several hundred new words per year since the age of four and many of them will acquire recognition vocabularies of about twenty thousand words by the age of ten!

You, on the other hand, should be happy if you increase your vocabulary by as much as fifty words a year – and that is, only if you’re one of the more skillful learners.

Words Are So Powerful That They Can Radically Change Your Worldview

“Increasing your vocabulary does not mean merely learning the definitions of large numbers of obscure words,” writes Lewis, “it does not mean memorizing scores of unrelated terms.” It means something far more – becoming a better, newer you.

Or in the words of Lewis,

[Increasing your vocabulary means] becoming acquainted with the multitudinous and fascinating phenomena of human existence for which words are, obviously, only the verbal descriptions. Increasing your vocabulary—properly, intelligently, and systematically—means treating yourself to an all-round, liberal education. And surely you cannot deny that such an experience will change you intellectually—will have a discernible effect on your methods of thinking—on your store of information—on your ability to express your ideas—on your understanding of human problems.

To Get New Ideas – Get New Books

Think of it this way: many of the words you know now have been invented at some point in time by certain poets, philosophers, scientists, thinkers.

Before Freud, nobody could say “Oedipus’ complex” or “superego;” and yet, nowadays, so many people in the world know what they mean.

The point is that words structure the universe into comprehensible patterns of meaning; and that acquiring new words always means acquiring new ideas as well.

So, if you want to learn new words, in addition to reading books such as Word Power Made Easy, you can also try reading new books of any type – but never dumbed-down versions of them. Old words bring nothing new with them; but new words – bring whole universes.

And this all reminds us of a great Michael Blumenthal poem called “Inventors” in which the poet talks about the miraculous power of newly invented words. This is the beautiful final stanza – which we felt that we needed to quote in full:

Just think of it—
your tongue rolling over the first pharmacopeia
like a new lover, the shuddering thrill of it,
the way the air parts in front of your mouth, widening
the world in its constant uncertainty. Go on.
Let your mind wander. Imagine being the first to say:
I love you, oregano, onomatopoeia.

Just imagine it.

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“Word Power Made Easy Quotes”

Words are the instruments by means of which men and women grasp the thoughts of others and with which they do much of their own thinking. They are the tools of thought. Click To Tweet If a student has a superior vocabulary… it will probably follow that he will do better work academically. Click To Tweet Educational research has discovered that your I.Q. is intimately related to your vocabulary. Click To Tweet No matter what your age, you can go on learning efficiently, or start learning once again if perhaps you have stopped. Click To Tweet Successful people have superior vocabularies. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

Norman Lewis Word Power Made Easy offers an alternative way to learn new words; it is also a better way to learn them since the book rightfully supposes that words can only be absorbed properly if placed in certain context and that’s the way the book introduces most of them.

So, you want to become a word-wizard?

Here’s a great place to start!

Why Fail? PDF Summary

Your Bestial Way to Success

Getting a college degree is probably the most challenging part in one’s life, right? Wrong! The struggle only intensifies when you sit behind a desk and perceive the world through the lens of success.

In this book, Rahul attempts to deliver the real-life experience as a contributor to an organization.

Stay tuned.

Who Should Read “Why Fail?” And Why?

Oftentimes we cannot discern the real difficulties until we are trapped and unable to escape this delusional saga. Dodging the poisonous arrows in the workplace is not an easy task, and almost all people agree on that one.

We side with Rahul on this topic, and urge everyone to read “Why Fail?”. It’s clearly a book that will alter your viewpoints and help you mature.

About Rahul Shrivastava

Rahul Shrivastava is s graduate from the Ravenshaw University in Cuttack. He holds two Master’s degrees, one in Computer Applications and the other in International Relations.

He is also known for his ability to immerse in writing; a passion of his that follows him since the age of 12.

“Why Fail? PDF Summary”

The storyline of this book revolves around a character known as Rabbito. A person whose professional journey is about to experience some twists and turns.

He wakes up in cold sweat due to the excitement and fear regarding his first day at the office.

After struggling to get a good night’s sleep, he finally is on his feet ready to seize the world. He enjoys his breakfast when his father asks him – What are your plans for the future? – Rabbito looks up (dazed by the question), because in his opinion – getting the best job in the country is probably good enough.

Without understanding the core of the question, he packs his stuff and hits the road.

The first day is a fizzle. Upon arriving, Rabbito is not greeted at the gate, and the security guard barely gives him directions to his office. Reclining in his chair and looking around is probably the only thing he can do, during those moments of adaptation.

Moments later, he receives a call and is instructed to go to Grizzly’s office. After answering many private questions, he is asked: What’s your first impression? He opens up by complaining about the reception, and the chaos that is omnipresent.

Grizzly (His Boss) listens carefully and outlines two mistakes:

You are just a civil servant, and joining the Ministry of Mammals is merely the first step. Build from there!
He ought to figure out his role all by himself!

He goes home, not too happy with his first-day display at work. Rabbito hits the rack, with hopes of a better sequel to this story. The next morning, geared up with the right mindset, he storms out of the house.

The security guard has a smile on his face, and Rabbito wonders – Is Grizzly responsible for this? He saunters into his office, where a thick layer of dust on his desk is driving him mad. Then, he hears a knock on his door; it is the janitor, Zeebra.

He tells him – As time goes by, you’ll get used to the dirt, and learn how things are handled around here. Not long afterward, the telephone rings, it is Grizzly. Rabbito goes to his office and gets his first assignment. On the way down, he starts to read it in order to get the idea.

As it turns out, he is in need of a file. He calls the File Section with an intention to speak to the Section Officer (Por Kay). All he gets is a rude response that only completes the picture of his miserable start. He is reluctant to call Grizzly and complain about this issue.

The only way to learn is to deal with this stalemate by himself. After not receiving support from Por Kay, he goes there to pick up the file and delivers the final piece to Grizzly.

With a desperate need to revamp the organizational structure, and rejuvenate himself, Rabbito goes home, with a thought on his mind – Shouting at your subordinates is not a good way to earn respect. It was a long day!

It’s been a month since the day Rabbito joined the Ministry. In the meantime, he gets together with the colleagues and learns more about the system. Buck (one of the co-workers) invites him to a beer party; an opportunity to break the rules.

At first, Rabbito is hesitant and doesn’t want to leave its safe space, but after a few waves of persuasion, he agrees. Rabbito picks up a beer can and starts talking to his co-workers, most of whom such as Foxy have never met him before.

After a while, he unleashes a sequence of complaints related to the relationship with Grizzly, not being aware of the fact that people gossip. The next morning, he is summoned to Grizzly’s office. Grizzly is outraged and furious with Rabbito’s recent string of criticism targeting his personality.

He screams and shouts at him, and tells him to leave the office, immediately. Rabbito bursts into tears and calls upon Buck to clear up the confusion. Buck accuses Foxy as being the biggest blabbermouth in the Ministry. Now, Rabbito has to pay the price for his wrongdoings and deal with the burden.

Mama and Papa sensed that something is wrong with Rabbito because he’s been acting weird lately. To make matters worse, he gets into a fight with his best friend Buddy, and forces him out of his room.

Rabbito wants to be left alone, but he complies with Papa’s request to come down for dinner. They have a nice chat, while Rabbito’s position at work is questioned. They are curious to understand the reasons for his misbehavior.

Rabbito finally blurts out a few words and wants to know more of Papa’s boss, and how he treats him. After hearing Rabbito’s side of the story, Papa lays it on the line by saying that it’s not very ethical to spread rumors and talk behind someone’s back.

The blame falls on his shoulders, and as a grown-up, he is no longer entitled to run for cover.

Although this is not the answer Rabbito has been hoping to hear, he finally gets the big picture. He’s no longer upset with Grizzly and calls Buddy to reconcile with him.

Rabbito learned his lesson and was rewarded shortly afterward. Grizzly called upon Rabbito and informed him that soon he’d be traveling abroad as a representative of the Ministry.

He calls Mama and shares the great news. She is thrilled and urges him to inform his father as well. The excitement is overwhelming, but Rabbito stays with both feet on the ground this time. He decides to contact Buck because he is not privy to any information about the nature of these trips.

Buck lays a couple of tips and says that the Grizzly’s boss – Elephanto is a cool person. A team of three people is an ideal combination, and there’s nothing to be worried about. A word of caution to this tale – the work continues to pile up even in his absence.

In the next few days, Rabbito works like crazy, doesn’t take juice breaks and refuses to hang around with the coworkers. During the flight, he lays eyes upon Elephanto for the very first time and is worried about the pending files on his desk.

We can only go thus far, the rest of it is your job. We urge you to take a gander at the whole story and implement its takeaways into your life.

Find out more of the Beastly Republic and how this journey changed Rabbito forever.

Key Lessons from “Why Fail?”

1. Safeguard your integrity
2. Understand the system
3. Tackle your narrow-mindedness

Safeguard your integrity

It’s only a matter of time when people will start to take the masks off and show their real face. It’s a lesson that Rabbito learned the hard way.

Understand that great work-ethic embodies competitive spirit and peacefulness.

Understand the System

You don’t have an awful lot of time to adjust to the present surroundings. The urgency may galvanize you into action and prompt you to take a firm grip on the reality.

It’s a task most rookies fail to execute.

Tackle your narrow-mindedness

Unfortunately, for a lot of things in life, there’s no school. These are the things that can make or break your character.

Shaping your personality in the right direction is in tight correlation with the concept of broadness and flexibility.

Stay sharp and never stop learning.

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“Why Fail? Quotes”

Trust is the word you should forget first in this Ministry. Click To Tweet Everyone is either relaxing or sleeping happily. I am the only beast worrying. Click To Tweet I take immediate action on all important papers. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

This is one of those books we deem worthy to share and promote. However, telling the whole story will only jeopardize the experience.

Therefore, we deliberately left a void that you need to fill with your curiosity and willingness.

Braving the Wilderness PDF Summary

The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone

It’s Brené Brown once again!

Meaning: we don’t have to introduce her at all.

Ever since her TED Talk on vulnerability became one of the Top 5 Talks of all time, Brené Brown has basically become a cultural icon!

You know her, you love her, you want to hear her thoughts on everything.

So, join her as he shares her most valuable lessons on:

Braving the Wilderness.

Who Should Read “Braving the Wilderness”? And Why?

By now, you should be already familiar with most of Brené Brown’s interests: vulnerability and courage, humiliation and pride, belonging and being an outsider.

In Braving the Wilderness she tackles once again all of them, mostly focusing on the last one of these dichotomies.

And, just like most of her other books, this one also analyzes the problems in a way which should attract both students of social sciences and common folks who just need someone to talk to.

Well, hurting people, Brené Brown is certainly someone you’ll enjoy having a chat with.

About Brené Brown

Brené Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston and New York Times bestselling author.

She has spent over two decades studying under-researched topics such as vulnerability and courage, empathy and shame, and is widely considered one of the world’s most read and beloved experts on these subjects.

She is the author of half a dozen books, most of which we’ve summarized here: I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t) (2007); The Gifts of Imperfection (2010); Daring Greatly (2012); and Rising Strong (2015).

Braving the Wilderness was published last year (2017) and Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. – Brown’s most recent book – just four days ago.

Brown’s 2010 TED Talk, “The Power of Vulnerability,” has been seen over 36 million times (as of October 2018) and is one of the five most viewed TED Talks in history.

“Braving the Wilderness PDF Summary”

We all live in a bubble.

And no, we’re not talking about multiverses or Bitcoin or any other kind of scientific or economic bubble.

No.

We’re talking about something that, based on urgency, may be even more serious.

Namely, the filter bubble.

Put simply, the filter bubble is a state of intellectual isolation caused by personalized searches. They make your life easier, of course, but they also make humanity’s future bleaker.

Why?

Because instead of using the Internet to connect with other people with different experiences and worldviews, you are using it to reinforce your previous beliefs and disconnect from everything else!

The Internet was supposed to usher us into an age of interrelatedness; instead, it is merely making us lonelier by the minute.

Enter stage Brené Brown.

Brené Brown, the Outsider

You see her now all smiling and vivacious and you are immediately overwhelmed by the feeling that she has her life all figured out.

And then you hear her sharing some of her past experiences and you realize that she may have already had more problems than you ever will.

In fact, most of Brené Brown’s childhood was marred by a crushing fear that she doesn’t belong anywhere.

As a little girl, she was oftentimes marginalized by everybody. It was a poisonous racially segregated environment and the white girls at her school didn’t like her African-sounding names: Brené and Cassandra (Brown’s middle name); on the other hand, her African-American friends of hers were somewhat afraid to hang out with her.

So, she was neither here nor there for most of her childhood.

Thigs got only worse in high school where she badly wanted to become part of her school’s cheerleading team, the Bearkadettes. Just like her mother – who had met her father in this manner. (Stop guessing: her father was indeed the star of the football team).

Brown did everything within her power to become a member of the Bearkadettes; unfortunately, neither the liquid diet nor her perfect routine didn’t help her make it.

And to top this off, her parents were disappointed in her for not making it to the team.

To fight pains such as this, Brené started to drink. So much, in fact, that she had to join the AA.

Guess what?

They didn’t want her there either, suggesting her to try the Co-Dependents Anonymous group instead!

Brené Brown Discovering Herself

Most of the people you know have gone through what Brené Brown did in her early years.

And it always boils down to the same problem:

We put a lot of energy to belong to something; read between the lines and that means that you are, in fact, putting a lot of energy to be something that, deep inside, you are not.

Back in 1987 Brené Brown was at one of the worst stages in her life. She spent most of her time drinking and smoking, partying even when she had no energy for it.

That was her way of forgetting about herself.

And then she met Steve, the man she would eventually marry.

The best part about Steve?

He saw through Brené’s attempts to belong somewhere; and started guiding her toward self-belonging. Three decades later Brown would explain to the world how she managed to do this, as a guest on Oprah.

Namely, permission slips.

Suddenly, next to Steve, Brené realized that she could permit herself to be the person she actually was. No conventions, no exhausting liquid diets you need to go through so that you can be accepted.

Just herself.

In fact, her fist permission slip stated: “Be goofy, have fun and enjoy life.”

And she has tried doing that ever since.

Brave the Wilderness Inside You

You are such a unique individual that no one has ever lived a life like the one you’re currently living.

That’s as close to a fact as an opinion can get.

So, it’s only natural that conventional wisdom may not work: your own self is a one-of-a-kind wilderness.

Whatever you do – treat it as such.

Of course, this means that your path through it is also unique and that you need to find it on your own. But, believe us – you will!

Because, deep down inside you, you actually know that walking inside it is what life is all about. “If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step,” advised Joseph Campbell, “you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.”

And Campbell was one of the smartest and most inspiring people of the 20^th century.

So:

Stop walking through the world looking for confirmation that you don’t belong. You will always find it because you’ve made that your mission. Stop scouring people’s faces for evidence that you’re not enough. You will always find it because you’ve made that your goal. True belonging and self-worth are not goods; we don’t negotiate their value with the world. The truth about who we are lives in our hearts. Our call to courage is to protect our wild heart against constant evaluation, especially our own. No one belongs here more than you.

Key Lessons from “Braving the Wilderness”

1.      The First Lesson of Self-Belonging: Brave the Wilderness Inside You
2.      The Seven Traits of Trustworthy People
3.      Tackling Loneliness and Ways to Burst the Bubble

The First Lesson of Self-Belonging: Brave the Wilderness Inside You

There’s a reason why everybody wants to belong to someone or something.

And that reason is quite obvious: it’s quite difficult to go through life alone. Men are social beings – and that’s exactly what Aristotle thought was their defining trait.

However, it is difficult to belong somewhere if you don’t know who you are. In that case, all of your attempts to become part of a group are actually wild guesses, shots in the dark. “Be careful who you pretend to be,” warned us once Kurt Vonnegut. “You might forget who you are.”

Well, Brené Brown is here to update this advice.

The best way to forget who you are, she says, is to never understand yourself completely in the first place.

And if you want to do that, be prepared to make some steps in the wilderness:

Belonging so fully to yourself that you’re willing to stand alone is a wilderness — an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching. It is a place as dangerous as it is breathtaking, a place as sought after as it is feared. The wilderness can often feel unholy because we can’t control it, or what people think about our choice of whether to venture into that vastness or not. But it turns out to be the place of true belonging, and it’s the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand.

Look at it this way: nobody belongs to this place more than you.

Even if a wilderness, your self is a very unique place: your very own, personal Shangri-La.

And nobody can explore it better than you!

The Seven Traits of Trustworthy People

Self-belonging is not as easy as it sounds.

It means making yourself open to your traumas and pains and vulnerable to other people’s opinions and judgments.

But it’s worth it!

Especially if you can find trustworthy people you can talk to, dependable friends ready to listen to your

According to Brené Brown, these people share these seven traits:

1. They are reliable, which is self-evident;
2. They own their mistakes which is something people rarely do nowadays;
3. They are capable of respecting boundaries, meaning they know that they should leave you alone when you want to be alone, even if that means going to the cinema without company;
4. They are capable of keeping confidential information safe; so, be wary of people who can’t keep your secrets because the betrayal of trust is one of the most traumatic experiences one can go through;
5. They are capable of making decisions with integrity; integrity is underrated in a world of lies and money;
6. They are non-judgmental; they know that we all make mistakes and that pointing them out repeatedly helps no one;
7. They are generous; with everything; meaning: with them, you’re never the only one who shares.

Tackling Loneliness and Ways to Burst the Bubble

If you’re feeling that people are too divided, then be aware that it’s not exactly a feeling: it’s a fact.

For example, only a quarter of Americans supported a specific candidate overwhelmingly back in 1976; however, just a few years ago, more than four fifths were either strongly for Trump or strongly for Hillary Clinton! And, in the meantime, the number of people who describe themselves as lonely more than doubled!

We explained at the beginning of our summary why this is happening. The same mechanism applies to both examples. Put simply, we live in a world designed to keep us inside a bubble.

We don’t experience anything out of our comfort zone, because it’s so easy to stay inside it: personalized ads, personalized searches, and even personalized channels.

The solution spells itself: do the opposite of what Google or YouTube or your inside voice suggests you! Experiment! Experience the difference! And see for yourself whatever suits you best.

At a certain point during your journey, you’ll undoubtedly come across a place, a person, a point where it will all make sense.

Congratulations: you’ve found your way through your inner wilderness.

Now you belong to yourself.

The side-effect?

You already belong to others as well.

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“Braving the Wilderness Quotes”

You are only free when you realize you belong no place—you belong every place—no place at all. The price is high. The reward is great. Click To Tweet But what we know now is that when we deny our emotion, it owns us. When we own our emotion, we can rebuild and find our way through the pain. Click To Tweet Sometimes the most dangerous thing for kids is the silence that allows them to construct their own stories—stories that almost always cast them as alone and unworthy of love and belonging. Click To Tweet Courage is forged in pain, but not in all pain. Pain that is denied or ignored becomes fear or hate. Click To Tweet We want to be part of something, but we need it to be real - not conditional or fake or constantly up for negotiation. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

“It is inevitable —we will fall,” notes Simon Sinek in a review of Braving the Wilderness. “We will fail. We will not know how to react or what to do. No matter how or when it happens, we will all have a choice—do we get up or not? Thankfully,” he adds, “Brené Brown is there with an outstretched arm to help us up.”

Just like most of Brown’s books, Braving the Wilderness does feel as if an outstretched arm. It is both compassionate and empowering. Add to that mixture a lot of goodhearted humor and few mantras you’ll never forget – and you have a reason why you should read this book as soon as possible.

Especially if you feel like nobody understands you.

12 Rules for Life Summary

An Antidote to Chaos

Ready for a dose of Jordan Peterson?

Even if you’re not – here it comes!

Tight-packed in the form of his 12 Rules for Life.

Who Should Read “12 Rules for Life”? And Why?

There’s probably nobody as famous as Jordan Peterson in the intellectual world nowadays.

Which means that each and every one of his moves is carefully inspected by a host of people – both his two million (and counting) active followers and as many criticizers.

12 Rules for Life, however, is a much lighter and less controversial read than we’ve come to expect from Peterson.

It feels as if it is mainly aimed at teenagers and young people who are trying to find their way in life.

If you are one of them, based on many testimonies,

About Jordan Peterson

Jordan Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist and cultural critic – quite possibly, “the most influential public intellectual in the Western world right now.”

He studied at the University of Alberta, where he obtained a BA in political science in 1982. After a year off in Europe, he returned to Alberta and received a BA in psychology in 1985.

Six years later, he earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from McGill University where he remained as a post-doctoral fellow for the next two years. He then moved to Harvard University, where he became an associate professor of psychology.

He published his first book, Maps of Meaning, in 1999, two decades before he published 12 Rules for Life.

In the meantime, he became an Internet celebrity, propelled by his argumentation against the Canadian government’s Bill C-16.

Find out more at https://jordanbpeterson.com/

“12 Rules for Life Summary”

As Jordan Peterson explains in the Overture to his 12 Rules of Life, this book grew out of one of his most interesting hobbies.

Namely – answering questions posted on Quora.

Well, one time he tried answering the question “What are the most valuable things everyone should know?”

His answer – which then included 40 rules – was, to say the least, quite popular.

As Peterson explains, it “has been viewed by a hundred and twenty thousand people and been upvoted twenty-three hundred times. Only a few hundred of the roughly six hundred thousand questions on Quora have cracked the two-thousand-upvote barrier.”

So, in other words, he had already written this book before he had even started writing it.

To complete it, he just combined some rules and dropped out the redundant ones.

And he came up with the 12 rules for life.

Key Lessons from “12 Rules for Life”

1.      Stand Up Straight with Your Shoulders Back
2.      Treat Yourself Like Someone You Are Responsible for Helping
3.      Make Friends with People Who Want the Best for You
4.      Compare Yourself to Who You Were Yesterday, Not to Who Someone Else is Today
5.      Do Not Let Your Children Do Anything that Makes You Dislike Them
6.      Put Your House in Order
7.      Pursue What is Meaningful, Not What is Expedient
8.      Tell the Truth
9.      Assume that the Person You are Listening to Might Know Something You Don’t
10.      Be Precise with Your Speech
11.      Leave Children Alone when They are Skateboarding
12.      Pet a Cat When You Encounter One on the Street

Rule 1: Stand Up Straight with Your Shoulders Back

For his first rule, Jordan Peterson casts a cold look upon the nature and the “society” of the lobsters. But you probably already know this, since it has already been made stupendously famous via his debate with Cathy Newman.

The main reason for the analogy: the basic chemistry of a lobster’s brain is not that different from the chemistry of your brain.

And we know for a fact that, after a fight, “a lobster loser’s brain chemistry differs importantly from that of a lobster winner.” And this is “reflected in their relative postures,” which depend on the serotonin/octopamine ratio: more from the former makes you stand up straight and enthuses you with confidence.

Rings a bell?

It should – if it doesn’t.

Because it basically echoes Amy Cuddy’s exceptionally popular TED Talk: “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.”

Now, the rule makes much more sense: if octopamine makes you slouch when you’re feeling bad, then stand up straight, and the serotonin wills start flowing:

So, attend carefully to your posture. Quit drooping and hunching around. Speak your mind. Put your desires forward, as if you had a right to them—at least the same right as others. Walk tall and gaze forthrightly ahead. Dare to be dangerous. Encourage the serotonin to flow plentifully through the neural pathways desperate for its calming influence.

Rule 2: Treat Yourself Like Someone You Are Responsible for Helping

We live in a scientific, materialistic world and we are pitifully unaware of the fact that there are different ways to understand it.

However, for most of history (back to, say, Newton), humans understood it in a profoundly different way, i.e., via myths. And myths had the power to give their lives some meaning and orientation.

Now, interestingly enough, the fact that we are aware that the universe has no obligation to make sense to us (Neil deGrasse Tyson) makes us cruel to, well, ourselves.

We are capable of inventing meaning even for our dogs and cats – but we are incapable of doing the same for us. And statistics show this: “People are better at filling and properly administering prescription medication to their pets than to themselves.”

And, as Peterson says, “that’s not good. Even from your pet’s perspective, it’s not good. Your pet (probably) loves you, and would be happier if you took your medication.”

Peterson analyzes the Genesis story in order to find an answer to the question of why we prefer our pets to ourselves. And – after few pages which concentrate on the order/chaos dichotomy – he finds it.

And it is the same Viktor Frankl discovered while going through the Hell of Auschwitz. Namely, the ones who go forward are the ones who have something to go forward to.

“He whose life has a why can bear almost any how,” Peterson quotes his favorite philosopher Nietzsche to make his point once again.

How this relates to Peterson’s second rule?

Well, if you believe your life has a Meaning – with a capital M – then you will have to treat yourself as someone who deserves it. And if that’s the case, you will be able to recognize your problems.

And consider them accordingly.

Just like you would your dog’s.

Rule 3: Make Friends with People Who Want the Best for You

A highly personal lesson dipped in Jordan Peterson’s childhood experiences.

And as simple and obvious as a lesson can get: “Friendship is a reciprocal arrangement.”

Peterson goes on:

You are not morally obliged to support someone who is making the world a worse place. Quite the opposite. You should choose people who want things to be better, not worse. It’s a good thing, not a selfish thing, to choose people who are good for you. It’s appropriate and praiseworthy to associate with people whose lives would be improved if they saw your life improve.

People who don’t want to improve are not exactly people you want to be around with. By definition, they can’t be helped. They will merely drag you down to their level to make themselves feel better, using you as an object instead of a human being (contra Kant).

If you spend your time around them, you are not helping yourself and, thus, you are not helping the world either.

Because the people who don’t want to improve are the same people who will give a cigarette to a former smoker or beer to a former alcoholic.

They don’t want to make the world a better place by improving; they want to make the world a worse place and, thus, simulate improvement.

To hell with them!

Make friends only with people who want the best for you, people you’d easily recommend to others for

Rule 4: Compare Yourself to Who You Were Yesterday, Not to Who Someone Else is Today

We’ve told you before that happiness may be a relative category.

In other words, that how you feel at this moment depends not on how close you are to some definitive state of things (i.e., Happiness with a capital H), but on how better off you feel when compared to those around you.

Regardless of the fact that happiness is not precisely Peterson’s cup of tea – it’s a fact that, for millennia, this may have worked for people in one way or another.

Nowadays, it’s all but a recipe for disaster!

Why?

Because, nowadays, you have the media and the Internet continually feeding you with images and news about the best of the very best.

And it’s only sensible to come to terms with a simple fact: no matter how good you are, there will always be someone better than you out there.

Look at it this way: millions of kids are at the moment playing basketball and dreaming of becoming the next LeBron; only a handful or one or even no one will do that!

What does that leave for the rest of the bunch?

Misery.

That’s why Jordan Peterson advises you to introduce a Copernican revolution inside your existence. It’s time to stop being the object revolving around some objects with a stronger mass; it’s time to become the object around which everything else revolves.

In other words: don’t compare yourself to other people; compare yourself with, well, yourself from yesterday. If you’re better than that guy – then you are on the right track!

Rule 5: Do Not Let Your Children Do Anything that Makes You Dislike Them

Parenting is an art.

And the most artful part about it is learning – and, then, communicating – the rules of it.

It’s only obvious that not everybody can be a good parent. What separates the good from the bad is their capability to guide their children on the road of improvement.

Because children are born into chaos. They learn the rules of life by constantly hitting walls – both literally and metaphorically.

A parent’s job is to organize the metaphorical part of his/her child’s existence in a way which will give it some meaning.

And that, in Peterson’s dictionary, doesn’t mean “happiness.”

After all, a child will always feel a little happier when given a candy; but that doesn’t mean that you should give your child candies all the time.

Your purpose as a parent is to be the superego to your child’s ego: to be the link between the chaos of the child’s world and the order of society.

If a child receives no feedback, then the chaos into which it is born will permeate well into his or her adulthood; and society will punish it, much less mercifully than you.

However, if it receives too much feedback, then the order will limit too much its potential; society will punish that as well.

The lesson here: set clear rules and proper discipline for your children; because if you don’t – society will.

Rule 6: Put Your House in Order

This one of Jordan Peterson’s rules goes back to Voltaire’s Candide.

If you recall, the book ends with a conviction that the only way to counter the evils of this world is by cultivating your own garden. That way, Voltaire believed, you can free yourself of the “three great evils: boredom, vice, and poverty.” And contribute to a better future of everybody.

Jordan Peterson rephrases this thus: put your house in order before you start philosophizing about how we should put the whole world in order.

Don’t blame other people for your own troubles, because, chances are, you haven’t taken advantage of every opportunity coming your way.

“Don’t blame capitalism, the radical left, or the iniquity of your enemies,” Peterson goes on. “Don’t reorganize the state until you have ordered your own experience. Have some humility. If you cannot bring peace to your household, how dare you try to rule a city? Let your own soul guide you.”

The actionable lesson: “Start to stop doing what you know to be wrong.”

Rule 7: Pursue What is Meaningful, Not What is Expedient

Life is suffering.

Many ancient religions and mythologies have tried articulating that in some of the most famous stories we have inherited from our ancestors.

There is basically no way around it: no matter what happens, one day the people you love will inevitably die; and you will as well.

There’s an easy solution to this problem: hedonism. “Pursue pleasure. Follow your impulses. Live for the moment. Do what’s expedient. Lie, cheat, steal, deceive, manipulate—but don’t get caught. In an ultimately meaningless universe, what possible difference could it make?”

However, there’s also a more difficult answer, one which makes much more sense. Namely, if suffering is real – and no one can deny that – and if it is that painful to live with suffering, then certainly the worst thing you can do is cause someone else’s suffering.

And we know this intuitively: even if we don’t know what is good, says Peterson, we certainly know a priori, what is bad.

Well, Meaning – once again, with a capital M – must be doing good; and doing good is the negation of doing bad.

“If the worst sin is the torment of others, merely for the sake of the suffering produced—then the good is whatever is diametrically opposed to that. The good is whatever stops such things from happening.”

(No, that’s not diametrically opposed to tormenting others, Jordan.)

Rule 8: Tell the Truth

This rule is Jordan Peterson’s gospel to the Truth.

Let us quote its most beautiful part:

To tell the truth is to bring the most habitable reality into Being. Truth builds edifices that can stand a thousand years. Truth feeds and clothes the poor, and makes nations wealthy and safe. Truth reduces the terrible complexity of a man to the simplicity of his word, so that he can become a partner, rather than an enemy. Truth makes the past truly past, and makes the best use of the future’s possibilities. Truth is the ultimate, inexhaustible natural resource. It’s the light in the darkness.

In other words, just like God does at the beginning of John’s Gospel, we too have the power to organize the chaos of the world into something much more tangible.

Lies are only temporary and do service only to those who use them to manipulate. Truths don’t serve anyone per se. They can’t, since they are as they are, regardless of our interests and feelings.

So, they serve the world.

Your duty: “Tell the truth. Or, at least, don’t lie.”

Oh, if only it were as easy?

Rule 9: Assume that the Person You are Listening to Might Know Something You Don’t

This one’s pretty much self-explanatory.

If you are merely telling somebody something, then the existence of that person is irrelevant. You might as well be talking to yourself in the mirror.

The problem?

You’ll never get anywhere with that kind of attitude.

For a simple reason: you are sabotaging your own improvement. There’s no way you know as much as you think you do – no matter who you are.

So, why don’t you start learning something from those around you?

Instead of a talker, become a listener; you’ll do your talking later; in the meantime – you may actually learn something.

And this reminds us of one of our favorite movie scenes.

Watch it straight away.

And don’t be a marketing rep; be a human!

Rule 10: Be Precise with Your Speech

Ah, good ol’ Wittgenstein!

If you talk about something you don’t understand, then you are contributing to the Chaos which engulfs the world.

You must, in fact, confront it!

Precision and specificity – just like truth – turn the Chaos into something treatable.

If you don’t know the specific destination you want to reach, there’s no way you’ll ever reach it. And being ambiguous about something is not much different from providing a wrong map for someone and telling him/her that following it will lead him/her to the right location.

Naturally, that will never happen.

Rule 11: Leave Children Alone when They are Skateboarding

Look aide, lefties: this is the part you are definitely not going to like at all!

It starts quite innocently: modern parenting is overprotective. And it is: called helicopter parenting, it risks raising children who are not prepared for life, but protected from it.

So far, so good.

However, according to Jordan Peterson, there’s a difference in what overparenting means for boys and what it means for girls.

Why?

Because boys and girls are different; and because, if not for overparenting, they would develop their sexual differences even more visibly.

So, let them do!

Why should we feminize boys and masculinize girls – when their differences are so natural? After all, “if they’re healthy,” says Peterson, “women don’t want boys. They want men.”

Now, correct us if we’re wrong, but isn’t this somewhat contradictory to Rule 5? We know people who would be ashamed of hearing their sons got expelled from school

How do you know when to put your foot down?

Or is it, unfortunately, not as apparent as Peterson proclaims it to be?

Rule 12: Pet a Cat When You Encounter One on the Street

So, all in all, suffering is an inescapable part of life.

There are two paths you go from here: either you are going to blame the universe, or take the sins of the world upon yourself.

If the former, you are never going to be happy; you’ll become resentful and bitter and a pain to be around with.

If the latter, there are, once again, two paths to choose from: either you are going to be smashed by the burden, or you are going to stand up straight and carry it.

And the best way to deal with your burden: to pet a cat when you encounter one. That is – to enjoy the little beautiful and good things happening all the time around you:

If you pay careful attention, even on a bad day, you may be fortunate enough to be confronted with small opportunities of just that sort. Maybe you will see a little girl dancing on the street because she is all dressed up in a ballet costume. Maybe you will have a particularly good cup of coffee in a café that cares about their customers. Maybe you can steal ten or twenty minutes to do some little ridiculous thing that distracts you or reminds you that you can laugh at the absurdity of existence.

Peterson’s way of dealing with suffering: watching a “Simpsons” episode at 1.5 times regular speed – “all the laughs; two-thirds the time.”

We promise we’ll try that.

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“12 Rules for Life Quotes”

It took untold generations to get you where you are. A little gratitude might be in order. If you're going to insist on bending the world to your way, you better have your reasons. Click To Tweet You can only find out what you actually believe (rather than what you think you believe) by watching how you act. You simply don’t know what you believe, before that. You are too complex to understand yourself. Click To Tweet ’No tree can grow to Heaven,’ adds the ever-terrifying Carl Gustav Jung, psychoanalyst extraordinaire, ‘unless its roots reach down to Hell.’ Click To Tweet Ideologies are substitutes for true knowledge, and ideologues are always dangerous when they come to power, because a simple-minded I-know-it-all approach is no match for the complexity of existence. Click To Tweet So, listen, to yourself and to those with whom you are speaking. Your wisdom then consists not of the knowledge you already have, but the continual search for knowledge, which is the highest form of wisdom. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life will, undoubtedly, help some; it will also, undoubtedly, irk others.

In our opinion, there’s plenty in the book to justify the behavior of each of these two parties.

Because, unfortunately, as much as Peterson is trying to convince the world in the opposite, language is not precise.

And he’s not exactly telling the truth when he’s saying that his words have only one interpretation.

They have many.

Fortunately, some are encouraging and uplifting.

So read the book because of them.

Turning Pro PDF Summary

Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work

Just because you earn money to do a job doesn’t mean that you are a professional.

But you can become one if you follow Steven Pressfield’s advice.

“Turning Pro” has never been easier.

Who Should Read “Turning Pro”? And Why?

It’s there in the title: “Turning Pro” is about everyone who wants to become (and stay) a professional!

If “The War of Art” was all about the why and the how of becoming a professional, “Turning Pro” is about the when and the what if of being one.

True, Pressfield is a writer and writers may profit the most from his advice, but, compared to his previous books, “Turning Pro” is the most generic one, so it can be read as a standalone.

So, dig in!

About Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield is an American novelist and non-fiction author.

He debuted with the “golf novel” “The Legend of Bagger Vance” which, in 2000, was turned into a successful movie directed by Robert Redford and starring Matt Damon, Will Smith, and Charlize Theron.

Most of Pressfield’s other novels deal with subjects derived from ancient history: “Gates of Fire” is about the Battle of Thermopylae,” “Tides of War” about the Peloponnesian War, while “The Virtues of War” and “The Afghan Campaign” are both about Alexander the Great’s late conquests.

Pressfield’s debut nonfiction book, “The War of Art” was a huge hit – which inspired us to include it in our list of “6 books that will turn you into a great writer.” “Do the Work” and “Turning Pro” are its follow-ups.

“Turning Pro PDF Summary”

One of the key concepts in analytical psychology – Carl Jung’s idiosyncratic vision of a person’s wholeness – is the shadow, Jung’s attempt to root Freud’s id within our unconscious.

Basically, the shadow is the entirety of the repressed aspects of our personality, the unconscious facets of what we are which are so profoundly internalized that even our ego is unaware of their existence. Even so, helped by the superego, it works hard on eliminating them altogether.

Except, that’s not possible.

The result?

We live one life on the outside, and a completely different life is happening in our unconscious!

Now, in most cases, the shadow is fairly negative: it is the place which contains all our fears and anxieties, the least desirable qualities of our personality.

However, as Jung himself has implied in “Memories, Dreams, Reflections,” the shadow can sometimes be the seat of creativity as well: “the dark side of our being, our sinister shadow,” Jung notes, “may represent the true spirit of life as against the one of the arid scholar.”

Pressfield talks a lot about our Shadow Life.

Because, unfortunately, most of us live one.

The Shadow Life is the life of denial and addiction. In a nutshell, it means living the superficial aspects of the life we actually want – and can – live.

To extend on Jung’s note above – while still using Pressfield’s examples – living a shadow life means getting a Ph.D. in Elizabethan studies even though you are actually someone who’s got the writing itch inside you and would much rather write a tragedy or a comedy.

On the addiction’s side, it means drinking and using drugs – aka “living the drugs-and-booze half of the musician’s life” – without ever writing a song!

But it goes beyond art as well: you may be the next Tesla, working in a support capacity for an innovator!

All of these – they are traces of our true calling; but, since mere traces, they are essentially nothing more but a shadow calling.

And when we’re terrified of embracing our true calling, that’s what we end up with: pursuing a shadow calling and living a shadow life.

That is the life of the amateur:

Being amateur means being stuck in the past circumstances of your life and never growing up.

The amateur fears to define himself and this fear is what keeps him an amateur.

Whereas an amateur spends his time writing “shadow novels” (in his head) while publishing critical studies of other people’s novels in real-life, the professional says: “I’m a writer” and may even give up on his studies to finally start penning his real-life masterpieces!

The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits.

We can never free ourselves from habit. The human being is a creature of habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones. We can trade in the habits of the amateur and the addict for the practice of the professional and the committed artist or entrepreneur.

In other words, giving up on your studies doesn’t mean not working – it means working more. That is if you want to be a professional.

And working more is always related to finding the right habits to guide you through the process.

Each and every one of us is a Minotaur: part artist and part addict.

If you want to become a professional, the point is to face your fears, find the thing which makes you an addict, and start pursuing it, thus activating the part of you which is an artist.

The rest is just building a routine around the right habits and enduring.

Key Lessons from “Turning Pro”

1.      Living in the Shadows
2.      Stop Being an Addict
3.      Become a Professional

Living in the Shadows

According to Freud, each of us has an id (our instinctual drives), an ego (an “I” which communicates our id in real-life terms: the reason why you’re not walking naked) and a super-ego (internalized culture and tradition).

Carl Jung added quite a few new agents to this psychic apparatus, all stemming from our unconscious, something Freud completely ignored. One of these agents is the shadow, the repressed aspects of our being.

Whether by longings, addictions, or superficial professions, these repressed aspects of our being try to communicate with us all the time, telling us, in no uncertain terms, that in fact, everything but them is our shadow life.

Stop Being an Addict

Once you face your fears and embrace your shadows, you may finally be able to transform your shadow life into something bigger and more important:

When we turn pro, the energy that once went into the Shadow Novel goes into the real novel. What we once thought was real — “the world,” including its epicenter, ourselves — turns out to be only a shadow. And what had seemed to be only a dream becomes, now, the reality of our lives.

Become a Professional

Being an amateur means living a shadow life.

Being a professional means going beyond that.

It’s usually a thorny path: it means adapting the right habits, working hard, passing through a membrane and giving birth to somebody else.

But it’s the right path because it’s the only one which will result in you finally living the life of the real you.

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“Turning Pro Quotes”

The sure sign of an amateur is he has a million plans and they all start tomorrow. Click To Tweet To feel ambition and to act upon it is to embrace the unique calling of our souls. Not to act upon that ambition is to turn our backs on ourselves and on the reason for our existence. Click To Tweet Turning pro is like kicking a drug habit or stopping drinking. It's a decision, a decision to which we must re-commit every day. Click To Tweet Many artists are addicts, and vice versa. Many are artists in one breath and addicts in another. What's the difference? The addict is the amateur; the artist is the professional. Click To Tweet The payoff of living in the past or the future is you never have to do your work in the present. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

“Turning Pro” is not a magic wand which will help you become a professional in the blink of an eye.

In fact, it’s anything but: it’s a book which elucidates that becoming a professional is actually a messy process, which has nothing to do with buying products or taking courses – but everything with changing the state of your mind and embracing your shadows.

Consider it more of a psychological preparatory class in professionalism than a how-to manual.

And since we sincerely believe that only the former are actually possible – we both appreciate Pressfield’s honesty and recommend this book.

Reinvent Yourself PDF Summary

Half a decade ago, James Altucher asked you to choose yourself.

Now, he’s back with another advice:

“Reinvent Yourself.”

Who Should Read “Reinvent Yourself”? And Why?

If you have heard anything about James Altucher, you probably already know that he is an incessant experimenter and that he absolutely abhors the idea of 9-to-5 jobs.

“Reinvent Yourself” is for those who share his hate on the latter and want to become the former.

About James Altucher

James Altucher is an American entrepreneur, podcaster, blogger, and bestselling author.

According to his count, he has founded more than 20 companies and has, in addition, invested in at least 30. Many of them have failed, but those which have succeeded have thriven.

Altucher hosts a famous podcast, “The James Altucher Show,” and has authored 18 books, including “Choose Yourself” and “The Rich Employee.”

“Reinvent Yourself PDF Summary”

The only thing constant in the life of James Altucher is, undoubtedly, his hair.

Everything else is flux and change, inventions and reinventions all across the board!

Who knows – T. S. Eliot may have written these beautiful two lines for him and not for some other guy with the initials J. A.: “In a minute there is time/ For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”

After imploring you to choose yourself back in 2013, Altucher is now back with an update, telling you to reinvent yourself.

Constantly.

But what does he mean by reinvention?

Well, in his words,

Reinvention is life. This is the call to adventure that constantly whispers to us. Do we answer it? Do we take the call?

The answer, is, of course, a resounding “yes.”

And the way?

Well, start by redefining the word freedom.

Sure, the dictionary will tell you that freedom is “the condition of being free of restraints, especially the ability to act without control or interference by another or by circumstance,” but ask yourself: what does that mean in practice?

Capitalism should have – and, in some sense, it did – brought freedom, but why do you wake up each day at the same time with the same obnoxious alarm sound only to spend the next eight hours working a job you don’t actually like and the remaining few talking about how unhappy it makes you?

We’ll tell you why: because you need to have money to be free.

Which brings us back to Altucher’s main lesson from “Choose Yourself”: if you need money to be free, it’s pointless to earn them by not being free; so, find/choose/invent a job you would like to do!

That way, you’ll both be free while earning money and have money to be even freer afterward! Was it Confucius the one who said: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”?

Altucher endorses this.

Next step of reinventing yourself: acquiring the right habits.

According to Altucher,

You are not just the average of the five people around you. You’re the average of the five habits you do, the things you eat, the ideas you have, the content you consume, etc.

The third step on the ladder to a total makeover: improving your relationships.

You are a part of much more than your own life, and this is true for everybody. Meaning: a large part of your happiness and success depends on other people.

In terms of your reinvention, it seems that three are the most important ones: your plus (someone who knows more than you), your equal (your peer), and your minus (someone who knows less).

Which brings us to the fourth, and final, step: your plus should, in fact, be your mentor and finding the right mentors to teach you how to become the person you want to be should become your top priority on your road to reinvention.

In fact, “Reinvent Yourself” doesn’t only include “the ultimate guide to finding a mentor,” but also an explanation of “how to have 1,000 mentors in your life.”

And, of course, numerous pieces of advice from many of them in the following chapters.

For example, Altucher learned from Louis C. K. the Tao of not spending any energy on things you can’t change and the uselessness of saying that you’re bored.

From Picasso and Isaac Asimov he learned that “action is the foundational key to all success” (aka the reason why Picasso produced 50,000 works of art and Asimov wrote 467 books!) and that you should “learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

From Elon Musk he learned that it’s not a bad thing to have all the eggs in one basket – if you can control that basket.

From Malala and Louis Armstrong that suffering can be transcended and turned into something bigger, whether art or cause to fight for

From Albert Einstein – the beauty of what comes after the “I don’t know.”

From Mick Jagger Altucher learned that, in the beginning, you should take every gig and that it takes about 15 years to master something: 3 to study, 2 to start making money, 4 to make a comfortable living and 6 to become a rock star!

And we’ll stop here.

Though there are many more lessons Altucher shares with his readers, whether coming from rappers such as Eminem and Ice Cube, from regular people such as his daughter or a friend’s grandma, or even some acquired through playing poker and chess or watching “Star Wars.”

Needless to say – they are all interesting and useful!

Mentoring at its most entertaining best.

Key Lessons from “Reinvent Yourself”

1.      Reinventing Is All About Four Things
2.      Find Yourself a Plus, a Minus, and an Equal
3.      Reinvent Yourself in Five Years

Reinventing Is All About Four Things

Reinvention is not something you should fear, nor something you should think of in terms of a painfully long and excruciatingly tiring process.

On the contrary, you should try to reinvent yourself constantly.

First, by redefining what the word “freedom” means to you at that specific moment. Then, by acquiring to right habits which should guide you to your imagined end. Thirdly, by improving your relationships. And finally, by finding yourself some great mentors.

Find Yourself a Plus, a Minus, and an Equal

Speaking of finding –

This is a strategy James Altucher borrows from Ryan Holiday’s “Ego Is the Enemy,” where the approach is presented as Frank Shamrock’s system for self-improvement.

It consists of choosing a plus, an equal, and a minus.

The plus is someone who knows more than you – i.e., your mentor; the equal is a peer to constantly challenge yourself against; finally, the minus is a student you can impart your knowledge on.

The goal?

Getting real and continuous feedback.

Reinvent Yourself in Five Years

If you want to reinvent yourself completely, you’ll probably need half a decade.

Use the first year to learn, experiment, and start doing some things. Then, the second year, start doing them on a more regular basis, i.e., each day – while finding some time to network with the right people. The third year you should start making some money.

But only the next – the fourth year – you’ll earn enough to make a good living. If things go well, by the fifth year, you should become a wealthy person by doing the things that you love!

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“Reinvent Yourself Quotes”

Despair = Suffering – Meaning. Click To Tweet Talent is the tiniest of sparks. A spark lights the fire. But you have to feed the fire more fuel to keep it going. Else it dies out. Click To Tweet Don’t be afraid to go silent. Mirror and then have the confidence to go silent. Click To Tweet It’s never too late to do what you love. What you love is always on the shore, waiting for you to arrive, waiting with open arms. Click To Tweet We were put here to try. Nobody will grade us. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

James Altucher is undoubtedly an idea machine, but, truthfully “Reinvent Yourself” isn’t that original – not if you have followed him well enough during the past decade or so.

Even so, it’s still Altucher – “the Oprah of the Internet” – and, moreover, it’s Altucher and his 1,000 mentors.

So, plenty of great minds.

Multiple that by five for the good advice count.

The Daily Stoic PDF Summary

366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living

You want to live a happier and more fulfilled life?

Then, please do – with Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman’s “The Daily Stoic.”

There’s a lesson here for every day in the year.

And each of them is timeless.

Who Should Read “The Daily Stoic”? And Why?

You don’t have to be interested in philosophy to read “The Daily Stoic.”

In fact, the goal of the book is to show that the Stoics were the original self-helpers and motivational coaches, and that, moreover, they were far better (because smarter) than their contemporary colleagues.

So, think of this book both as an introduction to Stoicism – if you need one – and as a guide through life – because, let’s face it, we all need one.

About Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

The Daily Stoic PDF Summary Ryan Holiday is an American author, media strategist, and marketer.

After dropping out of college at the age of 19, Holiday went on a successful professional writing career, during which he has so far authored seven bestselling books.

This is the fifth one we have summarized. Check out our other four summaries: “Trust Me, I’m Lying,” “Growth Hacker Marketing,” “The Obstacle Is the Way” and “Ego Is the Enemy.”

Stephen Hanselman is a literary agent, bookseller, and publisher.

“The Daily Stoic” is his first book.

“The Daily Stoic PDF Summary”

“Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only they truly live,” wrote Seneca once. “Only an ingrate would fail to see that these great architects of venerable thoughts were born for us and have designed a way of life for us.”

In an age when life is understood to be an adventure and when basically every social media site abounds with testimonies that living your life to the fullest means drinking huge amounts of alcohol and taking selfies – it sure seems strange to see this passage quoted as an epigraph to any non-academic book, let alone one which aims to teach you the art of living.

But that’s how “The Daily Stoic,” “a beautiful daily devotional of Stoic meditation,” begins: with a sincere belief that living will always be the end result of thinking about life, and not what happens after you press the pause button of your brain.

But, wait a second!

You want us to believe that only philosophers – aka “no-thank-you-I’d-rather-spend-my-night-reading” nerds – truly live?

I won’t buy that!

Well, you should – because if you stretch that definition a bit, the answer to your question is “yes.”

Just a quick comparison:

Remember that time when you broke the screen on your iPod, and you couldn’t get your act together for the next month or so?

Well, Epictetus – one of the stars of this book – was a slave with a disabled leg and he was supposedly capable of accepting both things, spending most of his life without ever feeling angry or sad.

Fast forward two millennia, and you have William Ernest Henley, a poet with an amputated leg, Nelson Mandela, a prisoner for 27 years, and James Stockdale, a Vietnamese prisoner of war – all surviving through some of the worst things that can happen to anyone in life, by reading Epictetus and the other great Stoic philosophers.

If you want to join their company, then “The Daily Stoic” may be the best book you can find on the market.

No summary will do the book enough justice, since, as we said above, it’s structured as a daily devotional, meaning you should read one page of it per day.

Every single page contains a newly translated quote from some of the most important Stoic philosophers – mainly, the holy triumvirate of Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca, but also some lesser-known Stoics such as Zeno, Cleanthes, and Musonius Rufus – along with a commentary provided by the authors.

These are in turn divided into three parts (coinciding with Stoicism’s three critical disciplines):

#1. THE DISCIPLINE OF PERCEPTION

This part refers to how we perceive (and how we should perceive) the world around us.

It contains the first four months of the year, during which you’ll learn how to achieve clarity in your vision (January), how to restrain your passions and emotions (February), and how to be aware (March) and unbiased (April).

Needless to say, the book starts (January 1^st) with Stoicism 101, i.e., Epictetus’ dichotomy of control:

The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…

#2. THE DISCIPLINE OF ACTION

This part is all about how actions should always be taken with the end in sight, as the product of clear and unbiased perception.

In May you’ll learn about right actions, in June about problem-solving, in July about duty and in August everything you need to know about pragmatism.

Here (June 7^th) you’ll happen upon Seneca’s brilliant advice from “On the Shortness of Life” concerning role models (aka, why people write and you should read this kind of books):

We like to say that we don’t get to choose our parents, that they were given by chance – yet we can truly choose whose children we’d like to be.

#3. THE DISCIPLINE OF WILL

The Discipline of Will part is dedicated to the problem of “how we deal with the things we cannot change, attain clear and convincing judgment, and come to a true understanding of our place in the world.”

Or, more precisely, to fortitude and resilience (September), virtue and kindness (October), acceptance/amor fati (November) and meditation on mortality (December).

It is in this part that, on October the 3^rd, you’ll come across Marcus Aurelius channeling his inner… Martin Luther King Jr.:

Meditate often on the interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of all things in the universe. For in a sense, all things are mutually woven together and therefore have an affinity for each other — for one thing follows after another according to their tension of movement, their sympathetic stirrings, and the unity of all substance.

All in all, a book you should own.

Because, as Kipling implicitly put it in “If–,“ becoming a Stoic is not that much different from becoming a man.

Over to you!

Key Lessons from “The Daily Stoic”

1.      The Three Stoic Interests
2.      The Three Stoic Disciplines
3.      The Easiest Way to be a Stoic: The Four Fundamental Habits

The Three Stoic Interests

Stoics were interested in only three aspects of philosophy: logic, physics, and ethics.

In fact, they often used the analogy of the fertile field to describe their endeavors.

In the analogy, physics (or Nature) was the field itself with all of the laws governing its existence; logic was the fence protecting the field from outsiders (think: superstitions, false beliefs… khm… alternative facts); finally, ethics was the crop you produce, that is the life you manage to extract out of what you are naturally endowed with.

The Three Stoic Disciplines

Now, in order to extract as much as possible out of life, the Stoics were profoundly interested in mastering three disciplines: the discipline of perception, the discipline of action, and the discipline of will.

The discipline of perception was all about learning to see the world clearly; the discipline of action dealt with the decisions and actions we take – and to what end we take them; finally, attaining a discipline of will meant conquering your fears and doubts by accepting what you can’t change.

The Easiest Way to be a Stoic: The Four Fundamental Habits

These are the four steps to becoming a Stoic:

#1. Learn how to differentiate between what is true and what is not and accept only the former;
#2. Try to harmonize your needs and desires with what you can control;
#3. Embrace that which you can’t;
#4. You are part of humanity: work toward the common good.

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“The Daily Stoic Quotes”

Knowledge—self-knowledge in particular—is freedom. Click To Tweet The more you say no to the things that don’t matter, the more you can say yes to the things that do. Click To Tweet Pretend that each event—whether desired or unexpected—was willed to happen, willed specifically for you. Click To Tweet Having an end in mind is no guarantee that you’ll reach it—no Stoic would tolerate that assumption—but not having an end in mind is a guarantee you won’t. Click To Tweet Serenity and stability are results of your choices and judgment, not your environment. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

“The Daily Stoic” is “The Upper Room” for secularists. So, no reason why – to quote Jack Canfield – you shouldn’t make it “your guide and [start growing] in clarity, effectiveness, and serenity each day!”

In the meantime, check out The Daily Stoic’s website and browse through it for free.

If you find it appealing, then do buy this book.

And grow into a Stoic – day by day.

Make Your Bed PDF Summary

Little Things That Can Change Your Life… And Maybe the World

You want to change the world.

Start off by making your bed.

Don’t believe us?

Then, let us rephrase that in the words of a decorated United States Navy admiral:

“Make Your Bed!”

Who Should Read “Make Your Bed”? And Why?

In “Make Your Bed” Admiral William H. McRaven shares the 10 most valuable life lessons he learned by being a part of the US military.

As he says himself, they are universally comprehensible and applicable, so it doesn’t matter who you are or whether you like the military or not.

“Change in the world can happen anywhere,” emphasizes McRaven, “and anyone can do it.”

About William H. McRaven

William H. McRaven is a retired US Navy admiral.

He last served as the commander of the United States Special Operations Command (2011 – 2014), a position he got after serving for three years as the Commander of Joint Special Operations Command (2008 – 2011).

Back in 1995, “Spec Ops,” the first of the two books he has so far authored was published.

In 2012, he was played by Christopher Stanley in the Academy Award-winning movie chronicling the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, “Zero Dark Thirty,” and a year later he appeared as himself in the documentary “Dirty Wars.”

“Make Your Bed PDF Summary”

William H. McRaven is 1977 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and a decorated United States Navy admiral.

How are these things related between themselves, or, for that matter, to this book?

Well, McRaven retired from the Navy – after more than 37 years of service – on August 28, 2014.

About three months before that, as still the Commander of United States Special Operations Command, he addressed the Class of 2014 at the University of Texas at Austin.

The commencement speech went viral and has been viewed, in different versions, more than 10 million times.

We link it below.

But, before you watch it, we feel obliged to add a “spoiler alert” tag: it’s basically this book in 20 minutes minus some of the anecdotes and stories:

As you might have already heard (in case you decided to watch McRaven’s speech before going on to read this summary), Admiral McRaven was inspired to share the 10 most valuable lessons he learned as part of the US military by the slogan of his alma mater: “what starts here changes the world.”

The question is – he adds after pointing this out – what the world will look like after it is changed.

So as to make sure that it looks better (of which he has no doubt to start with), he makes ten (once again: universally applicable) suggestions, which, chiseled and polished up a bit, make up the titles of the ten chapters of his book.

So here they are, “the 10 lessons [McRaven] learned from basic SEAL training that hopefully will be of value to you as you move forward in life.”

Key Lessons from “Make Your Bed”

1.      Start Your Day with a Task Completed
2.      You Can’t Go It Alone
3.      Only the Size of Your Heart Matters
4.      Life’s Not Fair – Drive On!
5.      Failure Can Make You Stronger
6.      You Must Dare Greatly
7.      Stand Up to the Bullies
8.      Rise to the Occasion
9.      Give People Hope
10.      Never, Ever Quit

#1. Start Your Day with a Task Completed

One of the first things you’ll learn if you want to take part of the basic training for being a member of the US Seal team is – the proper way to make your bed.

And that is lesson #1: always start your day by making your bed.

How will that change the world, you ask?

Well, it’s actually not the making of the bed that matters; it’s the discipline you put into it and, more importantly, the fact that, by making your bed, you are starting your day on a high note: already with a task completed.

The bonus: no matter how bad the rest of the day is, you’ll always come home to a made bed.

#2. You Can’t Go It Alone

Even a superhero has a sidekick – and you need plenty of them. To use McRaven’s example: if you want to steer a boat faster, you’ll need to find people to paddle with you.

And if you suffer a near-fatal parachute incident, you’ll need a partner to carry you through the pain and the depression (yes, that actually happened to McRaven):

None of us are immune from life’s tragic moments… It takes a good team of people to get you to your destination in life. You cannot paddle the boat alone. Find someone to share your life with. Make as many friends as possible, and never forget that your success depends on others.

#3. Only the Size of Your Heart Matters

“Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man,” wrote a fairly obscure poet sometime in the early 20^th century; “but sooner or later the man who wins/ is the one who thinks he can!”

McRaven has, basically, the same advice: the best team during his Navy training was actually the one who was most often the butt of the jokes on account of the size of its members’ flippers.

But, it’s not the size of the paddles that counts; it’s the size of the heart. The passion and the perseverance.

So, please, don’t judge a book by its cover. Judge it by its content.

#4. Life’s Not Fair – Drive On!

“The universe,” writes Neil deGrasse Tyson, “is under no obligation to make sense to you.”

In other words, there’s a big chance that life is not going to treat you fair.

But blaming your lot on some outside force is both easy and wrong. What’s right is learning how to accept and rise above the unfairness.

“The common people and the great men and women,” concludes McRaven, “are all defined by how they deal with life’s unfairness.”

#5. Failure Can Make You Stronger

During his SEAL Navy training, McRaven was part of a swimming team which always finished last.

Their punishment?

The Circus, i.e., an endurance test which has made many cadets give up.

However, in the case of McRaven, the failure to win the swimming races only made him stronger: for the graduation test, he was part of the winning team.

So, keep calm – and fail forward.

#6. You Must Dare Greatly

Don’t be afraid to take risks:

Life is a struggle and the potential for failure is ever present, but those who live in fear of failure, or hardship, or embarrassment, will never achieve their potential. Without pushing your limits, without occasionally sliding down the rope headfirst, without daring greatly, you will never know what is truly possible in your life.

#7. Stand Up to the Bullies

As part of their training, McRaven and his teammate were once commanded to swim four miles through potentially shark-infested waters. Refusing the task meant not completing the SEAL training.

So, as afraid as they were, they didn’t.

The lesson?

You’ll encounter many sharks – whether bullies or personal fears – on your path to greatness.

Stand up to them.

#8. Rise to the Occasion

Sometimes it’s inevitable that you’ll lose a loved one.

Unfortunately, no amount of shouting and screaming, no amount of sulking or depression, will ever change that.

Being a soldier, McRaven has learned this the hard way.

What you’re left with is to rise to the challenge and endure.

#9. Give People Hope

Sometimes, all it takes is just a little pat on the shoulder.

Or a song.

For example, during McRaven’s Hell Week (the dreaded seven-day endurance test which makes or breaks a SEAL), one of the guys was about to call it quits, when another started singing a song.

Soon, everybody joined in.

And even though it was past midnight and they were all covered in cold mud, somehow, they felt a bit more hopeful.

And they persevered!

#10. Never, Ever Quit

Don’t give up!

If a Navy SEAL who has lost both legs can find some meaning in life, certainly you can too, no matter how bad your day is.

No matter what happens, it’s your job to be unbroken.

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“Make Your Bed Quotes”

Without daring greatly, you will never know what is truly possible in your life. Click To Tweet True leaders must learn from their failures, use the lessons to motivate themselves, and not be afraid to try again or make the next tough decision. Click To Tweet In life, you will face a lot of Circuses. You will pay for your failures. But, if you persevere, if you let those failures teach you and strengthen you, then you will be prepared to handle life’s toughest moments. Click To Tweet I realized that past failures had strengthened me, taught me that no one is immune from mistakes. Click To Tweet Hope is the most powerful force in the universe. Click To Tweet

Our Critical Review

Though certainly not groundbreaking (far from it), “Make Your Bed” is as inspirational as is William McRaven’s brilliant commencement speech.

Meaning: it’s one of those books you just can’t buy only one copy of.

Take our word for it: we’ve given at least six of them as gifts.

And had we known you personally, we probably would have gifted one to you as well.