Is it not the right time yet to ‘Choose Yourself’?

When the writer James Altucher who have failed many businesses but never given up and carried on his journey by ‘choosing himself’, does not refer in his book to making the most money, or having the most impact . This is about being connected with who you are. This is about seeing how far your potential truly can unravel, simply because you are human. Here you have the highlights of his hilarious, yet very useful book.

When the writer James Altucher who have failed many businesses but never given up and carried on his journey by ‘choosing himself’, does not refer in his book to making the most money, or having the most impact . This is about being connected with who you are. This is about seeing how far your potential truly can unravel, simply because you are human. Here you have the highlights of his hilarious, yet very useful book.

• “The American Dream ” comes from a marketing campaign developed by Fannie Mae to convince Americans newly flush with cash to start taking mortgages . Why buy a home with your own hard — earned money when you can use somebody else’s ? It may be the best marketing slogan ever conceived . It was like a vacuum cleaner that sucked everyone into believing that a $ 15 trillion mortgage industry would lead to universal happiness . “ The American Dream ” quickly replaced the peace and quiet of the suburbs with the desperate need to always stay ahead.
• Rejection — and the fear of rejection — is the biggest impediment we face to choosing ourselves.
• Success comes from continually expanding your frontiers in every direction — creatively , financially , spiritually , and physically . Always ask yourself , what can I improve ? Who else can I talk to ? Where else can I look ?
• ONLY DO THINGS YOU ENJOY. This might seem obvious to you, but it isn’t to most . One might also say , “ Duh , I’d love to do what I enjoy but I have to pay the bills! ”Relax for a second . We’re going to learn how to do what we enjoy , first. I’m not just talking about those “ only pursue a career you enjoy ” platitudes , either. I mean it down to your very thoughts. Only think about the people you enjoy. Only read the books you enjoy , that make you happy to be human. Only go to the events that actually make you laugh or fall in love. Only deal with the people who love you back , who are winners and want you to win too.
• Every time you say yes to something you don’t want to do, this will happen: you will resent people, you will do a bad job, you will have less energy for the things you were doing a good job on, you will make less money, and yet another small percentage of your life will be used up , burned up , a smoke signal to the future saying, “I did it again.” The only real fire to cultivate is the fire inside of you. Nothing external will cultivate it. The greater your internal fire is , the more people will want it. They will smoke every drug lit by your fire. They will try to ignite their own fires. They will try to light up their own dark caves. The universe will bend to you. Every time you say yes to something you don’t want , your fire starts to go away . You will get burned out.

• We spend our lives afraid of the emptiness. We want to fill it with love, with money, with pleasures, with anything that could put off the ultimate. But all of those things are never enough. They all decay. Only the emptiness does not decay. The best way I have ever found to fill that hole is not to seek external motivations to fill the emptiness, but to ignite the internal fire that will never go out. To light up my own inner sky.
• When you surrender and accept the beautiful stillness around you, when you give up all thoughts of the past, all worries and anxieties of the future, when you surround yourself with similarly positive people , when you tame the mind, when you keep healthy, there is zero chance of burnout.
• The Simple Daily Practice means doing ONE thing every day. Try any one of these things each day:

A ) Sleep eight hours.

B ) Eat two meals instead of three.

C ) No TV.

D ) No junk food.

E ) No complaining for one whole day.

F ) No gossip.

G ) Return an e — mail from five years ago.

H ) Express thanks to a friend.

I ) Watch a funny movie or a stand — up comic.

J ) Write down a list of ideas . The ideas can be about anything .

K ) Read a spiritual text. Any one that is inspirational to you . The Bible , The Tao te Ching , anything you want .

L ) Say to yourself when you wake up, “ I’m going to save a life today.” Keep an eye out for that life you can save.

M ) Take up a hobby. Don’t say you don’t have time. Learn the piano. Take chess lessons. Do stand-up comedy. Write a novel. Do something that takes you out of your current rhythm.

N ) Write down your entire schedule. The schedule you do every day. Cross out one item and don’t do that anymore.

O ) Surprise someone.

P ) Think of ten people you are grateful for.

Q ) Forgive someone. You don’t have to tell them. Just write it down on a piece of paper and burn the paper. It turns out this has the same effect in terms of releasing oxytocin in the brain as actually forgiving them in person.

R ) Take the stairs instead of the elevator.

S ) I’m going to steal this next one from the 1970s pop psychology book Don’t Say Yes When You Want to Say No: when you find yourself thinking of that special someone who is causing you grief, think very quietly,“ No.” If you think of him and (or?) her again, think loudly, “ No!” Again? Whisper, “No! ” Again, say it. Louder. Yell it. Louder. And so on.

T ) Tell someone every day that you love them.

U ) Don’t have sex with someone you don’t love .

V ) Shower. Scrub. Clean the toxins off your body.

W ) Read a chapter in a biography about someone who is an inspiration to you

X ) Make plans to spend time with a friend.

Y ) If you think, “Everything would be better off if I were dead,” then think , “That’s really cool. Now I can do anything I want and I can postpone this thought for a while, maybe even a few months. ”Because what does it matter now? The planet might not even be around in a few months. Who knows what could happen with all these solar flares. You know the ones I’m talking about.

Z ) Deep breathing. When the vagus nerve is inflamed, your breathing becomes shallower. Your breath becomes quick. It’s fight -o — flight time! You are panicking. Stop it! Breathe deep. Let me tell you something: most people think “yoga” is all those exercises where people are standing upside down and doing weird things. In the Yoga Sutras, written in 300 B.C., there are 196 lines divided into four chapters. In all those lines , ONLY THREE OF THEM refer to physical exercise. It basically reads , “Be able to sit up straight .” That’s it. That’s the only reference in the Yoga Sutras to physical exercise. Claudia always tells me that yogis measure their lives in breaths, not years. Deep breathing is what keeps those breaths going.

- “Five.” That’s the age he was when he found his “ purpose“ in life . I don’t like the word purpose . It implies that somewhere in the future I will find something that will make me happy , and that until then , I will be unhappy . People fool themselves into thinking that the currency of unhappiness will buy them happiness . That we have to “ pay our dues , ” go on some sort of ride , and then get dropped off at a big location called our “ purpose , ” where now we can be happy . It doesn’t work that way . You can find the tools to be happy right now . I still don’t know what my purpose is . I’m afraid I will never know . That makes me very happy . Maybe I can have lots of adventures between today and the day I die . Maybe I can do lots of different things . And if I don’t — if I die even tomorrow — that’s fine also . What does purpose mean when we are dead ? We might as well choose to be happy now .

- Stephen King, in his book ‘On Writing’* discusses an accident he once had that prevented him from writing for several weeks. When he started to write again he could feel the difference. He said how the words just weren’t connecting right . His writing muscle had atrophied. He needed to exercise it again in order to continue writing the nonstop , bestselling thrillers he’d been writing for thirty years. STEPHEN KING! All it took was a few weeks out of action to throw him completely off his game even though he’s one of the best in the world at what he does. The idea muscle is no different than the writing muscle . It’s no different than your leg muscles , for that matter. If you don’t walk for two weeks , the muscles will atrophy. And you will need physical therapy in order to walk again. The idea muscle must be exercised every day. Even if you’ve come up with ideas every day of your life, it will atrophy if you give it a two-week rest.

- To become an idea machine takes about six to twelve months of daily practice with the idea muscle.

- You can’t develop the idea muscle if you’re suffering through a bad relationship, or an illness, or you lose your sense of gratitude and wonder toward the world around you.

- “How do you know when an idea is too big?” I answered that an idea is too big if you can’t think of the next step. I then added that if I wanted to start an airline with more comfortable seats and Internet access and better food and cheaper prices, I might have a hard time because even if it were a good idea I wouldn’t know what to do next. Then I read about Richard Branson.*

Our thoughts can make our ideal reality possible. If you think you can do something, if you have confidence, if you have creativity (developed by building up your idea muscle ) , the big ideas become smaller and smaller. Until there is no idea too big. Nothing you can’t at least attempt . As Henry Ford said , “ Whether you think you can, or you can’t — either way you are right.”

- Every day , read / skim chapters from books on at least four different topics.

- Write down ten ideas. About anything. It doesn’t matter if they are business ideas, book ideas , ideas for surprising your spouse in bed, ideas for what you should do if you are arrested for shoplifting, ideas for how to make a better tennis racquet, anything you want. The key is that it has to be ten or more.

- Twitter Search I’ll search phrases like: “I wish I had” “I just paid someone to” “is the worst product” “is a horrible company” “has a terrible website” “is my favorite website” “does anyone know how”

- Find someone you don’t know who interests and inspires you, then figure out how to reach them. Send them a kind note on LinkedIn or Facebook. Hit them up on Twitter. But research them first. I guarantee a quick conversation or e-mail exchange with someone inspirational will also inspire you. “Touching” someone who has made the impossible possible helps you realize that your ideas are also possible and inspire you to do more. Don’t underestimate the power of being social.

- Never underestimate the power of a long, protracted silence.

• Out of silence comes the greatest creativity.

- The mediocre entrepreneur understands that persistence is not the self-help cliché“ Keep going until you hit the finish line! ”It’s ‘Keep failing until you accidentally no longer fail.” That’s persistence.

- Try this exercise: pretend everyone was sent to this planet to teach you. Famous people , dead people, your neighbors, your relatives, your co-workers. This will give you a strong feeling of humility. And guess what, you will learn from people, you will appreciate them more, and they will actually appreciate you more. Because everyone loves to teach.

- Study the history of the form you want to master. Study every nuance. If you want to write, read not only all of your contemporaries, but the influences of those contemporaries, and their influences. Additionally, draw inspiration from other art forms. From music, art, and there again, go back to the influences of your inspirations, and go back to their influences, and so on. The facets that resonate with time, even if it’s hundreds of years old, will resonate with your work as well. It’s like a law of the universe.

- Wake up earl. Avoid distractions. Work three to five hours a day and then enjoy the rest of the day. Be as perfectionist as you can, knowing that imperfection will still rule. Have the confidence to be magical and stretch the boundaries of your medium. Combine the tools of the medium itself with the message you want to convey. Don’t get stuck in the same rut — move forward, experiment, but with the confidence built up over experience. Change the rules but learn them first .

- 76 percent of the universe is comprised of “dark energy.” In other words, we have zero clues as to what it is . Another 20 percent is “dark matter,” i.e., matter that we have no clue about. Only 4 percent of the universe is actually made up of matter we understand. In other words, after Newton, Einstein, Heisenberg, and two thousand years of collective exploration of the universe and all its elements, we’ve basically failed. In fact, the more knowledge we get , the more we realize how badly we are failing. We used to think we had it down. But now even the Big Bang theory is in serious question. We just suck at understanding the world around us.

I hope you enjoy this summary! Green lights to all the areas in your life!

Seyit