Anything can be condensed.
Heck, I know junior high kids who could bust Moby Dick down to a sentence or two.
And I reckon summarizing information we brush against is a basic, long-standing human practice.
In reading a heap of self-help literature and distilling each book down to its base parts, I discovered a pattern. This website was born from that observation.
In reading a heap of self-help literature and distilling each book down to its base parts, I discovered a pattern. This website was born from that observation.
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Table of Contents
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Preface
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Chapter 1
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1
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Acknowledgements
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2
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Preface
If we met at a party and you asked about my interests, I would tell you my hobby is time and life management.
I'm obsessed with the challenge of living a regret-free life, the regrets that are in my control at least.
The source for this can be effortlessly pin-pointed to my youth—a period of time I largely squandered.
To think now of the thousands of hours I spent at the arcade or on watching television or sleeping into the afternoon, I'm tempted to launch myself from the rooftop.
But what keeps me from climbing the stairs are the thousands of hours that lie ahead, hours I intend to use improving my mind, and bettering my enjoyment of this life experience.
The day the messenger with this epiphany in hand finally forced his way to the front of my consciousness, the meaning of time became something new to me.
Since then I value my time, I value it above all else.
I am a man who against seemingly insurmountable odds:
- married my dream girl who when I met her had many other suitors (all of them on paper better qualified at the role of husband than myself),
- landed my dream job which at the start seemed wildly out of reach (all who heard my far-fetched vision mocked the sad boy's dreams),
- and after a twenty year slide I am months away from recovering my college-age waistline and weight (weight that in addition to piling on raw pounds added a mess of mental and physical luggage as well).
Given my time management hobby and my past unlikely successes, people sometimes approach me for advice. The proclamations are typical:
- I want to lose weight.
- I want to get a promotion.
- I want to quit smoking.
- I want to quit drinking.
- I want to rejuvenate my marriage.
- I want to find more time with my kids.
- I want to go back to school.
- I want to get organized.
- I want to run a marathon.
- I want to switch careers.
One day the record of my counsel set in. Given my success using the same methods, how could my advice be failing each and every time? It made no sense to me. At some point after this realization, someone approached me for help. I looked to them not excited, but spent, near exhausted. I unexcitedly asked what they wanted to do. They told me. I then gave them the best piece of advice I've ever given anyone. It's a piece of advice I've since given out dozens of times. And it is a piece of advice that has never failed. That piece of advice is what this book is about.
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Chapter 1
If you wish to achieve something, be it anything from losing weight to re-energizing a life to kick-starting a career, all you have to do is wait.
Wait until you really, Really, REALLY want that thing.
Starting before you really, Really, REALLY want that thing will end in failure.
Complete failure.
I promise.
So don't waste your time.
Watch television.
Eat a burger.
Putting energy towards a goal you kinda want is like throwing dimes at a college education.
Now if the day comes when you decide you really, Really, REALLY must have this thing you see on the horizon, then and only then will you do what is necessary to make it yours. 1
This logic can be seen in the global commonality between all people who reach their destinations. That commonality is desire. People who achieve their goals viscerally want them and will not quit until that want has been sated. Every journey to fulfillment is unique. For some it will be fast and enjoyable, for others a life's work. Regardless of your past or your starting point, the only thing to know is that you will not arrive at your goal until you decide it is an achievement you must possess. Only when that commitment arrives, will you have a chance of making it happen.
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The use of the word YOU in chapter 1 is very specific and refers to you yourself and not your doctor, spouse, mother, girlfriend, child, neighbor, in-law, high school pal, teacher, co-worker, mistress, barista, barber, preacher, superior, counselor, dental hygienist, broker, tailor, or the person who already achieved the same goal you're after.
None of the people listed, or even those not listed, who are not you, can be counted on.
This small detail is governed by the natural laws of our universe and cannot be skirted around, like ever.
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Acknowledgments
I wish to thank my mother who taught me that given my health and ability to learn, there was no goal too ambitious to chase.
I wish to thank my wife who provides me with the space and support to chase those goals, no matter how out of reach they may seem.
I wish to thank my children who incent me to model goal chasing and the rewards such endeavors provide.
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