1. Stop Resisting What's Happening. 2. Focus On What You Can Control 3. Nail Daily Habits 4. Use Routines 5. Stay Connected 6. Think Adaptation 7. Respond Not React 8. Show Up, Get Through, And Make Meaning On Other Side
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1. Stop Resisting What Is Happening
Resisting change and disorder may feel good in the short-term, but invariably leads to distress in the long-term. You’ve got to engage with what is in front of you, and wisely—which is what the following principles emphasize.
2. Focus On What You Can Control, Do Not Worry About What You Cannot
There is a difference between worrying about a situation one the one hand and taking productive action on the other. Whenever you catch yourself doing the former, use it as a cue to do the latter.
3. Nail Daily Habits
Move your body regularly. Sleep. Do what you can to eat nutritious foods. Nailing these basics supports underlying physiological and psychological strength. If you feel guilty or indulgent for doing these things, don’t.
4. Use Routines
When it feels like the ground underneath you is shaking, having tried and true routines provides a source of stability and predictability. This can be as simple as your daily walk, morning cup of coffee, meditation practice, or evening book-reading time.
5. Stay Connected
Study after study of resilience points to benefits of community. During periods of disorder there can be an urge to shut down and isolate. Do what you can to resist this urge. Odds are many other people are feeling the same way as you. We are stronger together.
6. Think Adaptation Instead of Change
Change is something that happens to you. Adaptation is something that you are in conversation with. Get the former out of your vocabulary and focus on the latter. All successful systems, from individual cells to entire species, adapt well.
7. Respond Not React
Holocaust survivor and philosopher Viktor Frankl wrote, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Think 4 P's to help: pause; process; plan; proceed.
8. Show Up, Get Through, and Worry About Meaning on the Other Side.
Research shows that we look back on challenging periods in a much more connected and meaningful light than we experience them. Sometimes nothing makes sense until you get to the other side, and that’s okay.
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Struggling to read a book, sit through a meal without checking your phone, or resist the urge to scroll during a pause in conversation? You’re not alone.
Internet brain is making us all dumber.
Here’s why it’s happening—and what to do about it:
Our phones are like slot machines.
Every time you swipe to see if you received a notification, like, DM, or news ping you’re pulling that lever.
Sometimes you win—someone likes your post, sends you a funny reel, or you learn something super important.
But most times you don’t. And that’s the point.
Decades of research show that intermittent rewards are far more addictive than predictable ones.
The reward isn’t just digital—it’s existential.
It says: You matter. You exist. You're seen.
And so we check again.
And again. And again.
It fractures and fragments our attention, and our very sense of self.
We become less who we are—and more what the algorithm reflects back at us.
Balance is overrated. Never apologize for caring deeply about something. The path to greatness—and to fulfillment, happiness, and satisfaction—requires it.
What follows are the most important ideas to help you on the path:
1. Outcomes matter—it’s normal to want to do well, but if you are to have meaningful longevity you’ve got to learn to enjoy the process. The only zen on mountaintops is the zen you bring up along the way.
2. Community is key. Nobody reaches the top alone.
3. Consistency is more important than intensity. Embrace the dull and mundane act of showing up every day. It is the path to greatness.
4. You can’t always control what happens but you can control how you respond. Focus there.
In mid-life you define your path, forge your identity, and set the tone for what’s to come.
If you’re in your 30's or 40's, read this:
1. It’s a crazy world. It always has been and always will be. The best way to stay sane is to find the people and activities you love and give them your all. Full stop.
2. It’s tempting to sacrifice your health but you always regret it. Your health is the most important investment there is.
3. Consistency is more important than intensity. It’s true in work, craft, and relationships. Be the kind of person who shows up consistently, and good things will happen.
4. If you don’t define your own version of success someone else will for you; take time every year to reflect on your values; do everything you can to live in accordance with them.
5. There is no bigger trap than thinking the accomplishment of some goal will change your life. But what will change your life is the person you become in the process of going for it.
6. The people with whom you surround yourself shape you. We are all mirrors reflecting onto each other. Choose wisely. This is everything.
Anyone can be consistent for a few days. It’s harder to be consistent for years upon years, through ups, downs, everything in between.
Here are 7 ideas from Master of Change that resonate with readers most.
On what it takes to stay steady amidst challenge and grow from change:
1. View life as a continuous cycle of order, disorder, reorder.
You may crave order and stability, but that stability is a moving target—it's always somewhere new. It doesn't come from resisting change. It comes from working with it.
You are always somewhere in the cycle of order, disorder, reorder.