7 Books To Read When It Feels Like The World Is Falling Apart:
This is the best new book I’ve read in some time. The Stoics–who are quoted liberally in this book–believed that character was destiny. They believed that accomplishments and power mattered little if a person could not be trusted and did not hold themselves to high standards.
Depending on where you live or what you do, things may seem relatively calm or even sunny. But the world was also just rocked by a pandemic that killed millions–what did you do to help? Stop complaining about the world and do something. Be useful.
We are living in times of immense anger. An era defined by internal divisions and discourse filled with epithets and takedowns and rage posts on social media. People are obnoxious and they are going to piss you off…on purpose. But can you keep your cool anyway?
I loved this book so much that I bought all of its available stock to carry at my bookstore. Montaigne is truly one of humanity’s greatest treasures—a wise and insightful thinker who never takes himself too seriously.
The original subtitle was “An answer to the conflicts in our lives.” In 1955, Lindbergh was referring to the challenging demands of what was then the newly modern world, the changing roles of women in that world and workplace, the looming Cold War, and the timeless need for rest, relaxation, and perspective.
When the world feels like it’s falling apart, when you’re not sure you can get through something, I always recommend spending some time with someone who really went through something. I always recommend history.
You can tell yourself you’re a good person, but when you pull up the ladder behind you because you like ‘the way things are now,’ you are depriving people of a better future. The future doesn't have to be worse because it will be different. It can be better. And we can MAKE it better by doing things.
7 Ways to be an Insanely Productive, Happy Person:
1. Keep texting for friends only. If there are too many ways for people to reach you, the day never ends and you’ll never have time to think. I try to not do any business texting, only email and phone.
2. Save time in the mornings before you do email or social media. Write in a journal, have breakfast with your kids, take a long shower. Don’t jump immediately into the noise. Have some peace and thoughtful time first.
3. Reading is work, important work actually. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Do you think you're the first person to live through political dysfunction?
Do you think you're the first person to live in a time when it feels like
the world is falling apart? Do you think you're the first person to live alongside cruel people?
No. You’re not. The Stoics lived in the time of Nero. Socrates lived in the time of thirty tyrants and a great power conflict. People have always lived in difficult times. But do you know what they figured out?
1. You are what you won’t do for money. Your priorities and principles are demonstrated by what you say no to.
2. Seneca has a famous line about “paying the taxes of life, gladly.” Things cost what they cost–travel costs delays, fame costs critics, kids cost noise, etc etc–and the sooner you learn to pay these taxes gladly, the happier you will be.
7 More Ways to Be An Insanely Productive, Happy Person
1. Fire crazy people from your life. That is: people who send too many emails, people who stir up drama, people who can’t be counted on, people who waste your time with projects that don’t go anywhere. It’s not fair to you, it’s not fair to your clients/employer, it’s not fair to your family.
2. A small to-do list of 5-10 items, if completed day in and day out, will put you far ahead of everyone else.
When you read a lot of books, people inevitably assume you speed read. People ask me this question all the time. They see all the books I recommend every month in my reading newsletter and assume I must have some secret. So they ask me to teach them how to speed read.
Even though I read hundreds of books every single year, I actually read quite slow. In fact, I read deliberately slow, so that I can take notes (and then whenever I finish a book, I go back through and transcribe these notes for my version of a commonplace book.
“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”
Ruthlessly protect your time. Seneca reminds us that while we might be good at protecting our physical property, we are far too lax at enforcing our mental boundaries. Property can be regained. But time? Time is our most irreplaceable asset, and we cannot buy more of it.
“There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.”
Keep it simple. Do your job. Marcus Aurelius said to approach each task as if it were your last, because it very well could be. And even if it isn’t, botching what’s right in front of you doesn’t help anything. Find clarity in the simplicity of doing your job today.