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Growing Up: Warren Buffet on whether you’re blessed
Hey guys,
Three ideas this week (midway through Jan... hope you’re not sick of talking about goals…)
1.
The purpose of goals is not to improve the future. The future doesn’t exist. It’s only in our imagination. All that exists is the present moment and what you do in it.
Judge a goal by how well it changes your actions in the present moment.
A bad goal makes you say, “I want to do that someday.” A great goal makes you take action immediately.
From Derek Sivers' Hell Yeah Or No: What's Worth Doing
2. (non goal related)
Supposedly…
Warren Buffett often suggests the following thought experiment: assume that every human being currently alive, all eight billion souls on Earth, is a marble placed in a massive jar. If given the opportunity, would you put your marble in with the others, shake the jar, take another marble at random, and live that life instead? If the answer is no, then you know you have a blessed life.
From Yeonmi Park's The Free Press essay From Slavery in North Korea to Jeff Bezos’s Gulfstream
Really interesting essay... if you haven't heard of North Korean defector, Yeonmi Park, here is a bit of an intro:
At nine years old, Park witnessed the public execution of her friend’s mother. (The woman was put to death for the crime of watching a Hollywood movie.)
Almost no one escapes the Hermit Kingdom. Yeonmi Park did.
At 13, she fled to China with her mother. The two endured unspeakable things—rape by human traffickers; sexual servitude. Ultimately, they broke free again, crossing the freezing Gobi Desert at night to Mongolia, then onto South Korea and, finally, to America.
...and then as you find in the essay she ends up at the Met Gala and on a Bezos private jet with Harvey Weinstein and is totally disillusioned and pretty cynical about people in the West saying they want to help make the world better.
3. Some good old Stoic wisdom
Now is the time to get serious about living your ideals. How long can you afford to put off who you really want to be? Your nobler self cannot wait any longer. Put your principles into practice – now. Stop the excuses and the procrastination. This is your life! You aren’t a child anymore. The sooner you set yourself to your spiritual program, the happier you will be. The longer you wait, the more you’ll be vulnerable to mediocrity and feel filled with shame and regret, because you know you are capable of better. From this instant on, vow to stop disappointing yourself. Separate yourself from the mob. Decide to be extraordinary and do what you need to do – now.
This is Epictetus (via A Few Things), who was born in the year 55. Isn't it crazy we're still dealing with the same shit ~2,000 years later?
This week on Growing Up with Delia Burgess
Ep. 86 - Shana Mdluli: South Africa, failure & making money online
Shana is a psych student turned coach based in Pretoria.
@thriveminds1
Another new twitter friend! The internet is an amazing place...
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Hi! I'm Delia Burgess
Do you want to be more interesting AND attractive? That's exactly what will happen if you type your email address below.
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