Takeaway: Some concepts carry disproportional weight in the impact they can have on your life. These six ideas fall into that category. Consider how they apply to your life.
“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”
-Lao Tzu
Not all ideas are created equal. These six will carry disproportional weight in improving your life. Learn about them to harness their power.
1. Self-Efficacy
A belief in yourself. We’re all making it up as we go. Trusting yourself is a prerequisite for achieving what you want.
2. Radical Introspection
The ability to evaluate your internal thoughts, feelings, and emotions, even when the outcomes aren’t what you want to hear. A vulnerable self-reflection.
You must first master yourself before you can master the world.
3. First Principles
Concepts distilled into their most basic, fundamental form. Gravity is a first principle, and is the foundation for more complex concepts.
Identifying first principles allows you to distill an idea to fundamental truths, helping to find new creative solutions and avoid being boxed into the “old” way of doing things.
4. Calorie Balance
A first principle of nutrition. Understanding and mastering this principle will free you from yo-yo diets and give you better control of your health.
For weight maintenance, loss, and gain, calories control is fundamental to achieving results. The specific ways you control calories are flexible, however.
5. Second-Order Thinking
The ability to think about the consequences of the consequences of your actions.
If you predict A → B, consider whether B might lead to C. (Especially if you don’t want C to happen.) In this case, is it still worth following your original plan if it results in an unintended outcome you don’t want?
Learning this skill allows you to play chess while everyone else is playing checkers.
6. Hakuna Matata
It means no worries. Life is stressful, but learning how to protect your peace means that your stress can’t control you. That’s powerful.
~ Coach Alex
P.S. Curious to learn more about any of these concepts? Reply to this email and I’ll send you some great resources.