Category: Self-Improvement, Psychology and Mindset

Today on the show we feature Scott Young, author of Wall Street Journal best-selling book Ultralearning.

Scott finished a 4-year MIT computer science curriculum in one year, learned how to speak four languages fluently in one year, and learned how to draw portraits in 30 days. Scott is also a writer, programmer, traveler, and avid reader who, for the last ten years, has explored the question: what’s the best way to learn? Ultralearning answers that question.

In today’s episode, we chat about the nine principles of Ultralearning, which can help you learn new skills, reinvent yourself, stay relevant, and adapt to whatever life throws at you. If you think you know the best way to learn something…think again. This book will challenge your assumptions.

If you enjoyed my interviews with James Clear or Cal Newport, you’ll enjoy this one.

Whether you want to develop hard skills to become more valuable at your job, soft skills for your journey to self-improvement, or you want to honor your love for learning, these nine principles will help you become more effective at developing new skills.

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In a hectic world, stillness is the key to a calm, enjoyable life.

That idea comes from Ryan Holiday, author of Stillness is The Key.

Stillness is finding flow, staying present, and being impervious to the pressures of the outside world. It doesn’t mean removing yourself from society and sitting in a forest; to the contrary, many CEOs and world leaders have practiced remarkable stillness during times of crisis.

Stillness exists within, regardless of the frenetic pace of the outside world, and irrespective of the pressures that you face at the moment.

In today’s episode, bestselling author Ryan Holiday discusses actionable tips on how to practice the art of stillness, as well as its applications to the pursuit of financial independence.

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We live in a fascinating era: huge sections of society are more prosperous, advanced and safe than at any other point in human history, yet depression and anxiety are at record highs.

It’s a paradox of progress: the richer the nation, the more likely its citizens are to suffer from mental health issues and report feeling crushing isolation and unhappiness.

What gives?

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You make decisions on a daily basis about your career, family, friendships, health and investments; these choices shape your life.But how much have you thought about how to think?

There are common threads and collective wisdom across disciplines. These common threads create mental models, which are frameworks for understanding the world. Mental models allow us to apply insights from a variety of unrelated fields, using reasoning by analogy to make better choices about our lives.

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Fear shows up in our lives in countless ways.

Sometimes, fear takes the form of procrastination. We’re afraid of botching something, or we don’t like the feeling of anxiety that a project gives us, so we avoid it, dodge it, and indefinitely put it off.

Other times, fear takes the form of perfectionism through endless iterating and tweaking. We want to keep tinkering with a project, to get it “just right.” We applaud ourselves for our attention to detail.

Fear takes the form of making excuses and rationalizations for why we can’t pursue a goal or dream. We tell ourselves that some outside factor is to blame.

Fear takes the form of throwing ourselves pity parties and locking ourselves into a negative self-talk spiral. We get easily discouraged.

Fear takes the form of thinking others can’t be trusted, and pushing people away.

Fear has many faces.

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