4 Ideas You Should Know From: The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau
/The 4 Big Ideas:
No Time for Bullshit
Be prolific
Value of Routine
Keep practicing, never stop
My Highlights From the Book:
No Time for Bullshit:
Remember the words of Kathleen Taylor, who worked with hospice patients in their final days. Once you’re near the end, there’s no time for bullshit. But what if you decided there’s no time for bullshit — or regrets — far in advance of the end? What if you vow to live life the way you want right now, regardless of what stage of life you’re in?
Be Prolific:
Seth [Godin] has hundreds of thousands of fans and at least a few notable critics, but there’s one thing about him that everyone agrees on: The man is prolific. According to him, he reads, researches, and writes an average of fifteen hours a day. He publishes a post on his blog every single day, no exceptions
The lesson, as he explains it: “If I fail more than you do, I win. Built into this notion is the ability to keep playing. If you get to keep playing, sooner or later you’re gonna make it succeed. The people who lose are the ones who don’t fail at all, or the ones who fail so big they don’t get to play again.”
Seth frequently writes about the concept of shipping, a term he uses as the means of disseminating work to the world. In Seth’s worldview, art doesn’t exist until it is widely shared. “I’ve viewed my life for twenty - five years as one more opportunity to poke the box,” he says, “One more opportunity to try something different.”
Value of Routine:
The specifics help, not hinder, Elise’s daily creativity. Here’s what she says about routine: I’m always surprised about the level of creativity that comes from setting guidelines and boundaries. You would think it’s the opposite — that having complete freedom makes everything feel more possible — but in my experience, that’s not the case. I like to say that sometimes to be the most creative you have to get in a box instead of the old stand - by thinking outside the box.
Keep Practicing, Never Stop:
Meanwhile, Jerry Seinfeld, whose estimated worth is $800 million, regularly hops a plane to perform in small clubs throughout the country. Again, why bother? For him, it isn’t about reinforcing a success elsewhere. Instead, it’s about refinement. “If I don’t do a set in two weeks, I feel it,”Seinfeld told the New York Times. “I read an article a few years ago that said when you practice a sport a lot, you literally become a broadband: the nerve pathway in your brain contains a lot more information. As soon as you stop practicing, the pathway begins shrinking back down. Reading that changed my life. I used to wonder, why am I doing these sets, getting on a stage? Don’t I know how to do this already? The answer is no. You must keep doing it. The broadband starts to narrow the moment you stop.”