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Adult Life

Brain Food – No. 546 – October 15, 2023

Timeless ideas and insights for life. (Read the archives).

FS

Avoiding Stupidity is Easier than Seeking Brilliance

While the rest of us are chasing brilliance, the best in the world know they must avoid stupidity before they can win.

— Source

Insight

Gail Sheehy on the work of adult life:

“The work of adult life is not easy. As in childhood, each step presents not only new tasks of development but requires a letting go of the techniques that worked before. With each passage some magic must be given up, some cherished illusion of safety and comfortably familiar sense of self must be cast off, to allow for the greater expansion of our own distinctiveness.

What I’m saying is, we must be willing to change chairs if we want to grow. There is no permanent compatibility between a chair and a person. And there is no one right chair. What is right at one stage may be restricting at another or too soft. During the passage from one stage to another, we will be between two chairs. Wobbling no doubt, but developing. If I’ve been convinced by one idea in the course of collecting all the life stories that inform the book, it is this: Times of crisis, of disruption or constructive change, are not only predictable but desirable. They mean growth.”

Source: Passages: Predictable Crises of Adult Life

Tiny Thought(s)

1.

Reading a great book twice is more valuable than reading ten average books.

(Click here to share on Twitter)

2.

Your position determines if you’re playing on easy or hard mode.

Many people unintentionally choose to play on hard mode by not sleeping enough, not eating healthy food, or not investing in their most important relationships.

You can’t remove struggle or emotion from life, but you can put yourself in a position where they don’t control you.

Consistently doing the simplest things makes the biggest difference.

(Click here to share on Twitter)

3.

Talent and potential mean nothing if you can’t consistently do the boring things when you don’t feel like doing them.

(Click here to share on Twitter)

Thanks for reading,
— Shane

P.S. An innovative way to change a streetlight.

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