Habits - A summary from Fumio Sasaki's book

 Book Summary: Hello Habits - Fumio Sasaki

50 Steps for Acquiring Habits

1. Severe ties with vicious circles

2. First, Decide that you are going to Quit

3. Leverage turning points

4. Quit completely, it's easier

5. Know that you will always have to pay the price

6. Examine triggers and rewards for your habits

7. Become a detective who look for the criminal

8. Don't make identity an excuse

9. Start with keystone habits

10. Keep a diary for observation about yourself

11. Meditate to enhance your cognitive ability

12. Realize enthusiasm won't occur until you do something

13. Lower your hurdles

14. Realize hurdles are more powerful than rewards

15. Raise the hurdles for habits that you want to quit

16. Spend money on your initial investment

17. Chunk down

18. Make your targets ridiculously small

19. Start today

20. Do it everyday - it's easier that way

21. Don't make exceptions

22. Enjoy it because you aren't good at it

23. Set triggers (for your habits)

24. Create a time table

25. Realize no one has the power to concentrate

26. Take actions according to the date

27. Setup a temporary reward

28. Make full use of people's attention

29. Make an advanced declaration

30. Think from 3rd party's perspective

31. Quit in the middle of something

32. Don't quit completely

33. Keep records of your habits

34. Take necessary breaks - conserve strength

35. Nap (power nap)

36. Rest aggressively

37. Cherish the things you aren't making into habits

38. Don't mix up Objective and Targets

39. Look only at the target in front of you

40. Experience failures - they are indispensable for your habits

41. Stop worrying about how long it takes for something to become a habit

42. Do it - it's better than not doing it

43. Gradually increase the level of difficulty

44. Overcome each challenge along the way

45. Keep at it - and increase your self efficacy

46. Create a chain reaction

47. Adapt your habits as needed

48. Create habits that are unique to you

49. Make peace with the knowledge that your habits will eventually collapse

50. Know that there is no end to habits

14 Good Habit Inhibitors

1. Believing that bad habit is necessary to relief stress

2. Trying to focus on just the good ones

3. Relying on your motivation

4. Not having the right tools

5. Unawareness of your difficulties

6. The sense of self-doubt produced by one failure

7. Starting at a 'good' time (instead of today)

8. Thinking that tomorrow you would be superman

9. Creating an exception for the day in question

10. Thinking that it's too late to start

11. Not having a trigger

12. Giving yourself a conflicting reward

13. Pretending something never happened

14. The single coin issue

50 questions to ask ourselves

Good questions to ask ourselves:

http://brightside.me/article/50-questions-which-will-free-your-mind-11805/

So, here they are:

1. How old would you think you are if you didn’t know your own age?
2. What is worse: experiencing failure, or never taking on the challenge?
3. If life is so short, why do we spend so much time doing things we don’t like, and at the same time doing so little of what we love?
4. If the work is over and all is said and done, what did you spend more time doing — work, or talk?
5. If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
6. If happiness were money, what kind of work would make you rich?
7. Are you doing something you believe in, or are just trying to believe in what you do?
8. If you knew you would only live to 40, what would you change in order to live your life as best you could?
9. To what extent are you in control of what is happening in your life?
10. What is more important to you: doing things properly, or doing the right thing?
11. You’re having lunch with three people whom you respect and value. They start criticising one of your close friends without knowing that he or she is close to you. Their criticism is unjust and offensive. What would you do?
12. If you could give a small child just one piece of advice about life, what would it be?
13. Would you break the law to save someone you loved?
14. Have you ever believed someone was mad before instead deciding that they were actually a genius?
15. What do you do in life which sets you apart from other people?
16. Why is it that what makes you happy doesn’t make anyone else happy?
17. What have you ever really wanted to do which you’ve never done? What stops you from doing it?
18. Are you holding on to something you should have long ago let go of?
19. If someone offered you the chance to move forever to another question, where would you go, and why?
20. Do you press the button in the lift more than once? Do you really think it speeds things up?
21. What would you prefer to be: a troubled genius or a happy fool?
22. Why are you, you?
23. If you could become friends with yourself, would you want to have such a person as a friend?
24. What’s worse: seeing your best friend move to a different country, or living close to each other but drifting apart?
25. What are you most grateful for?
26. What would you choose: to lose all of your past memories, or never have any new ones?
27. Can you ever learn the truth if you don’t fight for it?
28. Has your biggest fear ever come true?
29. Do you remember how unhappy you were five years ago? Does it really have any significance now?
30. What’s your happiest memory from childhood? Why is it the happiest?
31. Which past events or experiences made you feel alive?
32. If not now, when?
33. If you still haven’t achieved something, then what have you got to lose?
34. Have you ever felt you had a real moment of connection with someone even though neither of you said a word?
35. Is it ever possible to know with complete certainty what is good, and what is bad?
36. If you were given a million dollars, would you quit your job?
37. What do you want more: a lot of work which you need to do, or a small amount which you like doing?
38. Do you have the feeling that you’ve already lived through today hundreds of times before?

39. When was the last time you took action without a clear plan in your head, but with belief in your heart that it could be done?

40. If everyone you know died tomorrow, who would you visit one last time?
41. Would you exchange ten years of your life for worldwide fame?
42. What’s the difference between life and existence
43. When will that moment come when you take the risk and do what you think is right?
44. If we learn from our mistakes, why are we afraid of making them?
45. What would you be able to do differently if you knew that no one would judge you?
46. When was the last time you heard your own heartbeat?
47. What is it that you love? Did your most recent actions express this love?
48. Will you be able to distinguish between what you did yesterday and what you’ve been doing every day for the past five years? What about the day before that?
49. Do you take decisions yourself, or does someone take them for you?
50. What’s the most important promise you’ve ever made to yourself?

Gold/platinum credit card and Greek Crisis

The current Greek financial crisis is very much akin to a person who is trying to cling on to his gold credit card that he can't afford. The worst thing is that he has to depend on the sympathy of his richer neighbors to lend him more money to pay off the interest he owed.

The Personality Cult

Below is a snippet taken from Alexander Elder's book "Trading for a living":-

Most people give lip service to their wish for freedom and independence. When they come under pressure, they change their tune and start looking for"strong leadership." Traders in distress often seek directions from assorted gurus.
When I was growing up in the former Soviet Union, children were taught that Stalin was our great leader. Later we found out what a monster he had been, but while he was alive, most people enjoyed following the leader. He freed them from the need to think for themselves.
"Little Stalins" were installed in every area of society-in economics, biology, architecture, and so on. When I came to the United States and began to trade, I was amazed to see how many traders were looking for a guru their"little Stalin" in the market. The fantasy that someone else can make you rich deserves its own discussion later in this chapter.

 Even though this book is about trading in financial markets, these words captured my attention. It summarizes how most people behave when facing challenges. How often we have fantasy which are beyond our mental and physical abilities yet we failed to acknowledge our own short comings and limitations. On the flip side of it, it was these fantasies that has fueled our desire to survive Taking them away, maybe, some people will find live no longer worth living.

Love YourSelf

Learn about these from somewhere but just couldn't recall the source. Here is a brief summary of what I learn:

Do I Love Me!

Miracles are possible; And I deserve all of them; I am good enough; I am enough to have them now!!!

When something good comes my way, I will take it and accept it and will not push it away!!!

Faith is most important.
Faith is the starting point of success
Faith is the basis of all miracles
Faith is the only antidote for failure
faith lets you draw on immense power

How to develop a step by step success road map

The following is a summary of developing a success road map:

1. Dream Big Dream. Work out the detailed goals year by year for the next 10 years.

2. Develop a clear directions. Write down the basic principles and final outcome.

3. See yourself as self employed (even if you are still an employee). What is holding you back? What are you excuses? Kill them. No Reasons.

4. Do what you love to do. Never "work" another day.

5. Commit to excellence. The quality of your life is determined by the depth of your commitment to excellence, no matter what your chosen field is - Vince Lombardi.

6. Work longer and harder. Plan you work hours, increase effective working hours and act on things that matters.

7. Dedicate yourself to life long learning. Select topics to learn.

8. Pay yourself first. Make a deposit saving everyday. Allocate money for your business, expense and savings.

9. Learn every details of your business. Identify the trend in your business and know what the key competence are. Creative product, identify pain/need etc.

10. Dedicate yourself to serving others. Help others get what they want.

11. Be absolutely honest with yourself and others. Almost every problem in life can be resolved by returning to your core values.

12. Determine highest priorities & concentrate on them single-minded.

13. Speed and Dependability. Identify the most procrastinating task and act on it first. Do it now.

14. Be prepared to climb from peak to peak.

15. Self discipline in all things. Chane one thing at a time. Tracking each changes.

16. Your inborn creativity. What is your most pressing problem?

17. Get around the right people.

18. Excellent care of your health. High level of health and energy.

19. Decisive & Action Oriented. What action if immediately will have the greatest positive results.

20. Failure is not an option. Persistence.

Principles of success

To be able to live happily and meaningfully, the most basic thing for anyone to do is to believe in oneself. To be successful in anything we do, there are a few principles that we can follow:

1. Be passionate about what we do and wanting it badly
2. Extend our comfort zone to accommodate what we need to do
3. Lies and Luck Don't Work
4. Install Goals (Precise)
5. Enjoy Hard Work
6. Be very very persistent
7. Expect Failure. Failure is not scary, failing to start is.
8. Believe in yourself

These 8 principles are very basic and sounded very simple. The real challenge is to be able to stick to it persistently. That is make or break for anyone.