Practical Tips From Naval
Learn Something Extra
Usually, when the tide is going left, it’s practical to go right. The problem with not having anything a unique person is that you are replaceable. Another person or maybe a computer can take over your place.
Learn to sell, learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.
We often neglect the act of building something on the side because it seems so hard. Having a side-project may change your life. It has changed many other lives.
Intentions don’t matter. Actions do. This is by far one of my favorite quotes from Naval because it’s so accurate.
Having a specific skill is learnable but not achievable in a short duration.
There’s no shortcut to smart.
Being a person with a vast amount of knowledge is perceived as smart. You know things and that’s why you are smart. And to reach a goal, requires a strong mentality, ambition, and, most important of all, a system.
Knowing something extra is makes you irreplaceable. That is your leverage. Society will keep rewarding you for your specific knowledge.
Specific knowledge cannot be taught, but it can be learned.
Happiness Is a Later In Life Realization
When does our mind stop and take in a minute?
Never.
We are always bombarded with information irrespective of quality just quantity. Unfortunately, quantity is the focus in the modern era.
The anxiety is just a series of running thoughts.
Your emotions are systematic thoughts and come and go. Here is a perfect happiness analogy of life by Naval.
When you’re young and healthy, you can do more. By doing more, you’re actually taking on more and more desires. You don’t realize this is slowly destroying your happiness. I find younger people are less happy but more healthy. Older people are more happy but less healthy.
Less Is More
Not giving a fuck does not mean being indifferent; it means being comfortable with being different.
Too many options can make a tyrant out of any of us, so we should get rid of the excess in our lives that keeps us from being more of ourselves. When we decrease the options that don’t feed us, we eventually, accidentally, have more options in front of us that do.
The more secrets you have, the less happy you’re going to be.
Secrets are the pillar of unhappiness because trust is lost. To gain trust is difficult, hard, and painful. So, fewer secrets are more happiness.
Doing Nothing Is Good For Longevity
Just sitting there doing nothing can improve your quality of life. Do nothing seems like a waste of time because we are consumers and we strive to consume. But that overloads our brain.
Like computers, we need debugging sessions. Our battery is fried if we don’t take a rest.
Meditation is turning off society and listening to yourself.
- Hiking is walking meditation.
- Journaling is writing meditation.
- Praying is gratitude meditation.
- Showering is accidental meditation.
- Sitting quietly is direct meditation.
Solid Foundation Is Important
Building a strong foundation is not cool anymore. To impress anyone we have to do calculus, rocket science, and macroeconomics. But usually, arithmetic, the periodic table, and microeconomics help us more in life.
Basic arithmetic and numeracy are way more important in life than doing calculus. Similarly, being able to convey yourself simply using ordinary English words is far more important than being able to write poetry, having an extensive vocabulary, or speaking seven different foreign languages.
It’s much more important today to be able to become an expert in a brand-new field in nine to twelve months than to have studied the “right” thing a long time ago. You really care about having studied the foundations, so you’re not scared of any book. If you go to the library and there’s a book you cannot understand, you have to dig down and say, “What is the foundation required for me to learn this?”
I’ll leave you on this note by Naval and if I say so myself “my note as well.”
Foundations are super important.
