When the title is a little overblown but the book is still good

Senior year of high school was a high-pressure and forcingly thoughtful time. Going to college felt like the first real-life milestone. But I also felt that all of the stress and histrionics surrounding the process was unnecessary. The name of a college does not have the power to totally make or break someone\’s life. My brother couldn\’t have recommended this book at a better time. When I read it that year, I was comforted by its message of forgetting society\’s rules and defining success on your own terms.

While I would highly recommend this book for anyone in college or early in their careers, I think this is an important message to remind yourself whenever in life.To get you more interested in reading the book, here are some of my notes on it.

A job we have no passion for puts us at risk for a life we have no passion for.

We wind up in places we don’t want to be because of the tyranny of rules

Outside of the natural laws of physics, all other rules are open to questioning

Physical world of absolute truth-\” rocks are hard; water is wet; fire is hot; tigers have big teeth and it hurts when they bite you. No arguments there.\”

World of relative truth-mental world of ideas, constructs, concepts, models, myths, patterns, and rules that we’ve developed and passed from generation to generation—sometimes for thousands of years.  Socialism, democracy, your religion, ideas about education, love, marriage, career, and every other “should” are nothing more than relative truths. They are simply not true for ALL human beings.

Many of these relative truths are dysfunctional in reality they keep us locked into lives far more limited than what we’re truly capable of.

Our society evolved to keep us safe, but safety is overrated and taking risks is the least dangerous that it’s ever been. Playing it safe is holding us back from the thrills of a life filled with meaning and discovery

\”A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.\”

Every night, observe something from the day you’re grateful for and observe something about yourself that you love

Happiness from special and unique experiences, growth and learning, meaning

Express gratitude in the morning every day