Zen Tools Blog
Marcus Aurelius - You Have Power Over Your Mind, Not Outside Events
Trained in Stoic philosophy, Marcus Aurelius dedicated time almost every night to practicing a series of Stoic spiritual exercise which are reminders intended to help him train himself to humble, patient, empathetic, generous, and strong in the face of whatever adversity he was dealing with.
They have become one of the most influential philosophy books in the history of the world and have come to be known as: “The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius”.
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The Stoics - Focus On Things You Can Control, Ignore The Rest
Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle.
Some things are in your control.
And some things are not.
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Naval Ravikant: Investor - Philosopher
Angel Investor / Practical Philospher. When self-improvement fails work on finding the truth. Reference "The Almanac Of Naval Ravikant". Incomparable wisdom and insights on life the universe and nearly everything!
Massimo Pigliucci - How To Be A Stoic
My interest in Massimo Pigliucci is as a philosopher specifically as an pro-active exponent of Stoicism. He poses this question:
"Are you making a difference in your own and other people’s lives? If the answer is no, you may want to reconsider what you are doing and why."
Julia Galef - Applied Rationality
Julia Galef is a writer and public speaker on the topics of rationality, science, technology, and design. Applied rationality is her speciality and she asks the question:
“Do you have the scout mindset and yearn to see the world as clearly as you possibly can?”
Stanford Prison Experiment - A Masterclass In Self Deception
"The military told me they used the SPE tapes to train people not to behave like our guards. I used to quote that as a good outcome of the research.
Now I know they also used it to train interrogators to break people.
I had no idea they were doing that"
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Philip Zimbardo - How Good People Are Transformed into Perpetrators Of Evil
Philip Zimbardo has contributed greatly to our understanding of the situationist perspective as to why people can change and choose to exercise bad/evil behaviour in response to the pressures and demands of the environment upon them.
Here are the 5 lessons to be aware of from Philip Zimbardo's story and his infamous Stanford Prison Experiment:
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Deep Work - Producing At Your Peak Level With Full Concentration
Reframing the discipline of applied concentration for the millenial digitally distracted age
Summary - DEEP WORK by Cal Newport
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Elon Musk - “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
SpaceX launched the Starship SN9 prototype to an altitude of about 10 kilometers on its first test flight last Monday night. It was destroyed during its landing attempt.
We have an incredibly skewed view of things that systematically rejects failure or negative results.
Elon Musk recognises that embracing failure and uncertainty is the better option and expresses the view that if things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.
Elon Musk: "I Think It Is Possible For Ordinary People To Choose To Be Extraordinary"
Elon Musk is an extraordinary man. He has founded, co-founded, and leads a cross-section of the world's most technically innovative companies.
One of the most interesting things about Elon Musk is the thought processes that lead to his ideas and innovations, followed by his skill, persistence and patience to see them through to implementation.
I believe that Elon Musk has much to teach us.
The Why and How Of Effective Altruism
Most of us want to make a difference. We see suffering, injustice and death, and are moved to do something about them. But working out what that ‘something’ is, let alone actually doing it, can be a difficult and disheartening challenge.
Why You Should Practice Failure
We learn valuable lessons when we experience failure and setbacks. Most of us wait for those failures to happen to us, however, instead of seeking them out. But deliberately making mistakes can give us the knowledge we need to more easily overcome obstacles in the future.
Shane Parrish of Farnham Street explains:
We Are What We Remember
Memory is an intrinsic part of our life experience. It is critical for learning, and without memories we would have no sense of self.
New memories build on the ones that are already there. The more we know, the easier it is to remember the new things we learn. But we have to be careful and recognize that our tendency is to reinforce the narrative we’ve already built. Brand new information is harder to retain, but sometimes we need to make the effort.
Why We Forget That Most People Are Good
A pithy, pertinent and well informed observation from super-blogger Mark Manson on why we forget that most people are good, and how a big reason for that is the distortion bias created by social media.
Will Smith On The Power Of Small Consistent Efforts
"You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t start by saying, ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.’ If you do that every single day, soon you will have a wall."
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Elon Musk Talking About First Principles Thinking In A Conversation About Starship
The first 6 minutes of this interview are a mini-masterclass in thinking skills.
Highlights:
- If a [engineering design] process is taking too long its wrong.
- Musk's the chief engineer - yet everyone's a chief engineer.
- Everyone knows everything about all systems [involved in overall design].
- There is no subsystem optimisation [in isolation to the whole system].
- Product errors reflect organisation errors.
- The trap that design engineers fall into - is optimising something that shouldn't exist.
- When framing a question - the start point to it is: "This question is wrong"!
- The hard part is framing the question - the point at which you can properly frame the question - the answer is easy.
The Power Of Vulnerability
Brené Brown studies human connection -- our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity. A talk to share.
Personal Construct Psychology - Understand Your Inner Map Of Reality
Here's the "software" reason why you think the way you do and the big picture of how your internal map of reality operates to generate your responses.
Change the software and change your life.
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Zen Thoughts For Tough Times - Conversations With A Friend
Zen Thoughts are written as a conversation with a friend who is going through a tough time, and all based on painful personal experience.
50 proven, practical tips and resources for dealing with tough times.
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Enneagram Of Personality Types
Plotting your position in life the universe and everything via a modern synthesis of various wisdom traditions aka Integral Theory.
Emotional Intelligence - Emotions Get In The Way Or Get You On The Way
Emotional intelligence is: "The capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships"
Find out more about how to develop and use this important skill set.
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Multiple Intelligence Theory - There Is More To You Than Meets The IQ Test
Gardner's multiple intelligence theory suggests that you may be more intelligent than you thought you were!
Gardner proposes that there is more than one type of intelligence, and it expands the concept of intelligence beyond the traditional general intelligence to a range of 8 intelligences, and he also suggests that these multiple intelligences grow and expand with life experience.
This is a different and more holistic take on what it means to be intelligent.
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Immunity To Change - This Is Why Personal Change Is So Difficult
Managing personal change is inherently tricky.
We usually make the flawed assumption that it is skills based, in other words that we can read about it, go to seminars, watch videos and be taught to change.
Whilst it is true that we can be taught, generally we won't change.
Your failure to achieve a personal change goal isn’t the result of a lack of will-power, it’s your "emotional immune system" trying to protect you.
Here's how to overcome your immunity to change.
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Stages Of Learning - Why 95% Of Your Thoughts Are An Unconscious Competence
The stages of learning represented in the conscious competence model are a popular and intuitive approach.
This model sets out "The 4 Stages Of Learning" and shows you how to move from “I don’t know what I DON’T know” to “I don’t know what I DO know!"
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3 Keys Solutions - Take Action Now, Think Effectively & Change Your Life
One page summary sheets of key points and resources to enable you to take action now, think effectively and change your life.
Subjects covered include - How To:
- Manage Stress
- Live With Your Thoughts
- Be Happy
- Apply The Law of Attraction
- Think Effectively
- Apply The Power Of Framing
- Go With The Flow
- Apply The Power Of Gratitude
- Apply The Power Of Expectation
- Transform Your Mind
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Free Ebook - "Managing Personal Change"
Receive FREE Ebook - "Managing Personal Change" on key Zen Tools insights that underpin all personal change:
# The Inaccurate "Big Assumptions"
# 4 Big Reasons Why We Get Stuck
# Overcoming The "Knowing Doing Gap"
# Dealing With Our Own Resistance
# Who Would You Be Without That Thought?
# Working With Our Many Selves
This indexed Ebook is based on an email series that I used to run, and it comprises 16 sections, all based on themes covered on this site.
This no sales pitch and nothing for sale in this ebook. It is informational and provided as a service to visitors to this site.
