101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

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Have you ever felt joy for more than a few minutes? What about anger? No? How about tension, depression, and sadness? Those have lasted longer, haven't they? Weeks and months and years at a time, right? Almost every great master, artist, teacher, innovator, inventor, and generally happy person could attribute some similar understanding to their success. Many of the world’s ‘best’ people understood that to change their lives, they had to change their minds. As someone who doesn't know what their 'big objective' is, this is not motivating or helpful. It's not like people like me haven't spent hours, days, months thinking about what their purpose is on this planet. It just makes me feel like giving up. If I'm not going to do much of anything at all, why bother, right? Most things that bring genuine happiness are not just temporary, immediate gratifications, and those things also come with resistance and require sacrifice. Yet there is a way to nullify the feeling of sacrifice when you integrate a task into the norm or push through resistance with regulation. These, and all the other reasons why routine is so important (and happy people tend to follow them more).

We all start as strangers, but we forget that we rarely choose who ends up a stranger, too. 5 16 Signs of a Socially Intelligent Person I also want to say before diving in deeper that I do believe this book was written with good intentions. I know there will be people out there who read this and it will help them and it will resonate with them. I’m happy for those people. I just wasn’t one of them. I applaud the amount of work and effort that went into this book and by no means mean to shed a negative light on the author. I think the author’s thoughts are authentic. I genuinely enjoyed some parts of the book. (But I got somewhat annoyed when I realized it won’t be 101 essays, but (mostly) of various lists. Please deliver on your promises next time.) It seems people believe the most intelligent thing to do is not have emotions at all. To be effective is to be a machine, a product of the age. A well-oiled, consumerist-serving, digitally attuned, highly unaware but overtly operational robot. And so we suffer. The topics discussed are all basically "how to be happy or why your life isn't that bad", it's all meant to make you feel good (nothing wrong with that); but that's why i describe it as non-practical.Look, I understand the appeal of compiling 101 Essays: it's good marketing, it's great marketing even, but I'm gonna need you to stop. These are not essays, these are lists and blog posts that I could easily find in any celebrity blog—Gwyneth Paltrow and Kourtney Kardashian are giving us the same food for thought for free. They recognize their emotions as responses, not accurate gauges, of what’s going on. They accept that those responses may have to do with their own issues, rather than the objective situation athand. Self-help books and I have a strange relationship. I didn't pay detailed attention to this book except for while I was reading I kept saying Oh ok, yea I see, that is me, I definitely need to incorporate this list into my daily habit. Because experience is always multi-dimensional, there are a variety of memories, experiences, feelings, gists you can choose to recall…and what you choose is indicative of your present state of mind. So many people get caught up in allowing the past to define them or haunt them simply because they have not evolved to the place of seeing how the past did not prevent them from achieving the life they want, it facilitated it. This doesn’t mean to disregard or gloss over painful or traumatic events, but simply to be able to recall them with acceptance and to be able to place them in the storyline of your personalevolution.

In this essay, the major take home is how disparate generations have multiple differing and often conflicting ideologies about their personal search for 'truth' versus the consensus monocultures wherein subjectively identified insights can become hypocritical and difficult or taboo, to objectively accept an idea/belief or faith as the "Truth" if it doesn't register as part of your cultural heritage so in essence not your personal subjective. Honestly, the book is very well-written and covers a wide range of topics that are relevant to many people. The essays are very thought-provoking and offer a lot of practical advice for dealing with everyday challenges and struggles.The essays are also very well-organized and easy to navigate, which makes it easy to find the information you need. The essays are very short and easy to read and understand as well. The objectivity required to see the effects of present monoculture is very difficult to develop. Once you have so deeply accepted an idea as truth it doesn’t register as cultural or subjective anymore. In this superb work of self-help and knowledge, Brianna West indeed points out in a very short and direct way how oft seemingly misunderstood and not always thought about things that we engage in daily profoundly goes on to shape the essence of the 'who' we're striving to become, be it for better or worse. "In a sense, the notion that thoughts create reality is more than just a nice idea; it’s also a fact of evolution. It was because of language and thought that we could create a world within our minds, and ultimately, it is because of language and thought that we have evolved into the society we have today—for better and for worse."In Jordan Peterson's lectures on the Biblical Series, he explains how the concept about the fundamental and innate evolutionary ability of humanity since antiquity to first of all tell stories that transform into legends and so on to eventually become myth to which religions undeniably share those self same myths, ideas and mythos from time immemorial. While Joseph Campbell also talks about the intersection of mythology and evolution in his book The Power of Myth; that it is at the point of the development of the pre-frontal cortex that then made the modern man from an oral story telling species to one in which the abstract thoughts about a certain yet to arrive future is easily conceived intellectually. This evolutionary advanage can then be confronted wherein the best possible steps are taken to ensure further successful propagation of the species.

They don’t assume that the way they think and feel about a situation is the way it is in reality, nor how it will turn out in the end. In short, routine is important because habitualness creates mood, and mood creates the “nurture” aspect of your personality, not to mention that letting yourself be jerked around by impulsiveness is a breeding ground for everything you essentially do not want." Brianna 's writing style is very engaging and easy to read. The way it is written is very encouraging and supportive, which makes it easy to feel like you have a friend who is there to help you through tough times. Honestly the way all of the essays force you into introspection is astonishing. All of the essays are very impactful and inspiring. Here are some good summary quotes on the 'nutshell' of this essay here: "The objectivity required to see the effects of present monoculture is very difficult to develop. Once you have so deeply accepted an idea as “truth” it doesn’t register as “cultural” or “subjective” anymore."

I like the term "knowing-doing gap". Having experienced it in abundance, I often wonder why I can learn so much about what to do and never really do even a fraction of it. Needs a lot of reflection but this chapter covers it beautifully. What your big objective is. If you don’t know what you generally want to do with your precious, limited time here, you’re not going to do much of anything at all.Some of the most difficult people to be in relationships with are those who are so threatened by even the slightest suggestion that their behavior is hurtful that they actually end up getting angry at the person suggesting it, reinforcing the problem altogether. Socially intelligent people listen to criticism before they respond to it—an immediate emotional response without thoughtful consideration is justdefensiveness. The things you love about others are the things you love about yourself." - I wonder about this. Sometimes the things you love about others are the things you admire. People who are socially intelligent think and behave in a way that spans beyond what’s culturally acceptable at any given moment in time. They function in such a way that they are able to communicate with others and leave them feeling at ease without sacrificing who they are and what they want to say. This, of course, is the basis of connection, the thing on which our brains are wired to desire, and on which we personally thrive. You think your past defines you, and worse, you think that it is an unchangeable reality when really, your perception of it changes as you do. Because experience is always multi-dimensional, there are a variety of memories, experiences, feelings, “gists” you can choose to recall…and what you choose is indicative of your present state of mind.

I found myself dreading going to this book. When I did read it, I would get annoyed or just fall asleep. There is truth to everything written in the book (For example, I really enjoyed the point made about everyone having different opinions and perspectives in essay 5. But it feels slightly ironic as some essays in the book seem to show you the one ‘true’ way of staying motivated or even feeling.), however (in *my* opinion) it reads as overly simplistic, western, and privileged. This book may not resonate with you if you suffer some mental health issues (especially essay 32). As well as most of the “signs you’re doing better than you think you are” are simply about money and free time. It reads like someone’s very well-written and meticulously edited diary.Marcus Aurelius sums this up well: The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. Simply, running into a problem forces you to take action to resolve it. That action will inevitably lead you to think differently, behave differently, and choose differently. The problem becomes a catalyst for you to actualize the life you always wanted. It pushes you from your comfort zone, that’s all. In her second compilation of published writing, Brianna Wiest explores pursuing purpose over passion, embracing negative thinking, seeing the wisdom in daily routine, and becoming aware of the cognitive biases that are creating the way you see your life. This book contains never before seen pieces as well as some of Brianna's most popular essays, all of which just might leave you thinking: this idea changed my life. You try to change other people, situations, and things (or you just complain/get upset about them) when anger = self-recognition. Most negative emotional reactions are you identifying a disassociated aspect of yourself. These are the same people who have communicated to us some of the longest-standing conventional wisdom: that to believe is to become, that the mind is to be mastered, that the obstacle is the way ². Often, our most intense discomfort is what precedes and necessitates thinking in a way we have never conceived of before. That new awareness creates possibilities that would never exist had we not been forced to learn something new. Why did our ancestors develop agriculture, society, medicine, and the like? To survive. The elements of our world were once just solutions to fears.