# Chris Taylor - Every Self-Help Book Ever, Boiled Down to 11 Simple Rules (Highlights) ![rw-book-cover|256](https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/articles/00Z8W8Xypn5aiD85AbLnEKk/hero-image.fill.size_1200x675.v1623390263.jpg) ## Metadata **Review**:: [readwise.io](https://readwise.io/bookreview/28626627) **Source**:: #from/readwise #from/reader **Zettel**:: #zettel/fleeting **Status**:: #x **Authors**:: [[Chris Taylor]] **Full Title**:: Every Self-Help Book Ever, Boiled Down to 11 Simple Rules **Category**:: #articles #readwise/articles **Category Icon**:: 📰 **URL**:: [mashable.com](https://mashable.com/article/best-self-help-book-advice) **Host**:: [[mashable.com]] **Highlighted**:: [[2023-06-05]] **Created**:: [[2023-06-11]] ## Highlights ### 1. Take one small step. - Personally I like the summary in [Mini Habits](https://zdcs.link/dn4MM?cd36=Standard&t=article&m=content_body&e=offer&i=text-link&el=Mini%20Habits&cd62=article&cd63=00Z8W8Xypn5aiD85AbLnEKk&short_url=dn4MM&u=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle%2Fbest-self-help-book-advice) (2013): Make your daily practice "too small to fail." Ensure you exercise for five minutes every day, for example, and you'll soon find yourself eager to do more. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h25mfpqkk0tjqw9d4wmb4g0q)) ^542599547 ### 2. Change your mental maps. ### 3. Struggle is good. Scary is good. - Stoicism is not about being unfeeling, but about shifting your mental framework so that you expect and even welcome the worst instead of fearing it. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h25mnz5w1e5c9dyz1yb45nrf)) ^542600343 ### 4. Instant judgment is bad. ### 5. Remember the end of your life. - "When a man knows he is to be hanged," 18th century wit Samuel Johnson [wrote](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/192643-depend-upon-it-sir-when-a-man-knows-he-is), "it concentrates his mind wonderfully." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h25mv5yrqgjrpm536h2at8yg)) ^542600584 - This is a thought experiment known as "[prospective retrospection](https://osf.io/ywzer)." Jeff Bezos [calls it](https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Mind_Bending_Truths_about_a_Life_wit/pt-dDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=regret+minimization+framework&pg=PT33&printsec=frontcover) "regret minimization," and it's what he used in 1996 to take the biggest risk of his life. He decided 80-year-old Jeff would be less regretful if he drove to Seattle and founded Amazon, no matter the outcome, than if he stayed in his safe New York consulting gig. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h25mxsfvtk56f6bdh36asgsw)) ^542600933 ### 6. Be playful. - "The things that made you weird as a kid are the source of your creative powers," says James Victore in [Feck Perfuction: Dangerous Ideas on the Business of Life](https://zdcs.link/EAey7?cd36=Standard&t=article&m=content_body&e=offer&i=text-link&el=Feck%20Perfuction%3A%20Dangerous%20Ideas%20on%20the%20Business%20of%20Life&cd62=article&cd63=00Z8W8Xypn5aiD85AbLnEKk&short_url=EAey7&u=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle%2Fbest-self-help-book-advice) (2019)*.* ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h25n0c9ccwwn32xq52ejvdx3)) ^542601055 ### 7. Be useful to others. ### 8. Perfectionism = procrastination - Perfect results are impossible in this world, so if you're expecting them, of course you're going to procrastinate. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h25n4y63269vpzw2jdxa6y33)) ^542601578 - To use a sometimes annoying aphorism that cropped up in English sometime in the 1970s: Fake it 'til you make it. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h25n5y3t9dtmx0ccd6r73avq)) ^542601608 ### 9. Sleep, exercise, eat, chill out. Repeat. ### 10. Write it all down. - The simple act of listing things we're grateful for every day has been shown to [rewire our brains and improve our mental health](https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_changes_you_and_your_brain), even after just a few weeks of the practice. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h25nayqc2e7d3jvg1458cpn4)) ^542601874 ### 11. You can't get it all from reading.