3-2-1: How to find your way in life, the power of quiet weeks, and the problem with smart people

Happy 3-2-1 Thursday!

Here are 3 ideas, 2 quotes, and 1 question to consider this week...

I.

"Communication is about what is received, not what is intended. If there is a gap between what you are saying and what they are hearing, you have to find a new way to say it."

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​II.

"Finding your way in life is like unlocking the combination of a safe. You have to go forwards and backwards. Life is not a direct march from A to B. The twists and turns are progress, not regression. What feels like a setback in the moment is later revealed to have been part of the path all along. Each move was necessary to get to your end goal."

III.

"The problem with smart people is they can come up with a good reason for not doing anything. They are smart enough to find the cracks, to foresee the challenges, and to talk themselves out of the idea. They are experts at justifying their lack of courage or lack of action with an intelligent excuse.

But there will always be reasons to not do something, and this is particularly true of anything worth doing. We value those moments in which we overcame challenge, not those in which we avoided it. Ultimately, action is a choice. The choice to emphasize the reasons for doing it despite the reasons you have for avoiding it."

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I.

Episcopal bishop and clergyman Phillips Brooks reminds us of the power of quiet weeks:

"Someday, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer."

Source: The Purpose and Use of Comfort​
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​II.

Novelist and literary scholar C. S. Lewis on the risk of love:

"There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, air-less—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."

Source: The Four Loves (Hat tip to Dylan O'Sullivan)

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Author and investor Morgan Housel shares a thought-provoking question: "Whose life do I admire that is secretly miserable?"

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https://jamesclear.com/3-2-1/august-8-2024

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Until next week,

James Clear
​Atomic Habits, the #1 best-selling book
​Atoms, the official Atomic Habits app
​3-2-1 newsletter with 3 million subscribers

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p.s. I never want to hear my phone ring again.

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​ ​ An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones Packed with self-improvement strategies, Atomic Habits will teach you how to make the small changes that will transform your habits and deliver remarkable results. ​ Learn More >

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