3-2-1: On finding games worth winning, the power of making a lot and choosing the best, and two types of kindness

Happy 3-2-1 Thursday!

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

I.

"Being kind to others is mostly about your actions.

Being kind to yourself is mostly about your thoughts."

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​II.

"There is no need to fear any problem you are working on. If you are working on it, then you are influencing the outcome.

It's the problems you don't address that should concern you."

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III.

"Before you worry about how to win the game, figure out whether the game is worth winning."

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I.

Poet Andrea Gibson on where you spend your attention:

"In any moment on any given day I can measure my wellness by this question:

Is my attention on loving or is my attention on who isn't loving me?"

Source: X ​
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​II.

Philosopher and writer Friedrich Nietzsche on the power of making a lot and choosing the best:

"Artists have an interest in ... so-called inspirations; as if the idea of a work of art, of poetry, the fundamental thought of a philosophy shines down like a merciful light from heaven.

In truth, the good artist's or thinker's imagination is continually producing things good, mediocre, and bad, but his power of judgment, highly sharpened and practiced, rejects, selects, joins together; thus we now see from Beethoven's notebooks that he gradually assembled the most glorious melodies and, to a degree, selected them out of disparate beginnings.

The artist who separates less rigorously, liking to rely on his imitative memory, can in some circumstances become a great improviser; but artistic improvisation stands low in relation to artistic thoughts earnestly and laboriously chosen. All great men were great workers, untiring not only in invention but also in rejecting, sifting, reforming, arranging."

Source: Human, All Too Human ​

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When you woke up this morning, did you expect today to have many joys or many frustrations?

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https://jamesclear.com/3-2-1/october-17-2024

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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. Sorry, my phone is buzzing. Do you mind if I take this?

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