5 lessons I learnt after reading 50+ self-help books
By: Sandeep Kumar Jha
Tags: Reading, Goals, Habits, Life Lesson, Self Help

Pareto: The famous 80:20 rule. Applicable to anything and everything humans do. Job, relationships, working out, business. 20% of

The job then becomes to continuously trying to figure out the 20% and channel most energies there. One way I do this is to ask myself this question before any meeting scheduled — Is this meeting in the 20% considering my work goals. If the answer is no, I either decline it or finish my other pending works while the meeting goes on. This also means constantly looking for the 20%, by adding /exploring activities in the related field and questioning everything we take up.

Systems >Goals: This comes from How to fail at almost everything and still win big — by Scott Adams and Atomic Habits — by James Clear. Both Scott and James have personally changed my thinking through their writings.

Let me exemplify this by taking the most common goal — weight loss. Now, a common goal can be losing 15 kgs in 6 months. Fairly simple. The reason why goals tend to falter is the absence of immediate results. You want to lose 15, and if after a month you don't see you’ve lost more than 1/2, you feel demotivated and lose momentum. This happens because goals are tied to end results and till we get there, we feel sad about not being where we desire.

Systems do not chase any end result. A usual system, in this case, can be to walk for 5 km a day and to increase by 1/2km every week. You put on the shoes, go for a walk and come back feeling satisfied with the work done. Every day you get a sense of accomplishment which adds the fuel to continue with the goal.

Probability — Chance? No. At a broader level, everything we do has a probability to it. Even lottery tickets!

Odds can be in favor or against, but can never be 0. For instance, you are applying for a job where the probability of getting an interview call is 1%. Well, on 100 applications you get 1 call. Now the only way you can get more calls is by more applications. At 1000, you get 10 calls. I understand the simplistic nature of this example. The point I am trying to make here is, even the most daunting challenges have a probability of success, and the only way to get there is to increase the denominator — the no. of trials.

I keep reminding myself that if anyone else has done it- I can do it too.

Compounding- Indeed a wonder! Compounding works, across all life domains. It has the magical ability to affect us in both ways — positively and negatively. Doing mundane tasks with repetition over a long time gives multifold rewards. The returns won't be visible early on and that is where most new habits die. Health, investments, and relationships, those little things need to be done over and over again and the rewards will take care of themselves.

Add the law of variety or incremental betterment and one is set for bigger things.

1.01³⁶⁷ =37.7

Compounding = Repetition + Perseverance +Incremental

Mind Health— Now, more than ever, there should be a focus on preserving one's mental health. The economy is an attention economy with product managers and engineers around the worst fighting to grab a share of our attention span. The result - anxious irritated mind and a surge in depression cases.

A healthy mind can simply be defined as the ability to sit and do nothing for extended periods of time. Stare at the wall, do breathing exercises, unread your mental inbox from the past, or simply do nothing — as per one’s comfort. Starting with 10,15,30 mins and try and aim for 60–90. There are no rules, and the only rule is to “let your mind be”.

Personally, I started the 60 min 60-day “meditation” recommended by Naval Ravikant it has been life-changing for me.