When I look back on my experiment with starting a membership site, I could’ve easily prevented myself from wasting a lot of time. It took me about three months to create the membership area, create content, write copy, etc. Before I started, I knew that it would take time to run a membership site. Remember the chapter about details? If you want to do a job, do it right or not at all. In this case, I should have done nothing at all. Why? Because I spend too much time on running my family business, writing articles, books, creating courses, and consulting. From looking back, I’ve learned that I can only take on one big project per every aspect of my life.
So yes, look back, but don’t stare for too long. Life happens now.
Spend Your Time Well
Time is limited. Sooner or later we all figure that out. And once we do, we start being more conscious of the way we spend our time. Thinking is a double-edged sword. It can help you. But it can also destroy you. The outcome depends on how you use your thoughts. Your mind is an instrument—nothing more, nothing less. In this book, I shared how I’ve learned to use my brain more effectively. Sometimes you have to think differently, and there are times you must stop thinking altogether. It’s up to you to decide when you should deploy which method. But no matter what you do, don’t spend too much time in thought because that’s a waste of life. At the end of the day, thinking by itself is useless without action. But like we talked about earlier, action follows thought.
Effective thoughts? Effective actions.
To clarify what I mean, I’ve made a list of what I think are effective thoughts:
Making your life better
Growing your career and business
Visualizing your future
Thinking of new ideas
Solving problems
Coming up with fun things to do with your partner, family, or friends
It’s really not that complicated. However, sticking with this way of thinking is very hard and takes work. Don’t expect to become a practical thinker after reading this book only once. Like any skill, better thinking requires daily practice. I do that by looking at everything that happens in my life as an exercise for thinking better.
Because if I don’t, I start wasting my time on useless things like complaining, feeling sorry for myself, and not enjoying my life.
We’re collectively thinking so much we’re missing out on life. And it has nothing to do with fancy things other people do. We all know that the beauty of life lies in the small things. Did you notice the sunshine this morning when you woke up? Or the raindrops? Did you notice the smell of your coffee? Did you feel the texture of your cereals?
If your answer is no, you definitely need to get out of your head.
Stop thinking and start feeling.
Inner Calm
There’s only one end goal to all of this: Inner calm. No matter what you experience in life, and no matter what happens to you, your mind should stay calm under all circumstances.
That’s the ultimate prize in life. Mastery of the mind means that we control our mind. Remember: You can only achieve that through daily practice. Some people call it meditation and others might call it mindfulness. No matter what you call “finding inner calm,” please don’t overcomplicate it. You don’t need a ten-thousand-dollar course to learn how to find some peace inside your head.
Just sit down, be one with your thoughts, observe them, and then, ignore them. That’s all there is to meditation.
I “meditate” all the time—when I walk, exercise, write, wait, sit, lay, whatever. I can always find the time and energy to go within myself to find peace. I don’t need anything to do it. That’s important to realize. I’ve said it before. But it’s so important that I’ll say it again: You don’t need a yoga mat, music, or teacher to help you control your thoughts. You can go within yourself to find calm anytime you want. You also don’t need a holiday, new shoes, or a drink.
How do I know this?
I control my mind.
I decide what it does.
So can you.
Think Beyond Yourself
Many of the ideas I shared in this book come from the philosophy of pragmatism. If you Google ‘pragmatism’, you’ll probably read that the philosophical movement was founded by Charles Sanders Peirce, a former professor at Johns Hopkins University. But if you look closer into the story behind the philosophy, you’ll find that it was William James who actually credited Peirce as the founder in 1898.
Even though Charles Sanders Peirce was a well-respected academic during the 1880s, he had fallen from grace by the end of the 19th century. James and Peirce got to know each other during the 1860s when they were both students at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard. Peirce, once considered as a prodigy of mathematics and logic, went on to become a professor at Johns Hopkins University. But he lost his position in 1884 due to a scandal involving his re-marriage. It’s truly a sad story.
Peirce’s first wife left him in 1875 and shortly after that, he became involved with another woman, while still being legally married. However, his divorce became final eight years later. During those eight years, he lived with a woman he was not married to. Apparently, Simon Newcomb, who was Peirce’s colleague, told on him. Consequently, he was let go in what became a public scandal. Sadly, Peirce never found academic employment again and lived in poverty for years after he was fired. Peirce even lived and slept on the streets of New York City for years.
No one helped him, except for his old friend William James. After James overcame his depression in 1870, he started building a body of work that, more than a century later, remains relevant. James became a Harvard professor and an academic celebrity due to the publication of his book, Principles of Psychology. A book that took him twelve years to write and was published in 1890. In contrast to his friend, James’ career was on the rise for years.
And out of nowhere, in 1898, William James credited “the principle of pragmatism” to the forgotten Charles Sanders Peirce, in a lecture called “Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results.”
Pragmatism means that one must look at the practical value of ideas. James believed scientists wasted their time on abstract ideas and theories that had no impact on people’s lives. Would you change the way you lived if a scientist proved how the earth was created? Louis Menand, author of Pragmatism: A Reader, says of the principle of pragmatism that, “We can never hope for absolute proof of anything. All our decisions are bets on what the universe is today, and what it will do tomorrow.”
Regardless of what people think of pragmatism, one thing is sure: William James did a favor to Peirce by crediting the philosophy to him. And that is exactly what makes James great. He didn’t strive to take credit for something that he created. Because without James’ actions and promotion of pragmatism, the philosophy wouldn’t exist and Peirce would be forgotten.
By that act, James did something meaningful—he helped a friend. Peirce gained some respect and even wrote several papers in his last years. And from all the wisdom of James, that’s the most important thing I’ve learned.
William James himself once said: “The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.”
Practically speaking, there’s no purpose to doing something that outlasts you. You won’t be there to see it anyway. But that’s not the point. If we live our lives every day with that idea in mind—that we should strive for doing/creating useful things that matter to others—we end up spending our time on things that actually make a difference. When you do that, life automatically has meaning—to everyone.
Thank You: A Gift
Thank you for going on this journey with me. My goal was to take you inside my thinking process. I hope that this book serves as an anchor to you and that you read it more than once. Especially during trying times.
I appreciate that you took the time to finish THINK STRAIGHT. Deciding to read one book over the other might seem small to a reader who has millions of options, but to me, the
author, it means everything.
So, thank you.
To show you my gratitude, I want to offer you something in return: A bonus eBook with a behind the scenes look at my personal journal entries. In the bonus eBook for THINK STRAIGHT, I take you one step deeper into the creative journey.
If you enjoyed this book, and want to know how it was made, go to DariusForoux.com/THINK-STRAIGHT-BONUS to subscribe to my newsletter and download the bonus for free.
I hope we can continue this conversation about how to think better. Therefore, I invite you to share your story with me, personally or on my site’s community page, where other readers share theirs.
I like to build real relationships with my readers. That’s why I always ask people to stay in touch.
My desire is to see other people do well in life.
So, please, go out there, and make good shit happen. And then, let me know about it!
Take care,
Darius
Further Reading
Pragmatists like William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey didn’t view themselves as philosophers. In fact, they believed that most of philosophy was useless. Even though we might call them philosophers today, they had other professions. Throughout history, pragmatic thinkers had occupations like judges, educators, politicians, and poets.
Instead of talking endlessly about which philosophy is best, they used the ideas of pragmatism to live a better life. And to live a good life, you don’t need endless study of philosophy. Instead, we must act! That’s why I’ve kept the further reading of this books short.
If you want to read more about pragmatic thinking, I recommend reading William James’ work. He is by far my favorite pragmatic thinker. The biography of James by Ralph Barton is also a great view inside his practical mind, and contains his journal entries.
If you just want to read one book on pragmatism in general, I recommend Louis Menand’s book, which contains several important texts from the most important pragmatist philosophers. In his book, Menand also shares an insightful introduction that reveals more about the core ideas of pragmatism.
Enjoy!
Pragmatism and Other Writings by William James
The Thought And Character Of William by Ralph Barton Perry
Pragmatism: A Reader by Louis Menand
Think Straight Page 5