Paul McCarthy

I agree with both of you on this - it's really highlighted for me how I can be a lot more prolific in what I do on a daily basis.

This is a very interesting book about how we can form new positive habits and even modify existing ones. Here's a summary of what I learned in the book (with some videos included) Why are habits important? Habits are stored in a different part of the brain called the basal ganglia. The significance of this is that once a behavior is encoded in the basal ganglia then it becomes a lot more automatic and easier to do. To illustrate this, when you brushed your teeth this morning, it was pretty easy for you to do. You didn't have a wrestling match in your head to get yourself to do it. That's because it's habitual and pretty much automatic for you at this stage. So, the great news is that we can something that we currently find hard to do, like going to the gym, and force our brain to turn it into a habit. This will make it easier for us to follow through on positive behaviors and increase the changes of it sticking for the long term. Some key points about habits:- Brain uses them to become more efficient (by grouping sets of behaviors and diverting it out of consciousness) Behaviors require less effort to do and more automatic once habitual. Therefore requiring less willpower. A habit loop can't be removed. You can only modify one habit into another habit. Therefore you're more likely to replace a smoking habit then just try to remove it. Without habit loops our brains would have to shut down and be completely overrun by minutiae How habits are formed:- There are three R's to habit formation. The reminder (or trigger), routine and reward. The reminder can be anything from an event, a smell, an activity, a place a time. This is the trigger for the behavior. Example:- having your morning coffee The routine is the behavior itself. Example:- going to the gym The reward is the reward for completing the behavior. This tells the brain "this behavior is worth doing again". This must immediately follow the behavior. Example:- having a smoothie that you enjoy immediately after. So, in this example, you are cultivating a habit going to the gym by having a morning coffee (trigger), immediately training afterwards and then immediately drinking the smoothie (reward). In short:- All habits are sandwiched between a trigger and a reward. An important point to note is that the reward must be a genuine reward that you can look forward to receiving. When the trigger occurs (drinking a coffee) it should initiate a craving for the reward (the smoothie). Keystone Habits Some habits matter more than others. They can kick off a chain reaction of other habits. A common example is exercise. It's quite common for people that manage to successfully build a positive exercise habit to also form the habit of eating healthier, sleeping better, working with more focus. Identifying your keystone habits and paying attention to those can have a massive cascading effect on your life. Willpower Willpower can be used to create habits but is finite in its capacity so should be used carefully Willpower is like a muscle that can be strengthened with use Use your willpower carefully to create habits that become automatic. Only try and form one habit at a time to make sure you don't burn through all your willpower and increase your chances of success Once you've formed one positive habit, you can then stack others on top. How long does it Take to Build a Habit? The idea that it takes 21 days to build a habit popularised by Maxwell Maltz in his book "Psycho Cybernetics" is misleading The most in-depth study we have about this suggested an average of 66 days to form a habit, but the range was from 18 days up to 254 days In short: we don't know how long it takes for habits to stick and is largely dependent upon a number of factors including the type of the habit, genetic traits, how we try to build the habit and so forth... The important point to realise is that if you do a behavior for a long enough period of time then it will eventually start to become habitual How do we measure habits? There isn't really a very reliable way of measuring the degree to which behaviors are habitual The best method we currently have is called the SHRI (Self Habit Reporting Index) which is a serious of statements that the subject must rate corresponding to how it defines a certain behavior The higher the score, the more habitual the behavior has become. How to Change Habits:- Once a habit loop is formed, it can't be removed. So trying to remove a habit is a bad strategy. Instead try to change existing habits. So, if you're a smoker, try and replace the smoking habit with something else. Must learn new routines that draw on the old triggers and provide a familiar relief. Change might not be fast and it isn't always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped. Once you're aware how your habit works, once you recognize the cues and rewards, you're halfway to changing it. the brain can be reprogrammed but you just have to be deliberate about it.

Here's my third video and set of notes about the Authentic Happiness book by Martin Seligman. This is all about how we can change the way we look at things that have happened to us in the past in a more positive fashion. Changing the way we look at the past The way we look at the past can have a pretty large affect on how happy and content we are Some background information about emotion and thought:- Some psychologists have argued that thoughts drive emotion (Aaron Beck being one of the most prominent) and others have argue that emotions drive thought (Freud was in this group) For example, if you are at home alone at night, do you feel scared and then think about getting burgled, or do you think about getting burgled and then become scared? It turns out that both can happen depending on the circumstances. However, when we think about things that have happened to us in the past, then it is always thought that drives emotion. In other words, the way we think about things that have happened to us in the past can give us positive or negative emotions depending on what we focus on and how we frame things mentally. There are really two main skills that we can develop to make sure that we think about the past in the most positive way possible:- 1) Gratitude Expressing gratitude has been shown to increase happiness levels Even bad events we can frame in a way such that we are grateful for them. Example, looking back at a toxic relationship where your partner cheated. You could be grateful for the fact that the relationship is over, that you learnt a lot from that relationship, that you had some good times and good memories from your time with the other person and that you are now free to find a better relationship. This is a far better approach than focusing on things like:- "I just wasted two years with the wrong person" or "I just invested all my time and energy for nothing". The other important thing about gratitude is that humans are very good at taking things for granted. As soon as we get something good in our lives, we adapt very quickly and are no longer grateful or thankful for them. What can we do to be more grateful:- 1) Visit or think about people that are less fortunate than us. Example:- I recently went to Tondo in Manila (an extremely run down area) and gained a new perspective when I noticed how thankful the children were to just receive an education. This is something I took for granted, but this experience reminded me of how fortunate I have been. 2) Do a daily gratitude log - spend five minutes each day to write down a few things that you are grateful for in your life that you've been guilty of taking for granted. 2) Forgiveness We have all had injustices but we sometimes have tendencies to avenge things that have been done against us. Unfortunately this very rarely proves beneficial for us. In fact, focusing on bad things that have been done to us can leave us trapped in a prison of negativity. We're not actually harming anyone but ourselves. A better approach is to forgive and move on. What can we do to be more forgiving? When you find yourself angry at someone to the point where it's bother you, you can use the REACH methodology to forgive them This method was developed by a psychologist called Everett Worthington who spent a long time trying to forgive people that abused, raped and murdered his mum This is a five step process to forgiveness and stands for:- Recall - recall the hurt, in as objective way as you can. Do not think of the other person as evil. Do not wallow in self-pity. Take deep, slow and calming breaths as you visualize the event. Empathize - Try to understand from the perpetrator's point of view why this person hurt you. This is not easy, but make up a plausible story that the transgressor might tell if challenged to explain. To help you do this, remember the following:- When others feel their survival is threatened, they will hurt innocents People who attack others are themselves usually in a state of fear, worry and hurt The situation a person finds himself in, and not his underlying personality, can lead to hurting People often don't think when they hurt others; they just lash out Altruistic Gift - the gift of forgiveness. First recall a time you transgressed, felt guilty, and were forgiven. This was a gift you were given by another person because you needed it, and you were grateful for this gift. Giving this gift usually makes us feel better. We do not give out of self-interest. Rather, we give it because it is for the trespasser's own good. Tell yourself you can rise above hurt and vengeance. If you give the gift grudgingly, however, it will not set you free. Commit - commit yourself to forgive publicly. Write a certificate of forgiveness, write a letter of forgiveness to the offender, write it in their diary, write a poem or song, or tell a trusted friend what they have done. These are all contracts of forgiveness that lead to the final step. Hold - hold onto forgiveness. Don't dwell vengefully on the memories, and don't wallow in them. Remind yourself that you have forgiven and read the documents you composed. There are at least 8 controlled outcome studies measuring the consequences of procedures like REACH. Largest and best done was by Carl Thoresen. 259 adults assigned to either a 9 hour forgiveness workshop or to an assessment-only control group. Less anger, less stress, more optimism, better reported health, and more forgiveness ensued, and the effects were sizable. In summary, it's worth us trying to be more grateful and forgiving in order to live a happier existence.

Here's my second video and set of notes about the Authentic Happiness book by Martin Seligman. This is a deeper look at the link between wealth and happiness. The Link Between Wealth and Happiness The research shows that money is really important for happiness when you don't have enough of it. Those living in poorer countries where poverty is rife are not as happy as those in richer countries. After a certain level of income, however, that correlation tends to drop off. That amount apparently is around $8,000 per year for most people. This has also been highlighted by the fact that the real wealth of Americans has tripled while life satisfaction / happiness levels haven't changed. My conclusion from these findings is the following:- If you're coming from a place of deficiency whereby you don't have enough money that you need to get by on, then chasing after the money is a worthwhile endeavor If, however, you're in a situation where money is a non-issue for you - whereby you have all the money you need to get by and you have enough of a buffer whereby you don't need to think about how much things cost or worry about unforeseen circumstances popping up, then further increases in wealth don't appear to lead directly to increases in happiness. The question is why? There are a few theories about this:- 1) The Hedonic tredmill (as posted above) - we tend to adjust pretty quickly to monetary gain so that it becomes "normal" 2) People that earn more generally have more responsibility on their shoulders. Perhaps they shoulder more anxiety and stress, negatively offsetting any happiness gain that the additional income provides 3) As our lifestyle improves, so do our expectations - we take stuff for granted and we overlook the little things in life that bring poorer people joy. p.s Sorry for the poor quality video - I realise that I haven't really done this topic justice and will do another improved one in the future.

That sounds like a good idea. Another thing you might want to experiment with, depending on how much you like use your computer / laptop while reading, is to use Evernote. I record all my notes in Evernote mainly because I can very quickly and easily revert back to the notes I've made through the search both on my phone and on the laptop. It's not an ideal solution though because I usually have to read like this:-

I gave this book a 10/10 rating because it's the best book about happiness that I've read so far, and it really cleared up some questions I had about long term happiness and fulfillment. I will try and cover the main points here, but I also thoroughly recommend reading it from cover to cover. Note:- I'm going to be adding to this review over time with multiple parts because there are a number of concepts that are described in the book that will take me time to clearly articulate. I also want to make videos about the most important topics in the book. Changelog- 17th May 2017 - Added Part 1 about the Hedonic Treadmill and The Happiness Thermometer. Part 1 - The Hedonic Treadmill and The Happiness Thermometer The Hedonic Treadmill The Hedonic treadmill is a metaphor and term to describe how many of us, especially in the West, view happiness and how to attain it. It's based on the concept of striving. It goes something like this:- We think of something that we want to achieve or get (usually materialistic, such as a house, car, wealth) etc. under the illusion that once we manage to attain this thing, it will bring us long term happiness We strive after this thing, whatever it is Inevitably we finally achieve the thing we've been trying to accomplish We have a sense of euphoria/pleasure for a short period of time - usually a few weeks - to celebrate our achievement We quickly adapt to this new level, happiness levels revert to baseline and we are left with a void. We are no happier than we were before we achieved the result We fill this void by changing our expectations to strive for something else under the illusion (once again) that once we manage to attain this thing, it will bring us long term happiness. In short:- The more you accomplish, the more your expectations rise. And, fundamentally, your happiness levels over the long term don't change. It's a bit of a happiness trap, hence the term treadmill:- You're continuously marching forwards, but you're not getting anywhere. You're continually striving, but you don't get any happier when you achieve what you set out to achieve. If there were no treadmill, people who get more good things in life would be much happier than the less fortunate. But the less fortunate are, by and large, just as happy as the more fortunate. What is the reason for this? Something called the Happiness Thermometer... The Happiness Thermometer Many psychologists now believe that each of us have a happiness "set range" that is inherited through our genetics. When extremely good or bad things happen to us, our happiness levels may temporarily fall out of this set range, but over time it will revert back to baseline. This has been proven true in even very extreme cases. For instance, there was a study of 22 lottery winners - after a period of time, nearly all the subjects in the study reported the same level of happiness as before winning the money. The same thing happened to those who recently became paraplegic (lost the use of their legs) - after a certain period of time, most of the subjects returned to the same level of happiness as before the accident. Humans are just incredibly good at adapting to things. There are, however, some things that we can't adapt to very well:- Toxic relationships Situations where our loved ones are suffering (for instance family caregivers for those with Alzheimer's disease) Poverty (instances where someone has insufficient resources to eat / feed their family) The loss of a spouse or child (One study showed that 7 years after a loss of a spouse or child, the happiness levels of the subjects were still negatively affected) However, the good news is that there are many things under our control that we can change in order to improve our happiness. (To be continued in part 2 shortly)

I stick to one book and study it until I'm through it. I come from the viewpoint that if you study 10 books per year - and I'm deliberately using the word "study", rather than "read" - and you take the time to digest and apply it to your life, then you'll reap far greater rewards than focusing on volume. For example, Max mentioned The Six Pillars of Self Esteem in the discussion above. This book took me 32 days to get through and I took over 14k words of notes - this seems like a long time and rather excessive. But, the stuff I learnt and applied from this book changed my life. .. I'm not exaggerating, either. What's the ROI on that? Immeasurable. With something as critically important as self esteem, that's worth spending a month or two... or even six months to get it right. The new found sense of self esteem has cascaded down into many other areas of my life and helped me push forward with other personal development projects that I'm doing. So, the way I look at it is this:- Don't focus on the result, but the action. In other words, don't focus on how many books you've read, or how fast you're completing books. Instead focus on doing 1 hours worth of study each and every day - master that consistency. The speed at which you get through the books is irrelevant and is more of a vanity metric than anything else. Have faith in the fact that if you do relentlessly one hour of "study" per day, then the results will take care of themselves. Take the longer term view. Here's a video I made about one year after starting a self development project of reading 140 books and producing video reviews of them (I'm currently on my 38th book and 14 months into the project) and some of the learnings I took from that:- TLDR:- Quality and application over quantity has definitely reaped the rewards for me. Take as long as you need to learn the concepts and apply them to your life. Don't rush through books because it feels like you're accomplishing something by reading more books.

I'm a massive fan of positive psychology and this book is a seminal work from Martin Seligman, often considered as the father of the movement. Key Points Optimistic people tend to be happier, achieve more, have better relationships, are liked more, experience greater setbacks and are much better at coping with negative situations and adversity An optimistic person has a feeling of control and empowerment, whereby pessimistic people have feelings of helplessness and victimhood We can measure how optimistic someone is by looking at what's called their explanatory style. In other words, when certain (particularly negative) events occur, what do they attribute these events to? Pessimistic people describe negative events as permanent, pervasive and personal. They tend to blow problems up by catastrophizing and framing it in the worst possible light. Optimistic people describe negative events as temporary, isolated and non personal. They tend to isolate problems, don't make a big deal out of them and don't beat themselves up about it. An example of this:- Let's say Katie is on a diet, goes out with her friends and eats a bunch of food that wasn't part of her diet plan. Pessimistic explanatory style:- "you sure blew your diet tonight. I am so unbelievably weak. I can't even go to a bar with some friends without making a total glutton of myself. They must think I'm such a fool. Well, all my dieting over the last two weeks is blown now, so I might as well really make a pig of myself and eat the cake in the freezer" Optimistic explanatory style:- "First of all, I did not make a total glutton of myself at the bar. I drank two Lite beers and ate a couple of chicken wings and a couple of nachos. I didn't have dinner, so I think on balance I probably consumed only a few more calories than my diet allows. Letting my diet slip for one night doesn't mean I am weak. Think how strong I am in sticking to it so strictly for two weeks. Furthermore, no one thinks I'm a fool. I doubt anyone was keeping tabs on what I was eating, and in fact, a couple of people mentioned how I looked slimmer." You can change your explanatory style to be more optimistic by using techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and the ABC exercise, which I will cover in a future video. My complete set of notes for this book:- http://www.evernote.com/l/AL2e_B-uNM5LKr_o09h_kvQo5Sjxajja3ms/ Great book, highly recommended. I'm now going to read another Martin Seligman book, Authentic Happiness, and report my findings here too.

I want to share with you the results of a deliberate practice experiment for touch typing that I recently finished. The net result was a 15% wpm increase from 114 to 131. I've included a video about it, but if you prefer I've also included the main points in text underneath. The Short Version I ran a touch typing "project" in order to improve my touch typing speed I did daily practice for 2 months The practice consisted of at least 20 minutes of hard, focused touch typing training I ended up increasing my Words per Minute from an average of 114 to 131 (an increase of 15%) I didn't have a coach or a teacher, so it's not true deliberate practice, but I did manage to find some tips from Sean Wroma (pretty much the world's fastest typist) and I found a Facebook group that contains a bunch of extremely fast typists and all round good people (see resources below). What I've Learned about how to type faster Unless your typing is extremely accurate, then your practice should be focused on improving your accuracy rather than trying to force yourself to type faster than your current ability. It's recommended to vary your speed so that you you blitz through the shorter, easier words, but slow down for the harder words where you are prone to making mistakes. Mistakes in longer words are very expensive - for instance making a mistake in a 10 character word means a loss of 2 WPM instantly. It's better to take that split second longer to get the word correct. (Tip from Sean Wroma) When touch typing, focus on the word ahead of the current word that you're typing in order to try and maintain a consistent and steady typing rhythm. Having a stop, start rhythm is a massive speed killer, makes it harder to get into flow and, for me at least, always leads to more typing errors. My Recommended Program For Typing Faster Commit to doing at least one month, preferably two months, of practice every day. Your daily practice routine should consist of the folllowing 1) Blind typing of 1,000 words from a book or a kindle. Here the focus is on accuracy. You can't see what you're actually typing so it discourages the use of backspace in order to correct mistakes. Instead you are focused 100% on the text you are copying. At the end of each paragraph, you can check the typing that you've done to see how accurate you are. Your goal here is to be absolutely focused on typing that perfect paragraph, with zero mistakes. In reality, this will be hard to do, but that's what you should aim for. 2) Do at least one 10 minute marathon test here: http://paulmccarthy.co.uk/marathon - this test is designed to build endurance and get you in flow. 3) Do at least one 1 minute speed test here:- http://paulmccarthy.co.uk/sprint Important note about practice:- This shouldn't be easy or enjoyable. You're not having a nice typing session. When you're practicing, it must be focused and difficult. You must feel drained at the end of it - otherwise you are not doing it right. Resources http://10fastfingers.com - a great site for practicing your typing http://paulmccarthy.co.uk/typefb - a great Facebook group for meeting other typists, some of whom are extremely fast! http://www.seanwrona.com/typing.php - typing tips from one of the world's fastest typists (Sean Wrona)

@Frode I think it's great to see that you are grinding hard on your video skills and putting out good stuff. There's also a noticeable improvement between the first video that you put out on your old channel, and the videos that you're putting out now. All in just 6 months, too - keep it going.

If you only want to read one book on the subject, then read this book. If, however, you want to completely immerse yourself in the belief that we have far more control over our ability than most of us realise, then read all of these (I've linked to my notes for the high level summaries of some of the books):- Grit - Angela Duckworth (http://www.evernote.com/l/AL07elDGyIJDppA3Xunkb58LD8oGqjlkSyo/) Mindset - Carol Dweck (http://www.evernote.com/l/AL0yWEwuWJZDlJr76d0f_PgtpcgtSWtl2Kc/) Talent is Overrated - Geoff Colvin (http://www.evernote.com/l/AL3_SoW1_pBBv6P3tODkCNUSh6hRR0FZVLY/) Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell So Good They Can't Ignore You - Cal Newport (http://www.evernote.com/l/AL2gGVOsbTVPUZSiTrqGRmg28FpaWVEA718/) Mastery - Robert Greene Here are my notes for this book, Peak: http://www.evernote.com/l/AL01yTpyVahIaL8sjYv3NLSTJvwZDhska-E/ Hope it helps!

At the bottom of this post, I have embedded a 13 minute video describing what I learnt from this book. Summary:- This book is one of my favorite books because it's a really deep look into what makes high performance. Anders Ericsson is the expert on experts - he's dedicated decades of his life to researching how people become amazing at stuff. The bottom line, and the key takeaway, is that we have a lot more control over our performance than we think. Verdict: Definitely worth reading. I've read a bunch of books relating to performance including (Outliers, Talent is Overrated, So Good they Can't Ignore You, Mindset, Grit) and this is the one I'd recommend above all of them (although they all have golden nuggets in them). Point 1 - High Performance is Under our Control In all his years of research and study, he's never found a single high performer who hasn't spent hours and hours practicing on their craft - there simply hasn't been a single instance of a so-called prodegy, or a natural. He's found that mastery is a result of time spend practicing. But it's not just any old practice that creates exceptional performance. There are actually three different types of practice, and they're not all equal. Point 2 - The Three Different Types of Practice. Naive practice This is akin to doing the same thing over and over again and hoping that you'll get better once you put in the hours. This is like playing the same song on the piano repetitively or jogging at the same speed that you always jog when you exercise. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. In fact, it's worse than that - studies in some areas (one example is doctors) actually show that if you do things "automatically" on a repetitive basis, then you can actually perform worse over time. Purposeful practice This is a step up. This is where you break down what you're trying to get better at into small skills and create specific goals to practice them. You focus hard - this isn't automatic and it requires concentration. You won't enjoy it and you'll be mentally exhausted after a few hours. Even top musicians can only do this for a maximum of four hours per day. Finally you keep trying to do things that you can't already do. You're trying to work just beyond the boundary of your current limits. This kind of practice works really well... but it can be optimised even further. Deliberate Practice The gold standard of practice is deliberate practice. This is purposeful practice but with the addition of an expert coach. The coach should give immediate feedback on the student's efforts. Deliberate practice is the fastest and most efficient method we currently know to get better at anything. It's what we should strive for. Point 3 - Why Deliberate Practice Works so well If you do deliberate practice for long enough, you develop mental representations which allow you to retain and process a huge amount of information automatically and do things that other untrained humans can't. These mental representations are extremely powerful - they trump everything - even intelligence. They're so powerful that to untrained individuals, the abilities seem almost superhuman. Conclusions to be Taken Away from this Book My conclusion from reading this book is that we all have a gift. The gift is that we get to decide what we want to be good at, apply deliberate practice, and get good at it. My Video Explanation of this Book