"Tactical Pistol Shooting" by Erik Lawrence & Mike Pannone

• Skill with the pistol is the measure of shooting proficiency in many units around the globe.
• It is the mastering of the basics that allows a shooter to progress to an “advanced” level, which means doing the basics faster and more accurately.
• No expensive handgun or accessory will replace true skill and solid fundamentals in a less-than-desirable situation.
• It cannot be over emphasized that the difference between marksmanship and combat marksmanship is truly the difference between practicing against paper and fighting for your life.
• Have a plan of why you are going [to a gun range] and know what drills you will practice and then how to execute the exercise while perfecting the proper form/fundamentals.
• Targets are human beings, so you must accept this point before you seriously take on combat-oriented pistol shooting. Competitions are fun and organized; spur-of-the-moment close gunfights are neither fun nor organized.
• Action is always faster than reaction. If someone initiates an attack, you will have to play catch-up. The only way to increase the chances of survival is through preconditioning or mental conditioning.
• If you choose a firearm for personal protection, you have an obligation to perform to a significantly higher level.
• Your mind is what will keep you alive in a gunfight. Your mind is your real weapon.
• The backbone of the combat mindset is the essence of self-control.
• Color Code of Awareness
• White: The color white can be considered to be the absence of alertness. A person in white is totally relaxed, completely unprepared and absolutely unaware of his surroundings. If you are attacked in white, regardless of your ability or equipment, you may not survive.
• Yellow: Yellow is the state of mind in which one is relaxed with a nonspecific alert. There is no immediate threat, but you are alert to any possibility. You are not looking for trouble, but are prepared if it happens. Yellow is comfortable and you can stay in it indefinitely.
• Orange: Orange represents a specific alert. Someone, something, or some action has attracted your attention. It is much easier to move into your reactive or fighting mode from the awareness state of Orange then from Yellow.
• Red: Red is the knowledge that “The fight is on.” This is the state of mind when your “mental trigger” or “go button” is tripped. The decision to use deadly force has been made.
• Principles of self-defense
• alertness
• decisiveness
• aggressiveness
• speed
• coolness/precision
• ruthlessness
• surprise
• fear
• Fear is said to have three components:
• cognitive: Which is an anticipatory anxiety -- a sixth sense.
• physiological: From our body’s chemical cocktail of adrenaline.
• overt behavior: The manifestation of our actions.
• Anger is the proper antidote to fear.
• Gain knowledge of your mind and body’s stress responses. Recognize them and learn what you can do to direct those physiological actions.
• You can manage the effects of fear and the startle response through survival stress management.
• Immediately slow your breathing (tactical breathing)
• Prioritize threats.
• Visualize what needs to be done to stop the attack.
• Take the proper course of action.
• The keys to threat avoidance:
• A street-smart mindset
• threat analysis
• trade-craft
• Accept responsibility for your actions. What you do in a heartbeat will be reviewed by many others over a long period of time. Deal with it.
• Don't’ be a victim. Don’t look like prey.
• Skills are perishable and training must be continuous.
• If you cannot safely handle your weapons, chances are you are just as inept at firing them.
• The primary safety on any weapon is not the mechanical one; it is your brain attached to your shooting index finger, which will be resting along the pistol’s frame until it is placed on the trigger when you decide to shoot.
• Instinct is the inherent disposition of a living organism toward a particular behavior.
• A learned pattern of response is an action that has been learned, and over time has become so rehearsed that it appears to be automatic or “instinctive” (automated neural control).
• Economy of motion is the hallmark of efficient weapons handling. Because it is a learned pattern, economy of motion can and should be continually refined in every training session.
• The modified isosceles stance is the most stable and natural technique for a combat pistol shooter. It also allows the shooter to face square to his target as he would do naturally, giving the added benefit (if wearing body armor) of having his armor cover the maximum amount of critical surface area, while not exposing a far more lethal oblique shot.
• When moving and shooting, take up a good shooting stance and then , as you step off, create a slightly exaggerated bend in the knees and walk heel to toe as though you were sneaking up on someone. Adjust your pace and gait appropriate to your ability and the acceptable level of accuracy required.
• Anywhere from the neck to the pelvis, from the center of the spine and 1.5 inches to the right and left (a 3-inch band with the spine in the center) is called the “spine box”. Shots within that space have a very good chance of disrupting spinal function and rapidly incapacitating a human.
• The shooter should always aim with his dominant eye yet keep his non-dominant eye open also.
• Train to use your natural instincts, not counter them.
• Sight alignment is centering the front sight in the rear sight notch.
• Sight picture is taking sight alignment and superimposing it onto your desired target. A correct sight picture is the proper sight alignment with the front sight placed on the center of mass of the available target.
• Since the eye can focus on only one object at different distances, you must focus on the front sight.
• You must keep both eyes open from the start of learning to shoot, thus allowing you to be more aware of your surroundings when you are aiming.
• Accurate shooting depends greatly on your control of the trigger.
• The part of the index finger to be used is halfway from the tip to the first joint.
• Remove slack and apply initial pressure to the trigger once you are on your target. Then begin applying a positive increase in pressure on the trigger, maintaining a smooth and even press to the rear without interruption. As you maintain your press to the rear, continue applying pressure on the trigger for a split second and release the trigger forward, only far enough to re-engage the sear, but do not allow your finger to lose contact with the trigger. Remove the slack and prepare for the next shot.
• You should maintain concentration on sight alignment even after the shot has been fired.
• Remember to dry fire five times for every one live fire practice; there is no need to waste your training resources on incorrect techniques.
• The draw is essential to all other practical combat shooting.
• For shooting around cover you put the knee down on the side you are shooting around (this limits your exposure).
• Be very cognizant as to your muzzle direction. At no time should it be oriented at anything you are not willing to destroy.
• Dry firing is the best way to practice a draw from concealment.
• Remember, you carry them more than you use them, so you must find a happy medium between comfort and practicality.
• All magazines should face down with the bullets facing forward and to the center of the body.
• Never practice an administrative reload.
• When possible, perform the tactical reload; it is safer to reload with a round in the chamber to fire in an emergency.
• In a fight, reload when you can, not when you are forced to.
• The tactical reload is used to reload your pistol -- either with a fully loaded or almost fully loaded magazine -- before you move or anticipate a renewed assault on your position.
• Proper training will do more to save your life than technology and the arms race to be bigger and better.
• To fix a failure-to-go-into battery malfunction, ensure your finger is off the trigger and outside the trigger guard and then slap the back of the slide with the heel of the non-firing hand.
• The failure-to-fire malfunction occurs when the operator has loaded a dud cartridge or failed to load the chamber. The universal fix for this is the “Slap, Rack, Ready” technique.
• Slap the bottom of the magazine with a hard palm to ensure it is fully seated and locked in.
• Rack the slide fully to the rear and release it to shut by its own recoil spring tension.
• Ready or re-present and prepare to fire the shot as you intended before the malfunction if your situation dictates that action.
• Think about every motion you practice and make sure you know why it is the best solution.
• The failure-to-eject malfunction (commonly called a “stovepipe”) is created usually by the slide being retarded by not setting one’s wrists (“limp wristing”) in its rearward movement to re-chamber the next round or by a broken ejector. This malfunction is easily corrected by sweeping the expended case from the port. With the non-firing hand, extend your fingers, and with fingers join, reach over the slide. Roll your fingers over the top of the slide, and with a firm, vigorous sweeping motion to the rear against the stuck casing, sweep it free.
• The failure-to-extract malfunction (commonly called a “double feed”) is created when the spent casing is not extracted from the chamber, and the next round to be loaded is rammed from the magazine into the rear of the stuck casing.
• With the non-firing hand, rack the slide to the rear and lock it with the slide release by pushing it up into the notch and let the recoil spring tension hold the slide release in the notch.
• Remove the magazine from the pistol.
• Rack the slide to the rear at least two times to ensure the casing is extracted and elected from the pistol.
• Properly insert and seat a loaded magazine with a hard palm.
• Rack the slide fully to the rear and release it to close by its own spring tension.
• Continue the engagement as the situation dictates.
• Most crippling and killing hits result from maintaining the focus on the center of mass.
• Double tap is two shots fired with flash sight pictures at fairly close targets.
• Controlled pair is two well-aimed and well-laced shots at moderate pistol ranges.
• In the common failure-to-stop drill, engage the threat with two rounds to the center of mass, then one to the center of the head. Other variations are to fire two rounds to the center of mass then fire two rounds into the hip/pelvic area to break the pelvic girdle in case the threat is wearing body armour.
• Dry firing: This is the most effective and cost-efficient type of training.
• Never have loaded magazines or ammunition in the room in which you are dry firing.
• The key is to never quit the fight. If you have to head butt the aggressor to death, then this is what you will have to do.
• Shooting drills for practice (In order of progression)
• dry firing practice
• ball-and-dummy drill
• slow-aimed fire
• presentation position three to four drill
• controlled pairs
• double taps
• drawing from a holster
• rhythm drill
• kneeling drill
• prone drill
• supine drill
• high barricade
• low barricade
• turning left/right drill
• turning about drill
• weapon retention
• move forward, stop, shoot, whistle drill
• move forward and shoot whistle drill
• strong-hand draw drill
• weak-hand draw drill
• shooting from a vehicle
• shooting into a vehicle
• shooting while wounded, strong-hand reload
• shooting while wounded, weak-hand reload
• shooting while wounded, strong-hand malfunctions
• shooting while sounded, weak-hand malfunctions

"Stronglifts: 5x5 Report" by Mehdi

• Muscle size is directly related to strength gains.
• The secret to gaining muscle is adding weight to the bar.
• Lifting weights will not make you bulky unless you start eating more.
• The only way you’re going to gain weight is if you start eating more calories than your body burns. Lifting weights only won’t get you there.
• Just get strong, eat lots of healthy foods, and the physique will take care of itself.
• Almost all major muscle magazines own or are owned by a supplement company.
• Most supplements are useless.
• Muscle confusion is a marketing gimmick intended to make you buy each each new issue of a magazine.
• It is a scientific fact that muscle size is directly related to strength gains.
• If you really want to confuse your muscles, here’s a simple way to achieve this: lift more weight than you did last time. Now they’re confused.
• The best training program is the one you stick to.
• If you want to train your stabilizing muscles: lift heavy weights.
• The secret to 5x5 is not the 5 sets of 5 reps. It’s just “a philosophy, a structure, a framework.”
• A major mistake most people make when they first start 5x5 is starting too heavy.
• Consistency is the real secret to long lasting success.
• Stronglifts 5x5 is split into 2 full-body workouts for a total of 3 sessions per week. The first time you go to the gym you do workout A, the next time workout B. You then alternate workout A and B every time you go to the gym for a total of 3 sessions per week.
• Workout A: Squat, Bench Press, Barbell Rows
• Workout B: Squat, Overhead Press, Deadlift
• 3 exercises per workout doesn’t look like a lot, but remember it’s not about the amount of exercises, it’s about the intensity of your training.
• You never ever do Stronglifts 5x5 two days in a row because your body needs recovery to gain muscle and strength. If you do make this mistake, then you won’t be able to add weight each workout.
• Squats are the most important exercise of Stronglifts 5x5.
• You’ll do 5 sets of 5 reps with the same weight on every exercise after you’ve done your warm up sets. There’s one exception, Deadlifts, where you’ll only do 1 set of 5.
• Never jump straight into your work weight, warm up first.
• Always include the weight of your barbell. Olympic barbells weigh 45 lbs.
• You should take about 1 minute of rest between sets. As the weight on the bar increases and you start struggling to get 5 reps on each set, start taking up to 5 minutes rest between sets, this can make the difference between getting 5 reps or not on your next work set.
• Prevent your workouts from getting too long by not taking any rest between you warm up sets.
• Lift as fast as you can on the way up, controlled (but not slow) on the way down.
• Your goal is not to get exhausted, your goal is to add weight on the bar every workout.
• The fastest way to eliminate soreness is to train sore muscles again by going to the gym anyway.
• It’s better to start too light than too heavy.
• You can’t deadlift/row effectively with octagonal plates.
• If you can’t do Barbell Rows correctly with 65lbs, start with the Inverted Row.
• The training strategy of adding weight systematically (called progressive loading) is the key to all the training programs in the Stronglifts ladder of strength.
• Add 5lbs to each exercise every workout. Except on deadlifts, add 10lbs each time. Once deadlifts become challenging, switch to 5lbs increments.
• You’re getting stronger each workout. What is a challenge today will be easy tomorrow.
• Make sure you’re eating at least 3000 calories per day and sleeping 8 hours per night, it’s crucial for optimal recovery.
• If you stall 3 times in a row, deload by 10%.
• Deloads are the most powerful strategy to blast through any plateau, consistently add pounds to your lifts, and gain strength and muscle.
• The main reason why stalling occurs is that your body doesn’t recover in time.
• You should switch to Stronglifts 3x5 after you deload a lift twice. Continue lifting the same on your other lifts.
• Technique is the key to gaining strength and avoiding injuries, and the secret to mastering technique is to practice a lot.
• Ladder of strength:
• 5x5
• 3x5
• 1x5
• Stronglifts Intermediate
• Stronglifts Advanced
• If you can’t squat 300lbs parallel you aren’t advanced.
• You build abs in the kitchen. Six pack abs is all about diet.
• Training more than 3 times per week doesn’t make the program more effective. Less is more. Your muscles need rest to recover, grow bigger, and become stronger.
• Squats will not ruin your knees.

"Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training" by Mark Rippetoe & Lon Kilgore

• No matter what your personal circumstances might be (the universe is unconcerned with such details), you get out of life exactly what you have contributed to the effort.
• Exercise is not a thing we do to fix a problem -- it is a thing we must do anyway, a thing without which there will always be problems.
• The human body functions as a complete system -- it works that way, and it likes to be trained that way.
• Barbells, and the primary exercises we use them to do, are far superior to any other training tools that have ever been devised.
• The only problem with barbell training is the fact that the vast, overwhelming majority of people don’t know how to do it correctly.
• The full range of motion exercise known as the squat is the single most useful exercise in the weight room, and our most valuable tool for building strength, power, and size.
• Total-body power development originates in the hips, and the ability to generate power diminishes with distance from the hips.
• If it’s too heavy to squat below parallel, it’s too heavy to have on your back.
• Set the rack height so that the bar in the rack is at about the level of your mid-sternum.
• We will use a fairly neutral foot placement, with the heels about shoulder width apart, the toes pointed out at about 30 degrees.
• Your feet should be flat on the floor, your knees are shoved out to where they are in a parallel line with your feet, and your knees are just a little in front of your toes.
• Come up out of the bottom by driving your butt straight up in the air. Up, not forward.
• Keep the chest up while you are driving the hips, so that your back maintains a constant angle with the floor as you move out of the deep position.
• Chalk is always a good idea, because it dries out the skin, and dry skin is less prone to folding and abrasion than moist skin, and therefore is less prone to problem callus formation.
• Use the lower position, where the bar is carried just below the spine of the scapula, on top of the posterior deltoids. This lower position shortens the lever arm formed by the weight of the bar transmitted down the back to the hips, producing less torque at the low back and consequently a safer exercise.
• A narrower grip tightens your shoulder muscles so that the bar is supported by muscle and doesn't dig into your back.
• The thumb should be placed on top of the bar, so that the wrist can be held in a straight line with the forearm.
• The correct grip keeps the hand above the bar and all of the weight of the bar on the back.
• The bar should be placed in correct position -- just immediately under the “bone” you feel at the top of the shoulder blades, with the hands and thumb on top of the bar -- and then secured in place by lifting the elbows and the chest at the same time.
• Take a big breath and hold it, look down at a spot on the floor about 6 feet in front your your position, and squat.
• A careless approach to grip placement could result in problems with heavy weights.
• The thumb should be placed on top of the bar, so that the wrist can be held in a straight line with the forearm.
• Elbows should be elevated to the rear with the hands on top, not placed directly under the bar where they intercept part of the weight.
• A common error is the tendency for some lifters to drive the hips forward instead of upward, especially right before the transition point between hp drive and quads, a little above parallel.
• Don’t think about going down while you’re going down -- think about coming up the whole time.
• By far, the two most common knees errors are:
• knees in too much
• knees too far forward, either early in the descent or at the bottom
• The recommended stance is heels at about shoulder width apart, toes pointed out at about 30 degrees.
• Any squat attempt or set of squats you are uncertain you can do or even a little worried about should be spotted by two people.
• A one-person spot for a squat cannot be safely accomplished.
• A properly designed and adjusted belt is useful as a safety device when squatting heavy weights.
• A properly designed belt is four inches wide, all the way around.
• Your belt should be used judiciously, possibly restricted to the last warm-up and work sets, if then. You may not need a belt at all for much of the early part of your training career, and if your abs are strong and your back is uninjured, you may prefer to never use one.
• Dumbbells -- being not tied together between the hands as with a barbell -- require more active, conscious control, are harder to do, and are therefore less commonly done.
• ALWAYS start every lift with an empty bar, whether learning it for the first time or warming up for a personal record.
• Maybe the biggest, dumbest, most common problem involving the hands is the use of the thumbless grip. This is absolutely the worst habit you can develop with regard to safety, and is detrimental to performance as well.
• The grip is thumbless in the squat because the bar is not moving -- you are; for all movements where the bar moves, the full grip should be used. The thumb secures the bar in your grip, and without your thumb around the bar it is merely balanced over the end of your arm.
• Another problem with the thumbless grip is that it diminishes lifting efficiency: what the hands cannot squeeze, the shoulders cannot drive.
• The most efficient transmission of power to the bar would be directly from the heel of the palm to the bar through the forearm position vertically, perpendicular to the bar. Your grip should be positioned with this in mind, with the bar placed directly over the palm heel and then your hand rotated out so that the thumb can hook around the bar.
• The greatest range of motion is obtained with a grip that places the forearms in a vertical position when the bar is on the chest.
• Do not push your head into the bench.
• You need to learn how to tighten up your neck without pushing on the bench with the back of your head. As a practical matter, this involves holding your head about a half-inch off the bench during the rep.
• Bridging takes work away from the target muscles by making the movement mechanically easier.
• The feet need to be wide enough apart to provide lateral stability for the hips and, through the tightness in the trunk muscles, the torso as it is planted on the bench.
• Proper foot position would be flat against the floor so that heels can be used as the base of the drive up the legs. As with most of the things in the weight room, your heels need to be nailed down to the floor.
• Novices should probably take a breath before each rep, hold it during the rep, and exhale at lockout, using the very brief break between reps to make sure everything is set correctly.
• If you can breathe during a rep, you’re not tight enough.
• No rep counts that is touched by anybody other than the lifter. No spotter touches any bar that is still moving up.
• The bar is stuck when it reaches a point of zero upward movement. This will shortly be followed by a deterioration in position as it begins to move down.
• The deadlift builds back strength better than any other exercise, bar none.
• There is no easy way to do a deadlift -- no way to cheat, which explains their lack of popularity in most gyms around the world.
• The deadlift is a simple movement. The bar is pulled off the floor up the legs with straight arms until the knees, hips, and shoulders are locked out.
• It is very easy to do wrong, and a wrong deadlift is a potentially dangerous thing.
• The deadlift is also easy to overtrain; a heavy workout takes a long time to recover from, and this fact must be kept in mind when setting up your training schedule.
• If the bar stays on the floor, the problem is either the grip, an injury producing sufficient pain to distract from the pull, or a lack of experience with pulling a heavy weight that would rather stay where it is.
• Grip strength is crucial to the deadlift, and the deadlift works grip strength better than any other major exercise.
• The lift is famous for its alternate grip, but the use of the double-overhand grip as much as possible makes for stronger hands.
• The back will not pull off the floor what the hands cannot hold, due to proprioceptive feedback that tells the back the weight is too heavy.
• You should apply chalk before you start training every day, for all the lifts.
• Gloves have no place in a serious training program.
• The stance for the deadlift is about the same as the stance for a flat-footed vertical jump, about 12-15 inches between the heels with the toes pointed very slightly out.
• The bar should be about 1 to 1.5 inches from your shins.
• Take your grip on the bar by bending over at the waist, and then bend your knees and lift the chest.
• The grip and the stance are interrelated in that your stance must be set to allow the best grip, and the best grip for the deadlift is one that allows your arms to hang as straight down from the shoulders as possible in order to make the shortest possible distance from the floor to lockout for the bar.
• Make sure you are finishing each deadlift with locked knees.
• Get in the habit of holding the bar locked out at the top for just a second before you set it down, so that a stable position is achieved first.
• The press, performed in rather strict fashion is the most useful upper-body exercise for sports conditioning.
• Rotator cuff problems can be addressed in training before they ever start by making sure that bench press work is balanced by an equivalent amount of overhead work. For every bench press workout there should be at least on press workout.
• Don’t move the bar back. You move your body forward under the bar.
• The term “clean” refers to a way to get the bar clear of the floor “clean” to the shoulders. If this is accomplished in one movement, it is a clean; if in two (if it stops on the way up on the chest or a belt) it is referred to as a “Continental Clean.”
• In the modern usage, the term “clean” refers to a full squat clean.
• The term “power” as a qualifier in front of an exercise refers to an abbreviated version of a more involved movement, the shorter version being harder to perform at the expense of reduced technique requirements.
• The power clean, by training the athlete to move a heavy weight quickly, is the glue that cements the strength program to sports performance.
• Strength developed at a slow rate of speed can only be effectively used slowly, but strength developed at a high rate of speed can be used at that high speed and at speeds slower than that.
• The power clean is not an arms movement, at all, and if you first learn that a jump is the core of the movement, you will never learn to arm-pull the bar.
• When you are racking the bar fairly well, begin to stomp your feet as you catch it.
• This is a very natural movement, and will add explosion to the jump and quickness to the catch, as you anticipate the faster foot movement required to stomp. Again, be sure that each pull starts from the jumping position, touching the thigh with straight elbows. This cannot be overemphasized, as the pull will be wrong if the jump starts from any other position.
• The hips lower the bar to the knees, and the knees lower the bar to the floor.
• The hook grip is critical in enabling heavy weights to be used. It should not be considered optional.
• It is accomplished by simply laying the middle finger on top of the thumbnail as the grip wraps around the bar, and letting the bar settle into the bottom of the “hook” make by the fingers, so that the bar rests in the fingers during the pull, not the tight fist.
• The hook will need to be reset for each rep.
• The entire purpose of the lower half of the pull, the deadlift part, is to get the bar into the jumping position, so that the bar can be accelerated on up to the rack position. As such, it is far more important for the pull from the floor to be correct than it is for it to be fast. Remember this: the bar must be pulled correctly at the bottom and fast at the top.
• Jerking the bar off the floor is the most common problem after the transition to the full power clean from the hand.
• The feet will stomp into their same footprints, or just a little wider.
• After you rack the bar, recover back to a fully upright stance with elbows still in the rack position.
• Eyes should be focus slightly down on a fixed position on the floor in front of you.
• The slow movements rely on absolute strength -- the simple ability to generate force in the correct position -- at their limit capacity, while the quick lifts utilize the ability to apply maximum power at exactly the right time, in exactly the right place.
• The squat, bench press, deadlift, press, and clean form the basis of any successful, well-designed training program.
• The best assistance exercises are those that contribute directly to the performance of the basic movements that produce the most benefit.
• An excellent way to improve a stuck bench press is to add chin-ups to the workout. Chins add enough work to the triceps, forearms, and upper back that the contribution of these muscles groups to the bench press is reinforced for the trainee that needs a little extra work.
• Assistance exercises work by either:
• strengthening a part of a movement, like a partial deadlift -- a rack pull or a halting deadlift
• are variations on the basic exercises, like a stiff-legged deadlift
• are ancillary exercises, which strengthen a portion of the muscle mass involved in the movement in a way that the basic exercises does not, like the chin-up
• When your deadlift gets strong enough that heavy sets of five create more stress than can easily be recovered from within the time frame of your training, it might be good to alternate two assistance exercises instead of the deadlift.
• Rack shrugs are best left for competitive lifters that have trained for a couple of years, and there is no real reason for athletes that are not powerlifters or weightlifters to do them at all.
• If you cannot easily hang clean 135, you have no business doing heavy shrugs.
• Heavy shrugs make the traps grow; there is no doubt about it.
• The term “partial” when applied to squats refers mainly to the use of a non-standard technique that selectively focuses on a portion of the whole squat, and not really to the depth, since most of these methods will involved a full range of motion.
• Anytime a new movement is introduced, be conservative with the weight you use the first time you do the exercise.
• As a general rule, exercises that depend on less muscle mass or fewer muscles groups tend to fail more abruptly in their bar path then exercises that use more muscles.
• The decline press is a rather useless exercise because the angle of the body in the decline position shortens the distance the bar can travel, decreasing the amount of work done with respect to the distance the load moves.
• It should be said that if you are doing both bench presses and presses, everything that the incline press accomplishes is redundant; there is no aspect of shoulder and chest work that these two exercises do not more than adequately cover.
• The SLDL is essentially an RDL off the floor -- without the stretch reflex -- with a couple of other differences.
• Basically, a good morning is performed be bending over with the bar on your neck until your torso gets parallel with the ground or lower and then returning to an upright position.
• Done correctly, good mornings make the back stronger; done incorrectly, they can make the back injured.
• The push press uses momentum generated by the hips and knees to start the bar up, and then the press is finished with the shoulders and triceps as you normally would.
• There is no chin-up like motion in any of the five major lifts, yet chins are a terribly useful exercise. They are multi-joint, they involve the movement of the whole body, they work many muscles groups, and they are dependant on a complete range of motion for their quality -- all characteristics of the major exercises.
• Weighted chin-ups and dips are quite useful at lower reps and heavy weights.
• The pull-up is not only a good exercise, it’s a very good indicator of upper body strength.
• For purposes of this discussion, the term “pull-up” will refer to the version of the exercises with the hands prone, while “chin-up” or just “chin” refers to the supine hand position. The major -- and significant -- difference between the two is the bicep involvement in the chin-up and the lack of it in the pull-up. The additional of the biceps makes chin-ups a little easier than pull-ups, as well as adding the aesthetic elements of arm work to the movement.
• But any version of the chin-up/pull-up, where the whole body moves, is better than the machine version of the exercise, the “lat pulldown,” where only the arms move.
• Weighted chins and pull-ups are an excellent source of heavy non-pressing work for the upper body.
• The quality of an exercise increases with the involvement of more muscles, more joints, and more central nervous system activity needed to control them. The more of the body involved in an exercises, the more of these criteria are met.
• Parallel bars will usually be between 24-26 inches wide, and the most comfortable ones will be made out of 1 ¼ or 1 ½ inch pipe or bar stock. They are between 48 and 54 inches high, tall enough to allow the feet to completely clear the ground at the bottom of the dip.
• The two most common errors in performing dips involve the completeness of the movement. Do your dips deep, with a lighter weight if necessary, so you don’t miss the actual benefit of the exercise. The other problem is a failure to lock the elbows out at the top between reps.
• Barbell rows start on the floor and end on the floor, each and every rep. The bar does not hang from the arms between reps. Each rep is separated by a breath and a reset of the lower back.
• From the correct stance, take the grip on the bar, take a big breath, raise it from the floor with straight elbows to get it moving, and continue it on up by bending the elbows and slamming the bar into the upper part of the belly.
• The back should never get much above horizontal, and if the chest comes up too high on the last reps, the bar is hitting too low, the range of motion for the target muscles has shortened, and the weight is too heavy.
• The isolation of a single muscle group that moves a single joint seldom contributes significantly to other more complex movements which include that muscle group. A good definition of “functional exercise” is a normal human movement that can be performed under a scalable, increasable load.
• The wider the grip, the greater the degree of supination that will be required to maintain that grip, and the greater the supination, the more the biceps will be contracted at full flexion.
• The elbows are kept against the ribcage and start from a position in front of the bar.
• The elbows never straighten completely, since this would mean that tension is off the biceps, but they get close.
• EZ Curls are not nearly as effective as straight-bar curls for recruiting bicep contraction.
• The EZ Curl bar does in fact take the stress of supination off the wrists and elbows, but it does so at the expense of a quality bicep contraction.
• But the EZ Curl bar works fine for the lying triceps extension.
• Exercise is the same thing a getting a tan -- a stress imposed on the body that it can adapt to, but only if the stress is designed properly.
• The adaption occurs in response to the stress, and specifically to that stress, because the stress is what causes the adaptation.
• To get stronger, you must do something that requires that you be stronger to do it, and this must be built into the training program.
• The less experienced the athlete, the simpler the program should be. The stronger you become, the more susceptible you become to overtraining, a condition produced by the body’s inability to adapt to the stress level applied.
• So, as a general rule, you need to try to add weight to the work sets of the exercises every time you train, until you can’t do this anymore. This is the basic tenet of “progressive resistance training.”
• For as long as possible, make sure that you lift more weight each time.
• The deadlift, for instance, improves rather quickly for most people, faster than any of the other lifts, due to it limited range of motion around the hips and knees, and the fact that so many muscles are involved in the lift.
• The more muscle mass involved in an exercise, the faster the exercise can get strong and the stronger it has the potential to be.
• In a trained athlete, the deadlift will be stronger than the squat, the squat stronger than the bench press, the bench press and the power clean close with the bench usually a little stronger, and the press lighter than the other four.
• The squat should be learned first, since it is the most important exercise in the program and its skills are critical to all the other movements.
• Effective workouts need not be long, complicated affairs.
• Progress means more strength, not more exercises.
• It is not necessary to do many different exercises to get strong -- it is necessary to get strong on a very few important exercises, movements that train the whole body as a system, not as a collection of separate body parts.
• Essentially, you squat every workout and alternate the bench press and press, and the deadlift and power clean. This schedule is for three days per week, allowing a two-day rest at the end of the week. It will mean that one week you press and power clean twice, and the next week bench and deadlift twice. The workout should be done in the listed order, squatting first, the upper body movement second, and the pulling movement third.
• People without access to bumper plates may choose to use the barbell row instead of the power clean.
• Warmups server two very important purposes. First, warm ups actually make the soft tissue -- the muscles and tendons, and the ligaments that comprise the joints - warmer. This is important for injury prevention, since it is more difficult to injure a warm body than a cold one. The second function of warmup is especially important in barbell training: it allows you to practice the movement before the weight gets heavy.
• If your schedule does not allow time for proper warm up, it does not allow time for training at all.
• A work set is the heaviest weight or weights to be done in a given workout, the sets that actually produce the stress which causes the adaptation. Warm ups are the lighter sets previous to the work sets. Sets across refers to multiple work sets done with the same weight.
• As a general rule, the time between sets should be sufficient to recover from the previous set, so that fatigue for the prior set does not limit the one about to be done. The heavier the set, the longer the break should be.
• The squat benefits from sets across, usually three sets for novice trainees, as does the bench press and the press.
• The deadlift is hard enough, and is usually done after a lot of squatting, and one heavy set is usually sufficient.
• The power clean can be done with more sets across, since the weight is lighter relative to the squat and deadlift, and the limiting factor is usually technique, not absolute strength.
• Multiple work sets cause the body to adapt to a larger volume of work, which comes in handy when training for sports performance.
• In fact, one of the most effective intermediate strategies for the squat, bench, and press is five sets across of five reps, done once a week as one of the three workout, increasing the weight used by very small manageable amounts each week.
• A set of 20 squats can usually be done with a weight previously assumed to be a 10RM, given the correct mental preparation and a certain suicidal desire to grow or die.
• Psychologically, 20RM work is very hard, due to the pain, and people who are good at it develop the ability to displace themselves from the situation during the set. Or they just get very tough.
• Sets of five reps are a very effective compromise for the novice, and in fact even for the advanced lifter more interested in strength than muscular endurance.
• Training volume is calculated by multiplying the weight on the bar times the reps.
• The effective training of novices takes advantage of the fact that untrained people get strong very quickly at first, and this effect tapers off over time until advanced trainees gain strength only through careful manipulation of all training variables. Novice can, and should, increase the weight of the work sets every workout until this is no longer possible.
• Don’t be afraid to take small jumps -- be afraid to stop improving.
• It is always preferable to take smaller jumps and sustain the progress, then to take bigger jumps and get stuck early.
• It is easier to not get stuck then it is to get unstuck.
• Failure to train as scheduled is failure to follow the program, and if the program is not followed, progress cannot predictably occur.
• If you continually miss workouts, you are not actually training, and your obviously valuable time should be spent more productively elsewhere.
• Resist the temptation to add weight at the expense of correct technique -- you are doing no one any favors when you sacrifice form for wight on the bar.
• A program of this nature tends to produce the correct body weight in an athlete. That is, if you need to be bigger, you will grow, and if you need to lose bodyfat, that happens too.
• Eat 4 or so meals per day, based on meat and egg protein sources, with lots of fruit and vegetables, and lots of milk. Lots. Most sources within the heavy training community agree that a good starting place is one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day, with the rest of the diet makeup up 2500 - 5000 calories, depending on training requirements and body composition.
• People who drink lots of milk during their novice phase get bigger and stronger than people who don’t.
• At home, a good free-weight gym can be built in the garage for the price of three years gym dues.
• The power rack is the most important piece of equipment in the room, second only to the plate-loaded barbell as the most useful piece of gym equipment that has ever been invented. All five primary exercises can be done with a good rack, barbell, and flat bench.
• Your garage gym will not need anything but a flat bench, which should have the same dimensions and simple construction as the support bench without the uprights.
• Bars are the place to spend money, if you have it.
• Cheap bars will bend.
• A good bar should be properly knurled and marked, should be put together with roller pins or snap rings, not bolts, and should require little maintenance beyond wiping it off occasionally.
• All real wight rooms are equipped with standard barbell plates with a 2 inch center hole.
• Standard barbell plates come in 2.5, 5, 10, 25, 35, and 45 lb. sizes. Of these, all are necessary except the 35s. Any loading that involves a 35 can be done with a 25 and a 10, and the space saved on the plate racks can be used for additional, more useful plates.
• Springs work fine for most training purposes. If security is a problem, two can be used on each side.
• Chalk should be provided in the weight room, by either the gym or you. It increases traction between the bar and the hand, reducing the likelihood of lost bars and grip accidents.
• All people who are serious about their training write down their workouts.
• Soreness, unless it is extreme, is no impediment to training.
• If you are not training hard enough to produce occasional soreness, and therefore having to train while sore, you are not training very hard.
• If it has been just a few (fewer than 5 or 6) workouts missed, repeat the last workout you did before the layoff. You should be able to do this, although it may be fairly hard. this approach results in less progress lost than if significant backing-off is done, and the following workout can usually be done in the order it would have been had the layoff not occurred.
• Weight training is precisely scalable to the ability of the individual lifter.

"No More Mr. Nice Guy" by Robert A. Glover

• Nice guys believe that if they are good, giving, and caring, they will in return be happy, loved, and fulfilled.
• The progression from perfect little boy to Nice Guy basically occurs in three stages: abandonment, internalization of toxic shame, and the creation of survival mechanisms.
• The seeking of external validation is just one way in which Nice Guys frequently do the opposite of what works. By trying to please everyone, Nice Guys often end up pleasing nobody--including themselves.
• Humans connect with humans. Hiding one’s humanity and trying to project an image of perfection makes a person vague, slippery, lifeless, and uninteresting.
• Spending extended time alone is an important process in recovering from the Nice Guy Syndrome. When alone, Nice Guys can discover who they are, what they like about themselves, and what rules they choose to govern their lives. I strongly recommend that Nice Guys take trips and retreats by themselves to places where no one knows them.
• Imperfect humans can only connect with other imperfect humans.
• Most folks tend to be attracted to individuals who have some substance and sense of self.
• Since Nice Guys learned to sacrifice themselves in order to survive, recovery must center on learning to put themselves first and making their needs a priority.
• Making the decision to put one’s self first is the hardest part. Actually doing it is relatively easy. When the Nice Guy puts himself first there is only one voice to consider--his own. Decisions are now made by one individual, rather than by a committee.
• Breaking free from the Nice Guy syndrome involves taking responsibility for one’s own needs.
• Telling the truth is not a magic formula for having a smooth life. But living a life of integrity is actually easier than living one built around deceit and distortion.
• Connecting with men is essential for reclaiming masculinity. Building relationships with men requires a conscious effort.
• There are certain things that boys can only learn from men.
• Girls benefit by seeing their fathers set boundaries, ask for what they want in clear and direct ways, work hard, create, produce, have male friends, and make their own needs a priority.
• To help Nice Guys decide if they need to set a boundary with a particular behavior, I have them apply the Second Date Rule. Using the second date rule, Nice Guys ask themselves, “If this behavior had occurred on the second day, would there have been a third?” This question helps them see if they have been putting up with something that they shouldn’t.
• In many ways, humans aren’t much different from pets. People often behave they way they have been trained to behave.
• As in nature, the greatest aphrodisiac is self-confidence.
• Self-respect, courage, and integrity look good on a man.
• Pretty much everything Nice Guys do or don’t do is governed by hear. Their thoughts are funneled through fear-encrusted neurons in their brains. Their interactions are dictated by the politics of fear.
• Because of their fear of success, Nice Guys are masters of self-sabotage.
• Most folks--Nice Guys included--do not consciously take responsibility for creating the kind of life they want. Most people just accept where they are, and act as if they have little power in shaping an exciting, productive, and fulfilling life.
• What one man can do, another man can do.
• The only thing stopping you from having the kind of life you really want is you.
• Remember, no matter what happens, you will handle it.
• A major reason Nice Guys frequently fail to live up to their potential is that they believe they have to do everything themselves.
• A mortgage, a wife, a lack of a degree, debt, children--are all just excuses. Making significant life changes doesn’t require hiking all these things. It means seeing them for what they really are--excuses--and taking small steps in the direction one wants to be going.
• Rules:
• If it frightens you, do it.
• Don’t settle. Every time you settle, you get exactly what you settled for.
• Put yourself first.
• No matter what happens, you will handle it.
• Whatever you do, do it one hundred percent.
• If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got.
• You are the only person on this plant responsible for your needs, wants, and happiness.
• Ask for what you want.
• If what you are doing isn’t working, try something different.
• Be clear and direct.
• Learn to say “no”.
• Don't’ make excuses.
• If you are an adult, you are old enough to make your own rules.
• Let people help you.
• Be honest with yourself.
• Do not let anyone treat you badly. No one. Ever.
• Remove yourself from a bad situation instead of waiting for the situation to change.
• Don’t tolerate the intolerable--ever.
• Stop blaming. Victims never succeed.
• Live with integrity. Decide what feels right to you, then do it.
• Accept the consequences of your actions.
• Be good to yourself.
• Think “abundance”.
• Face difficult situation and conflict head on.
• Don’t do anything in secret.
• Do it now.
• Be willing to let go of what you have so you can get what you want.
• Have fun. If you are not having fun, something is wrong.
• Give yourself room to fail. There are no mistakes, only learning experiences.
• Control is an illusion. Let go. Let life happen.
• Discovering passion and purpose requires figuring out what works and what doesn't. Mature, successful people establish their own rules. These rules are measured by only one standard: do they work?
• By taking responsibility for creating the kind of life you really want, you can become all that you were meant to be.

"Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert B. Cialdini

• The principles—consistency, reciprocation, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity.
• A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason.
• People simply like to have reasons for what they do.
• In fact, automatic, stereotyped behavior is prevalent in much of human action, because in many cases it is the most efficient form of behaving, and in other cases it is simply necessary.
• We too have exploiters who mimic trigger features for our own brand of automatic responding.
• Earlier we suggested that the power of the reciprocity rule is such that by first doing us a favor, strange, disliked, or unwelcome others can enhance the chance that we will comply with one of their requests.
• Although the obligation to repay constitutes the essence of the reciprocity rule, it is the obligation to receive that makes the rule so easy to exploit.
• There is a strong cultural pressure to reciprocate a gift, even an unwanted one; but there is no such pressure to purchase an unwanted commercial product.
• Once a stand is taken, there is a natural tendency to behave in ways that are stubbornly consistent with the stand.
• Set a goal and write it down.
• Public commitments tend to be lasting commitments.
• Whenever one takes a stand that is visible to others, there arises a drive to maintain that stand in order to look like a consistent person.
• We view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.
• As a rule, we will make fewer mistakes by acting in accord with social evidence than contrary to it.
• The greater the number of people who find any idea correct, the more the idea will be correct.
• Because we like to look poised and sophisticated in public and because we are unfamiliar with the reactions of those we do not know, we are unlikely to give off or correctly read expressions of concern when in a grouping of strangers. Therefore, a possible emergency becomes viewed as a nonemergency, and the victim suffers.
• We most prefer to say yes to the requests of someone we know and like.
• The idea of potential loss plays a large role in human decision making.
• Because technology can evolve much faster than we can, our natural capacity to process information is likely to be increasingly inadequate to handle the surfeit of change, choice, and challenge that is characteristic of modern life.

"How to Win Friends & Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

• About 15 percent of one’s financial success is due to one’s technical knowledge and about 85 percent is due to skill in human engineering -- to personality and the ability to lead people.
• My popularity, my happiness and sense of worth depend to no small extent upon my skill in dealing with people.
• Remember that the use of these principles can be made habitual only by a constant and vigorous campaign of review and application.
• Only knowledge that is used sticks in your mind.
• We learn by doing.
• Sharp criticisms and rebukes almost invariably end in futility.
• When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.
• Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.
• We often take our spouses so much for granted that we never let them know we appreciate them.
• In the long run, flattery will do more harm than good.
• Flattery is telling the other person precisely what he thinks about himself.
• In our interpersonal relationships we should never forget that all our associates are human beings and hunger for appreciation.
• The only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it.
• If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as your own.
• The rare individual who unselfishly tries to serve others has an enormous advantage.
• Fundamental techniques in handling people
• Don’t criticize, condemn or complain
• Give honest and sincere appreciation
• Arouse in the other person an eager want
• You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
• People are not interested in you. They are not interested in me. They are interested in themselves -- morning, noon, and after dinner.
• The expression one wears on one’s face is far more important than the clothes one wears on one’s back.
• Everybody in the world is seeking happiness -- and there is one sure way to find it. That is by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn’t depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions.
• Most people don’t remember names, for the simple reason that they don’t take the time and energy necessary to concentrate and repeat and fix names indelibly in their minds.
• Exclusive attention to the person who is speaking to you is very important. Nothing else is so flattering as that.
• To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that other persons will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments.
• Remember that the people you are talking to are a hundred times more interested in themselves and their wants and problems than they are in you and your problems.
• The royal road to a person’s heart is to talk about the things he or she treasures most.
• The unvarnished truth is that almost all the people you meet feel themselves superior to you in some way, and a sure way to their hearts is to let them realize in some subtle way that you recognize their importance, and recognize it sincerely.
• Talk to people about themselves and they will listen for hours.
• Six ways to make people like you
• Become genuinely interested in other people
• Smile
• Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language
• Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
• Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
• Make the other person feel important -- and do it sincerely.
• There is only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argument -- and that is to avoid it.
• You can’t win an argument. You can’t because if you lose it, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it.
• There is a certain degree of satisfaction in having the courage to admit one’s errors. It not only clears the air of guilt and defensiveness, but often helps solve the problem created by the error.
• Any fool can try to defend his or her mistakes -- and most fools do -- but it raises one above the herd and gives one a feelings of nobility and exultation to admit one’s mistakes.
• The skillful speaker gets, at the outset, a number of “Yes” responses.
• Three-fourths of the people you will ever meet are hungering and thirsting for sympathy. Give it to them, and they will love you.
• A person usually has two reasons for doing a thing; one that sounds good and a real one.
• Win people to your way of thinking
• The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
• Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
• If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
• Begin in a friendly way.
• Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
• Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
• Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
• Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
• By sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
• Appeal to the nobler motives.
• Dramatize your ideas.
• Throw down a challenge.
• People are more likely to accept an order if they have had a part in the decision that caused the order to be issued.
• Even if we are right and the other person is definitely wrong, we only destroy ego by causing someone to lose face.
• We all crave appreciation and recognition, and will do almost anything to get it. But nobody wants insincerity. Nobody wants flattery.
• If you want to improve a person in a certain respect, act as though that particular trait were already one of his or her outstanding characteristics.
• The effective leader should keep the following guidelines in mind when it is necessary to change attitudes or behavior:
• Be sincere. Do not promise anything that you cannot deliver. Forget about the benefits to yourself and concentrate on the benefits to the other person.
• Know exactly what it is you want the other person to do.
• Be empathetic. Ask yourself what it is the other person really wants.
• Consider the benefits that person will receive from doing what you suggest.
• Match those benefits to the other person’s wants.
• When you make your request, put it in a form that will convey to the other person the idea that he personally will benefit.
• Be a leader
• Begin with praise and honest appreciation
• Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly
• Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
• Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
• Let the other person save face.
• Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in you praise.”
• Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
• Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
• Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

"How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big" by Scott Adams

• When it comes to any big or complicated question, humility is the only sensible point of view.
• In our messy, flawed lives, the nearest we can get to truth is consistency. Consistency is the bedrock of the scientific method.
• Goals are for losers.
• Your mind isn’t magic. It’s a moist computer you can program.
• The most important metric to track is your personal energy.
• Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success.
• Happiness is health plus freedom.
• Luck can be managed, sort of.
• Conquer shyness by being a huge phony (in a good way).
• Fitness is the lever that moves the world.
• Simplicity transforms ordinary into amazing.
• Most people have poor filters for sorting truth from fiction, and there’s no objective way to know if you’re particularly good at it or not.
• When you stand in front of an audience, your sensation of time is distorted. That’s why inexperienced presenters speak too rapidly.
• Failure always brings something valuable with it.
• Success caused passion more than passion cases success.
• Passion can be a simple marker for talent. We humans tend to enjoy doing things we are good at, while not enjoying things we suck at.
• Forget about passion when you’re planning your path to success.
• Energy is good. Passion is bullshit.
• Failure is where success likes to hide in plain sight.
• If success were easy, everyone would do it. It takes effort. That fact works to your advantage because it keeps lazy people out of the game.
• Good ideas have no value because the world already has too many of them. The market rewards execution, not ideas.
• Timing is often the biggest component of success. And since timing is often hard to get right unless you are psychic, it makes sense to try different things until you get the timing right by luck.
• There is no such thing as useful information that comes from a company management.
• Every time you get a new job, immediately start looking for another one. Job seeking is an ongoing process.
• Always be looking for a better deal.
• Your job is not your job; your job is to find a better job.
• People who use systems do better.
• To put it bluntly, goals are for losers.
• A system is something you do on a regular basis that increases your odds of happiness in the long run. If you do something every day, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal.
• The minimum requirement of a system is that a reasonable person expects it to work more often than not.
• A spectacular system beats passion every time.
• The world offers so many alternatives that you need a quick filter to eliminate some options and pay attention to others. Whatever your plan, focus is always important.
• If you want success, figure out the price, then pay it.
• When you decide to be successful in a big way, it means you acknowledge the price and you’re willing to pay it.
• Successful people don’t wish for success; they decide to pursue it.
• When it comes to the topic of generosity, there are three kinds of people in the word:
• selfish
• stupid
• burden on others
• The most important form of selfishness involves spending time on your fitness, eating right, pursuing your career, and still spending quality time with your family and friends.
• Often all one needs is some form of permission to initiate a change, and it doesn’t really matter what form the permission is in, or if it even makes sense.
• I make choices that maximize my personal energy because that makes it easier to manage all of the other priorities.
• One of the most important tricks for maximizing your productivity involves matching your mental state to the task.
• You might not think you’re an early morning person. But once you get used to it, you might never want to go back. You can accomplish more by the time other people wake up than most people accomplish all day.
• Some people are what I call simplifiers and some are optimizers. A simplifier will prefer the easy way to accomplish a task, while knowing that some amount of extra effort might have produced a better outcome. An optimizer looks for the very best solution even if extra complexity increases the odds of unexpected problems.
• The cost of optimizing is that it’s exhausting and stress inducing.
• If a situation involves communication with others, simplification is almost always the right answer. If the task is something you can do all by yourself, or with a partner who is on your wavelength, optimizing might be a better path if you can control most variables in the situation.
• I prefer simplicity whenever I”m choosing a system to use. People can follow simple systems better than complicated ones.
• If you can’t tell whether a simple plan or a complicated one will be the best, choose the simple one.
• If the cost of failure is high, simple tasks are the best because they are easier to manage and control.
• Optimizing is often the strategy of people who have specific goals and feel the need to do everything in their power to achieve them.
• Simplifying is generally the strategy of people who view the world in terms of systems.
• The best systems are simple. and for good reason. Complicated systems have more opportunities for failure.
• Simple systems are probably the best way to achieve success. Once you have success, optimizing begins to have more value.
• Start-ups often to better by slapping together some things that is 80 percent good and seeing how the public responds. There’s time to improve things later if the market cares about the product.
• Another big advantage of simplification is that it frees up time, and time is one of your most valuable resources in the world.
• One of the biggest obstacles to success--and a real energy killer-is the fear that you don’t know how to do the stuff that your ideal career plans would require.
• When you start asking questions, you often discover that there’s a simple solution.
• Keep in mind that every time you wonder how to do something, a few hundred million people have probably wondered the same thing.
• When you know how to do something, you feel more energized to take it on.
• One of the best ways to pollute the energy in a group situation is by being a total asshole. You might succeed in getting people fully energized, but it won’t be in a productive way.
• Your self-interest is best served by being a reasonable person whenever you can muster it.
• Good health and sufficient money are necessary for a base level of happiness, but you need to be right with your family, friends, and romantic partners to truly enjoy life.
• Exercise, food, and sleep should be your first buttons to push if you’re trying to elevate your attitude and raise your energy.
• Your body and mind will respond automatically to whatever images you spend the most time pondering.
• Smiling makes you feel better even if your smile is fake. This is the clearest example of how your brain has a user interface.
• A great strategy for success in life is to become good at something, anything, and let that feeling propel you to new and better victories. Success can be habit-forming.
• You shouldn’t hesitate to modify your perception to whatever makes you happy, because you’re probably wrong about the underlying nature of reality anyway.
• Free yourself from the shackles of an oppressive reality. What’s real to you is what you imagine and what you feel. If you manage your illusions wisely, you might get what you want, but you won’t necessarily understand why it worked.
• Never assume you understand the odds of things.
• One helpful rule of thumb for knowing where you might have a little extra talent is to consider what you were obsessively doing before you were ten years old.
• There’s a strong connection between what interests you and what you’re good at.
• Where there is a tolerance for risk, there is often talent.
• Things that will someday work out well start out well. Things that will never work start out bad and stay that way.
• The best predictor is not the average response. Averages don’t mean much for entertainment products. What you're looking for is an unusually strong reaction from some subset of the public, even if the majority hates it.
• One of the best ways to detect the x factor is to watch what customers do about your idea or product, not what they say. People tend to say what they think you want to hear or what they think will cause the least pain. What people do is far more honest.
• If the first commercial version of your work excites no one to action, it’s time to move on to something different. Don’t be fooled by the opinions of friends and family. They’re all liars.
• There’s no denying the importance of practice. The hard part is figuring out what to practice.
• Success isn’t magic; it’s generally the product of picking a good system and following it until lucks finds you.
• You can manipulate your odds of success by how you choose to fill out the variables in the formula. The formulae, roughly speaking, is that every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success.
• The idea is that you can raise your market value by being merely good--not extraordinary--at more than one skill.
• When it comes to skills, quantity often beats quality.
• While we all think we knows the odds in life, there’s a good chance you have some blind spots. Finding those blinds spots is a big deal.
• I made a list of the skills in which I think every adult should gain a working knowledge:
• public speaking
• psychology
• business writing
• accounting
• design (the basics)
• conversation
• overcoming shyness
• second language
• golf
• proper grammar
• persuasion
• technology (hobby level)
• proper voice technique
• Praise has a transformative power versus the corrosive impact of criticism.
• Psychology is embedded in everything we do.
• Quality is not an independent force in the universe; it depends on what you choose as your frame of reference.
• Success in anything usually means doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t.
• It’s a good idea to make psychology our lifelong study. Most of what you need to know as a regular citizen can be gleaned from the internet.
• If you believe people use reason for the important decisions in life, you will go through life feeling confused and frustrated that others seem to have bad reasoning skills. The reality is that reason is just one of the drivers of our decisions, and often the smallest one.
• It is tremendously useful to know when people are using reason and when they are rationalizing the irrational. You’re wasting your time if you try to make someone see reason when treason is not influencing the decision.
• A lie that makes a voter feel good is more effective than a hundred rational arguments. That’s even true when the voter knows the lire is a lie.
• Few things are as destructive and limiting as a worldview that assumes people are mostly rational.
• The way a product makes peoples feel trumps most other considerations, including price.
• Rational behavior is especially useless in any situation that is too complex for a human to grasp.
• Consumers make largely uninformed decisions and convince themselves they did well.
• Business writing is also the foundation for humor writing. Unnecessary words and passive writing kill the timing of humor the same way they kill the persuasiveness of your point.
• The most common [design] layout is the L-shaped layout. You imagine a giant letter L on the page and fill in the dense stuff along it’s shape, leaving less clutter in one of the four open quadrants.
• [To make conversation] all you do is introduce yourself and ask questions until you find a point of mutual interest.
• What’s your name?
• Where do you live?
• Do you have a family?
• What do you do for a living?
• Do you have any hobbies/sports?
• Do you have any travel plans?
• While most people enjoy humor, the typical person doesn’t go directly there before getting to know someone.
• Nothing is easier than talking about one’s self.
• Your job as a conversationalist is to keep asking questions and keep looking for something you have in common with the stranger, or something that interests you enough to wade into the topic.
• The most important key to good storytelling is preparation. You don’t want to figure out your story as you tell it.
• The basic parts of a good party story are:
• setup
• There’s only one important rule for a story setup: Keep it brief.
• Try to keep your setup to one sentence, two at most.
• pattern
• Establish a pattern that your story will violate.
• foreshadowing
• Foreshadowing means you leave some clues about where the story is going.
• characters
• Fill in the story with some character traits that will be relevant.
• All good stories are about personalities.
• relatability
• There is one topic that people care more about than any other: themselves.
• Pick story topics that your listeners will relate to.
• twist
• Your story isn’t a story unless something unexpected or unusual happens.
• If you don’t have a twist, it’s not a story.
• Here are a few topics you should avoid:
• food
• television show plots
• dreams
• medical stories
• Smile, ask questions, avoid complaining and sad topics, and have some entertaining stories ready to go. It’s all you need to be in the top 10 percent of all conversationalists.
• Overcome shyness by imagining you are acting instead of interacting. And by that I mean literally acting.
• The single best tip for avoiding shyness involves harnessing the power of acting interested in other people.
• You should also try to figure out which people are thin people and which ones are people people. Thing people enjoy hearing about new technology and other clever tools and possessions. People people enjoy only conversations that involve humans doing interesting things.
• The thing that golf does well is that it allows males, especially, to bond. And for adult men, gold is as close as you can get to a universal activity.
• Nearly every interaction with others involves some form of persuasion, even if it’s subtle.
• Being a good persuader is like having a magic power.
• Persuasive words and phrases:
• Because
• Would you mind…?
• I’m not interested.
• I don’t do that.
• I have a rule…
• I just wanted to clarify…
• Is there anything you can do for me?
• Thank you
• This is just between you and me.
• People are more cooperative when you ask for a favor using a sentence that includes the word because, even if the reason you offer makes little or no sense.
• People tend to double down when challenged, no matter how wrong they are.
• Research shows that people will automatically label you a friend if you share a secret.
• Decisiveness looks like leadership.
• Reasonable people generally cave in to irrational people because it seems like the path of least resistance.
• Studies show a commanding voice is highly correlated with success.
• The 7 habits of highly effective people:
• be proactive
• begin with the end in mind
• put first things first
• think win-win
• seek first to understand then be understood
• synergize
• sharpen the saw
• Here’s my own list of the important patterns for success that I’ve notice over the years.
• Lack of fear of embarrassment.
• Education (the right kind)
• Exercise
• A lack of fear of embarrassment is what allows one to be proactive. It’s what makes a person take on challenges that others write off as too risky.
• Generally speaking, the people who have the right kind of education have almost no risk of unemployment.
• There’s one more pattern I see in successful people: They treat success as a learnable skill. That means they figure out what they need and they go and get it.
• Don’t make fun of people too often. If that starts to look like a pattern, people will assume you’re talking behind their backs as well.
• Affirmations are simply the practice of repeating to yourself what you want to achieve while imagining the outcome you want.
• You don’t need to know why something works to take advantage of it.
• To change yourself, part of the solution might involve spending more time with the people who represent the change you seek.
• The only reasonable goal in life is maximizing your total lifetime experience of something called happiness.
• Step one in your search for happiness is to continually work toward having control of your schedule.
• In your personal life and your career, consider schedule flexibility when making any big decision.
• Happiness has more to do with where you’re heading than where you are.
• Slow and steady improvement at anything makes you feel that you are on the right track.
• If you are lucky enough to have career options, and only one of them affords a path of continual improvement, choose that one, all else being equal.
• I’m here to tell you that the primary culprit in your bad moods is a deficit in one of the big five: flexible schedule, imagination, sleep, diet, and exercise.
• No one wants to believe that the formula for happiness is as simple as daydreaming, controlling your schedule, napping, eating right, and being active every day.
• The problem with options is that choosing any path can leave you plagued with self-doubt.
• Recapping the happiness formula:
• eat right
• exercise
• get enough sleep
• imagine an incredible future (even if you don’t believe it)
• work toward a flexible schedule
• do things you can steadily improve at
• help others (if you’ve already helped yourself)
• reduce daily decisions to routine
• Whenever it’s practical and safe, consider your body a laboratory in which you can test different approaches to health.
• Science has demonstrated that humans have a limited supply of willpower. If you use up your supply resisting one temptation, it limits your ability to resist others.
• The trick to eating right is to keep willpower out of the equation for your diet.
• Simplification is often the difference between doing something you know you should do and putting it off.
• No one needs willpower to do the things they enjoy.
• Fitness is a simple thing made absurdly complicated by market forces.
• There are three practical ways to schedule exercise in a marriage or marriage like situation:
• join an organized team
• always exercise at the same time every day
• exercise together (if you both really mean it)
• Exercise becomes a habit when you do it every day without fail.
• Every time we add new skills and broaden our network of contacts, our market value increases.
• If you think your odds of solving your problem are bad, don’t rule out the possibility that what is really happening is that you are bad at estimating odds.
• There is plenty of science to support the idea that we humans tend to remember the things we want to remember and forget the things we’d rather forget.
• Learning multiple skills makes your odds of success dramatically higher than learning one skill.
• If you stay in the game long enough, luck has a better chance of finding you.
• Avoid career traps such as pursuing jobs that require you to sell your limited supply of time while preparing you for nothing better.
• Happiness is the only useful goal in life.
• Some skills are more important than others, and you should acquire as many of those key skills as possible, including public speaking, business writing, a working understanding of the psychology of persuasion, an understanding of basic technology concepts, social skills, proper voice technique, good grammar, and basic accounting.
• Develop a habit of simplifying.
• Learn how to make small talk with strangers, and learn how to avoid being an asshole.
• People who seem to have good luck are often the people who have a system that allows luck to find them.
• Always remember that failure is your friend. It is the raw material of success. Invited it in. Learn from it.

"Eat That Frog!" by Brian Tracy

• There is never enough time to do everything you have to do. The fact is you are never going to get caught up. You will never get on top of your tasks.
• No matter how many personal productivity techniques you master, there will always be more to do than you can ever accomplish in the time you have available to you, no matter how much it is.
• The ability to concentrate singlemindedly on your most important task, to do it well and to finish it completely, is the key to great success, achievement, respect, status, and happiness in life.
• The key to success is action.
• The first rule of frog eating is this: If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.
• Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else.
• The second rule of frog eating is this: If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.
• The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity is to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing each morning.
• Successful people, effective people are those who launch directly into their major tasks and then discipline themselves to work steadily and single-mindedly until those tasks are complete.
• Practice is the key to mastering any skill.
• With practice, you can learn any behavior or develop any habit that you consider either desirable or necessary.
• All improvements in your outer life begin with improvements on the inside, in your mental pictures.
• You have a virtually unlimited ability to learn and develop new skills, habits, and abilities.
• Clarity is perhaps the most important concept in personal productivity. The number one reason why some people get more work done faster is because they are absolutely clear about their goals and objectives, and they don’t deviate from them. The greater clarity you have regarding what you want and the steps you will have to take to achieve it, the easier it will be for you to overcome procrastination, eat your frog, and complete the task before you.
• You’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to achieve your goal when you break it down into individual tasks.
• Take action on your plan immediately.
• An average plan vigorously executed is far better than a brilliant plan on which nothing is down. For you to achieve any kind of success, execution is everything.
• Always work from a list. When something new comes up, add it to the list before you do it.
• Make your list the night before for the workday ahead.
• When you have a project of any kind, begin by making a list of every step that you will have to complete to finish the project from beginning to end. Organize the steps by priority and sequence. Lay out the project so that you can see every step and task. Then go to work on one task at a time.
• One of the most important rules of personal effectiveness is the 10/90 rule. This rule says that the first 10 percent of time that you spend planning and organizing your work before you begin will save you as much as 90 percent of the time in getting the job done once you get started.
• The [Pareto] principle says that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results. This means that if you have a list of ten items to do, two of those items will turn out to be worth five or ten times or more than the other eight items put together.
• You must adamantly refuse to work on tasks in the bottom 80 percent while you still have tasks in the top 20 percent left to be done.
• Before you begin work, always ask yourself, “Is this task in the top 20 percent of my activities or in the bottom 80 percent?”
• Rule: Resist the temptation to clear up small things first.
• Remember, whatever you choose to do over and over eventually becomes a habit that is hard to break.
• The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place.
• Your ability to choose between the important and the unimportant is the key determinate of your success in life and work.
• The mark of the superior thinker is his or her ability to accurately predict the consequences of doing or not doing something.
• If a task or activity has large potential positive consequences, make it a top priority and get started on it immediately.
• Rule: There will never be enough time to do everything you have to do.
• It is much better to plan your time carefully in advance and then build in a sizeable buffer to compensate for unexpected delays and diversions. However much time you think a task will take, add on another 20 percent or more, or make a game of getting the job done well in advance of the deadline.
• Do first things first and second things not at all.
• Put off eating smaller or less ugly frogs. Eat the biggest and ugliest frogs before anything else. Do the worst first!
• Rule: You can get your time and your life under control only to the degree to which you discontinue lower-value activities.
• One of the most powerful of all words in time management is the word no!. Say it politely. Say it clearly so that there are no misunderstandings. Sat it regularly as a normal part of your time management vocabulary.
• Say no to anything that is not a high-value use of your time and your life.
• Remember that you have no spare time.
• The rule is that you should delegate everything that someone else can do so that you can free up more time for the tasks that only you can do.
• The key result areas of management are planning, organizing, staffing, delegating, supervision, measuring, and reporting. These are the areas in which a manager must get results to succeed in his or her area of responsibility.
• The key result areas of sales are prospecting, building rapport and trust, identifying needs, presenting persuasively, answering objections, closing the sale, and getting resales and referrals.
• The starting point of performance is for you to identify the key result areas of your work.
• Rule: Your weakest key result area sets the height at which you can use all your other skills and abilities.
• One of the major reasons for procrastination in the workplace is that people avoid jobs and activities in those areas where they have performed poorly in the past.
• The better you become in a particular skill area, the more motivated you will be to perform that function, the less you will procrastinate, and the more determined you will be to get the job finished.
• Here is one of the greatest questions you will ever ask and answer: “What one skill, if I developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my career?”
• The good news is that all business skills are learnable.
• One of the fastest and best ways to stop procrastinating and get more things done faster is for you to become absolutely excellent in your key result areas. This can be as important as anything else you do in your life or your career.
• Make a habit of doing analysis regularly for the rest of your career. Never stop improving. This decision alone can change your life.
• Perhaps the most important word in the world of work is contribution. Your rewards, both financial and emotional, will always be in direct proportion to your results, to the value of your contribution. If you want to increase your rewards, you must focus on increasing the value of what you do.
• You must never forget that your ultimate goal is to live a long, happy, and healthy life.
• The main reason to develop time management skills is so that you can complete everything that is really important in your work and and free up more and more time to do the things in your personal life that give you the greatest happiness and satisfaction.
• The critical determinate of the quality of your relationships is the amount of time that you spend face-to-face with the people you love, and who love you in return.
• Rule: Is is the quality of time at work that counts and the quantity of time at home that matters.
• Your goal should be to perform at your very best at work--to get the very most done and enjoy the very highest level of rewards possible for you in your career.
• One of the best ways for you to overcome procrastination and get more things done faster is to have everything you need at hand before you being.
• The most productive people take the time to create a work area where they enjoy spending time. The cleaner and neater your work area before you begin, the easier it will be for you to get started and keep going.
• Once you have completed your preparations, it is essential that you launch immediately toward your goals. Get started. Do the first thing, whatever it is.
• Be prepared to fail over and over before you get it right.
• The only way to overcome your fear is to “do the thing you fear, as Emerson wrote, “and the death of fear is certain.”
• The way you develop the courage you need is to act as if you already had the courage and behave accordingly.
• One of the best ways to overcome procrastination is for you to get your mind off the huge tasks in front of you and focus on a single action that you can take. One of the best ways to eat a large frog is for you to take it one bite at a time.
• You can accomplish the biggest task in your life by disciplining yourself to take it just one step at a time.
• A great life or a great career is build by performing one task at a time, quickly and well, and then going on to the next task.
• Upgrading your skills is one of the most important personal productivity principles of all. Learn what you need to learn so that you can do your work in an excellent fashion.
• A major reason for procrastination is a feeling of inadequacy, a lack of confidence, or an inability in a key area of a task. Feeling weak or deficient in a single area is enough to discourage you from starting the job at all.
• Personal and professional improvement is one of the best time savers there is. The better you are at a key task, the more motivated you are to launch into it.
• Refuse to allow a weakness or a lack of ability in any area hold you back. Everything is learnable. And what others have learned, you can learn as well.
• Rule: Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.
• Three Steps to Master:
• First, read in your field for at least one hour every day.
• Second, take every course and seminar available on the key skills that can help you.
• Third, listen to audio programs in your car.
• Your most valuable asset in terms of cash flow is your earning ability.
• One of your great responsibilities in life is for you to decide for yourself what you really love to do and then to throw your whole heart into doing that special thing very, very well.
• Only about 2 percent of people can work entirely without supervision. We call these people “leaders.”
• The standards you set for your own work and behavior should be higher than anyone else could set for you.
• One of the best ways for you to overcome procrastination is by working as though you had only one day to get your most important jobs done.
• Successful people continually put the pressure on themselves to perform at high levels. Unsuccessful people have to be instructed and supervised and pressured by others.
• One of the most important requirements for being happy and productive is for you to guard and nurture your energy levels at all times.
• One of the smartest things you can do is to turn off the television and get to bed by 10pm each night during the week. Sometimes one extra hour of sleep per night can change your entire life.
• Most of your emotions, positive or negative, are determined by how you talk to yourself on a minute-to-minute basis. It is not what happens to you but the way that you interpret the things that are happening to you that determines how you feel.
• Refuse to complain about your problems. Keep them to yourself.
• Optimists always seek the valuable lesson in every setback or difficulty.
• Optimists always look for the solution to every problem.
• Keep your mind positive by accepting complete responsibility for yourself and for everything that happens to you. Refuse to criticize others, complain, or blame others for anything. Resolve to make progress rather than excuses.
• The purpose of modern technology is largely to increase the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of the transfer of information of all kinds. Technology is meant to help us improve the quality of our lives by enabling us to accomplish our key tasks and communicate with the key people in our world faster and more efficiently than ever before.
• Technology is there to help you, not hinder you.
• One of the best rules for dealing with technology is to just “leave it off.” Resist the urge to start turning on communication devices as soon as you wake up in the morning.
• Deliberately create zones of silence in your life where no one and nothing can break through and reach you.
• Sometimes, to get more done of higher value, you have to stop doing things of lower value. Keep asking yourself, “What’s important here?”
• Very few things are so important that they cannot wait.
• Become action oriented. A common quality of high-performance men and women is that when they hear a good idea, they take action on it immediately.
• One of the best work habits of all is to get up early and work at home in the morning for several hours.
• One of the keys to high levels of performance and productivity is to make every minute count.
• One of the simplest and yet most powerful ways to get yourself started is to repeat the words “Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!” over and over to yourself.
• Your ability to select your most important task, to begin it, and then to concentrate on it single-mindedly until it is complete is the key to high levels of performance and personal productivity.
• The truth is that once you have decided on your number on task, anything else that you do other than that is a relative waste of time. Success in any area requires tons of discipline.
• Self-discipline, self-mastery, and self-control are the basic building blocks of character and high performance.
• The key to happiness, satisfaction, great success, and a wonderful feeling of personal power and effectiveness is for you to develop the habit of eating your frog first thing every day when you start work.
• You can get control of your tasks and activities only to the degree that you stop doing some things and start spending more time on the few activities that can really make a difference in your life.
• You will never be caught up.
• Your success in life and work will be determined by the kinds of habits that you develop over time.
• Your mental picture of yourself has a powerful effect on your behavior.
• Here is a great rule for success: Think on paper.
• Step one: Decide exactly what you want. Step two: Write it down. Step three: Set a deadline on your goal; set sub deadlines if necessary. Step four: Make a list of everything that you can of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. Step five: Organize the list into a plan. Step six: Take action on your plan immediately. Step seven: Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal.
• One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.
• Once you start moving, keep moving. Don’t stop. This decision, this discipline alone, can dramatically increase your speed of goal accomplishment and boost your personal productivity.
• Every morning when you begin, take action on the most important task you can accomplish to achieve your most important goal at the moment.
• Your mind, your ability to think, plan, and decide, is your most powerful tool for overcoming procrastination and increasing your productivity.
• Steady, visible progress propels you forward and helps you to overcome procrastination.
• The most valuable tasks you can do each day are often the hardest and most complex But the payoff and rewards for completing these tasks efficiently can be tremendous.
• Rule: Long-term thinking improves short-term decision making.
• Rule: Future intent influences and often determines present actions.
• Rule: There will never be enough time to do everything you have to do.
• “Why am I on the payroll?” This is one of the most important questions you can ever ask and answer, over and over again, throughout your career.
• My personal rule is “Get it 80 percent right and then correct it later.” Run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes. Don’t expect perfection the first time or even the first few times. Be prepared to fail over and over before you get it right.
• The biggest enemies we have to overcome on the road to success are not a lack of ability and a lack of opportunity but fears of failure and rejection and the doubts that they trigger. The only way to overcome your fears is to “do the thing you fear,” as Emerson wrote, “and the death of fear is certain.”
• Continually upgrade your skills in your key result areas.
• Dedicate yourself to becoming one of the most knowledgeable and competent people in your field.
• Turn driving time into learning time.
• Successful people are invariably those who have taken the time to identify what they do well and most enjoy.
• Whatever you have to do, there is always a limiting factor that determines how quickly and well you get it done.
• The 80/20 Rule also applies to the constraints in your life and in your work. This means that 80 percent of the constraints, the factors that are holding you back from achieving your goals, are internal.
• To reach your full potential, you must form the habit of putting the pressure on yourself and not waiting for someone else to come along and do it for you.
• See yourself as a role model for others. Raise the bar on yourself.
• The fact is that your productivity begins to decline after eight or nine hours of work.
• Here is a rule for you. Take one full day off every week.
• Remember, you become what you think about most of the time.
• Refuse to criticize others, complain or blame others for anything.
• The purpose of technology is to make your life smoother and easier, not to create complexity, confusion, and stress.
• Work steadily and continuously without diversion or distraction by planning and preparing your work in advance.
• Perhaps the most outwardly identifiable quality of high-performing men and women is action orientation.
• Highly productive people take the time to think, plan, and set priorities.
• A fast tempo seems to go hand in hand with all great success.
• Move rapidly in every important area of your life.
• Every great achievement of humankind has been preceded by a long period of hard, concentrated work until the job was done.
• By concentrating single-mindedly on your most important task, you can reduce the time required to complete it by 50 percent or more.
• Rules:
• 1. Set the table: Decide exactly what you want. Clarity is essential. Write out your goals and objectives before you begin.
• 2. Plan every day in advance: Think on paper. Every minute you spend in planning can save you five or ten minutes in execution.
• 3. Apply the 80/20 Rule to everything: Twenty percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results. Always concentrate your efforts on that top 20 percent.
• 4. Consider the consequences: Your most important tasks and priorities are those that can have the most serious consequences,positive or negative, on your life or work. Focus on these above all else.
• 5. Practice creative procrastination:Since you can’t do everything, you must learn to deliberately put off those tasks that are of low value so that you have enough time to do the few things that really count.
• 6. Use the ABCDE Method continually: Before you begin work on a list of tasks, take a few moments to organize them by value and priority so you can be sure of working on your most important activities.
• 7. Focus on key result areas: Identify and determine those results that you absolutely, positively have to get to do your job well, and work on them all day long.
• 8. The Law of Three:Identify the three things you do in your work that account for 90 percent of your contribution, and focus on getting them done before anything else. You will then have more time for your family and personal life.
• 9.Prepare thoroughly before you begin: Have everything you need at hand before you start. Assemble all the papers, information, tools, work materials, and numbers you might require so that you can get started and keep going.
• 10. Take it one oil barrel at a time: You can accomplish the biggest and most complicated job if you just complete it one step at a time.
• 11. Upgrade your key skills: The more knowledgeable and skilled you become at your key tasks, the faster you start them and the sooner you get them done.
• 12. Leverage your special talents:Determine exactly what it is that you are very good at doing, or could be very good at, and throw your whole heart into doing those specific things very, very well.
• 13. Identify your key constraints: Determine the bottlenecks or choke points, internal or external, that set the speed at which you achieve your most important goals, and focus on alleviating them.
• 14. Put the pressure on yourself: Imagine that you have to leave town for a month, and work as if you had to get all your major tasks completed before you left.
• 15. Maximize your personal power: Identify your periods of highest mental and physical energy each day, and structure your most important and demanding tasks around these times. Get lots of rest so you can perform at your best.
• 16. Motivate yourself into action: Be your own cheerleader. Look for the good in every situation. Focus on the solution rather than the problem. Always be optimistic and constructive.
• 17. Get out of the technological time sinks: Use technology to improve the quality of your communications, but do not allow yourself to become a slave to it. Learn to occasionally turn things off and leave them off.
• 18. Slice and dice the task: Break large, complex tasks down into bite-sized pieces, and then do just one small part of the task to get started.
• 19. Create large chunks of time: Organize your days around large blocks of time where you can concentrate for extended periods on your most important tasks.
• 20. Develop a sense of urgency: Make a habit of moving fast on your key tasks. Become known as a person who does things quickly and well.
• 21. Single handle every task: Set clear priorities, start immediately on your most important task, and then work without stopping until the job is 100 percent complete. This is the real key to high performance and maximum personal productivity.