The Road to Becoming a Billionaire Pt.1 (on Iced Coffee Hour) | Ep 679

Have you ever spent a long time worrying about a problem only to end up feeling stressed and no closer to a solution? In Stop Overthinking, Nick Trenton explains that you were probably overthinking the problem: reflecting on it so much that it made you feel bad. He argues that by adopting stress management skills and replacing your negative thought habits with a positive mental framework, you can stay grounded in the present moment and live a productive life driven by action and control rather than endless worrying.

In this guide, we’ll discuss what overthinking is and how it’s connected to stress and anxiety. Then, we’ll explore ways you can manage stress before, during, and after it happens with various research-based techniques. Finally, we’ll show how you can reshape your negative thinking habits into positive ones. Along the way, we’ll compare Trenton’s strategies with those of other coaches and thinkers such as Tony Robbins (Awaken the Giant) and Judson Brewer (Unwinding Anxiety), and offer additional actionable insights to overcome your negative thought patterns.

Ryan Holiday’s Courage Is Calling teaches us the meaning of courage using principles from the ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism. Holiday argues that every person has the innate ability to be courageous. When you overcome fear and choose to do the right thing every day, you can effect positive change in the world. One of the most well-known modern-day philosophers, Holiday has written and co-written several bestselling books on Stoic philosophy, including The Obstacle Is The Way, Ego Is the Enemy, and The Daily Stoic.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how Holiday defines courage and his advice for being courageous in both everyday and extraordinary situations. You’ll learn how to break free from fear, take control of your actions, and make bold decisions. In our commentary, we’ll discuss some of the philosophical principles behind Holiday’s ideas, alternative perspectives on courage, and actions you can take to incorporate more courage into your everyday life.

A cult classic among professional athletes, The Obstacle Is the Way is a guidebook to solving any problem preventing you from achieving ambitious goals. It’s based on the tenets of Stoicism—an ancient Greek philosophy promoting calm rationality in any situation. Ryan Holiday argues that by choosing to view your obstacles in an empowering way, you can turn them into your greatest assets.

Holiday is a marketing mogul turned Stoic guru whom the New York Times credits for the modern movement of ancient Stoicism as self-help. In this guide, we’ll provide specific strategies to help you exert Stoic discipline over both your internal world and the external world. We’ll also compare and contrast Holiday’s “life hack” Stoicism with the original philosophical texts that inspired it, as well as connect it to relevant contemporary self-help such as Grit by Angela Duckworth and Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke.

In Be Your Future Self Now, Benjamin Hardy argues that true success requires living up to your full potential—that is, becoming the highest version of yourself. Anything short of this is a form of failure. However, becoming the person you want to be is one of life’s most difficult challenges. Hardy explains that it requires knowing exactly who your higher self is, identifying the big, life-changing goals that will get you there, and dedicating yourself to those goals above everything else.

In this guide, we’ll present Hardy’s argument for why you should commit to becoming your higher self now. Then, we’ll explain how to identify your higher self and Hardy’s recommendations for adopting the mindset and dedication needed to become this person. We’ll supplement Hardy’s ideas with those of other success experts including Daniel Walter (The Power of Discipline), Gary Keller (The One Thing), and Darren Hardy (The Compound Effect).

Is there something you’ve dreamed of doing, but never have? Are you waiting for the right motivation to move you toward your goal? If so, then you’re going about it all wrong. In The Motivation Myth, Jeff Haden argues that you shouldn’t wait for motivation to start you down the road to success. Instead, you make your own motivation by creating a plan, breaking it into achievable steps, celebrating every win, and persevering through disappointments. Motivation isn’t a push—it’s momentum that you generate yourself.

In this guide, we’ll explain Haden’s approach to kickstarting your path to success and creating a cycle of positive reinforcement that builds motivation as you go along. We’ll compare Haden’s suggestions with those of other productivity experts with practical tips on managing time, avoiding distraction, and maintaining mental focus. We’ll also explore what wellness experts say about chasing ambition versus finding contentment in everyday life.

Everybody has the potential to live a meaningful, fulfilling life, but in a world teeming with possibilities, it can be hard to figure out how exactly you’re going to accomplish that. John C. Maxwell believes that if you want to live meaningfully and transform into your highest self, you have to pursue personal growth. In The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth, Maxwell—a pastor and personal growth expert—offers directions to help you navigate the journey of personal growth more smoothly.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to build strong character and how living with integrity can help you become your highest self. You’ll also learn how to envision, commit to, and pursue meaningful goals, and the importance of learning and growing throughout the rest of your life. We’ll supplement Maxwell’s advice with current research on personal growth and the perspectives of other self-help authors so that you can make the most of your personal growth journey.

Conventional wisdom says that starting a business requires outside investors, strategic plans, accountants, a board of directors, and many other "musts." But in Rework, entrepreneurs Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson explain how old-school thinking doesn't apply in today's new business paradigm.

If you're launching a company today, you can access online tools and technology that let you operate on a shoestring. You don't need a big staff of managers and workers. You don't need to take on huge financial risks. You don't need to work 100 hours a week. You don't need to advertise to find customers. You don't even need an office—your employees can work from home from anywhere in the world. Instead, reject old-school thinking, embrace simplicity, and run your company like a smart, frugal, well-oiled machine.

In the digital age, when nearly anyone can start a business online, how do you stand out? In Launch, marketing expert Jeff Walker offers a product launch strategy that will help you market and sell a product with little to no start-up costs. By focusing on giving value and building customer engagement, you can create a business that grants you flexibility, autonomy, and immediate profits.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how the Internet has changed the marketing game and how you can adapt to—and take advantage of—this new landscape to quickly and successfully grow your business. Then, we’ll discover how you can attract interested buyers with little more than an email list, even before you have a product to sell. Along the way, we’ll draw on insights from the field of psychology to show why Walker’s strategy works and compare his book with those of other experts, such as Seth Godin’s All Marketers are Liars and Ryan Holiday’s Perennial Seller.

During the 2016 US Presidential elections, at a time when pundits had Trump at 2% likelihood of winning, Dilbert creator Scott Adams predicted that Donald Trump would win -- primarily because of his persuasive power. According to Adams, what looked to outsiders like blunders were instead examples of a Master Persuader channeling a nation’s energy to help his candidacy.

Win Bigly describes the persuasion strategies Trump used throughout the campaign, how Hillary’s campaign fell short in comparison, and how you can apply these strategies to be more persuasive yourself. Learn the ranking of the most effective persuasion methods, why visual imagery is so powerful, and how to come up with killer slogans.

In This Is Marketing, entrepreneur and marketing expert Seth Godin challenges conventional marketing strategies. He argues that in today's media-saturated world, traditional marketing techniques are no longer effective. Instead, Godin emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships with customers based on trust, authenticity, and empathy. Effective marketing, according to Godin, goes beyond mere sales and aims to bring about positive changes in people's lives.

In this guide, we’ll explain why Godin says old marketing techniques are no longer effective and outline his guiding principles for successful marketing in the modern age. We complement his suggestions with insights from his other books as well as those of other marketing experts such as Ryan Holiday (Perennial Seller), Byron Sharp (How Brands Grow), and Pat Flynn (Superfans).

Trauma can stem from abuse to a severe car accident to wartime combat—and cause a lifetime of flashbacks, nightmares, isolation, insomnia, hypervigilance, and rage. In The Body Keeps the Score, the author explores how diagnosing and treating trauma has evolved as new technologies, research, and fields of science emerged.

Trauma’s impact is not only mental, emotional, and neurological, but also physiological: Trauma rewires the brain to put people in a constant state of stress or numbness, leading to a host of physical problems.

In this summary, you’ll learn:

• Why trauma survivors feel like their trauma is never-ending
• How flashbacks make parts of the brain shut down and others to go into overdrive
• Why some trauma survivors can’t recognize themselves in the mirror
• How activities like choral singing, yoga, and theater can be therapeutic

In What Happened to You?, Oprah Winfrey and renowned psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry discuss how childhood trauma can have a severe and lasting impact on the brain—and thus our worldview, health, and behavior—sometimes without us even realizing it. They discuss why the developing brain is so susceptible to trauma, why trauma survivors often experience flashbacks, and why it’s so important to address your trauma to live a healthy and happy life. They also describe how to begin the healing process with compassion for yourself and others.

Throughout our guide, we’ll connect Perry and Winfrey’s ideas to those in other popular books on trauma, such as Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score. We’ll also elaborate on the authors’ main themes, such as trauma’s impact and the healing process. Finally, we’ll provide information and resources to help those struggling with trauma find high-quality care.

In Ego Is the Enemy, bestselling author and marketer Ryan Holiday defines ego as an unhealthy belief in one’s own importance. He notes that many successful people are famously egotistical, and he contends that as a result, society tends to think that ego is an important ingredient in success, as if ego leads to accomplishment. However, Holiday argues that ego leads far more often to failure, and that people find success only when they’re able to control their egotistical impulses.

To make his arguments, Holiday draws on the philosophies of Stoic thinkers, advising us to resist the urges of our emotions in order to maintain clarity of thinking. In our guide to his book, we’ll examine his theories through the lens of Stoicism, and we’ll compare them to other management theories that similarly aim to help you find success.

In this guide for women (men can learn something too), journalists and authors Katty Kay and Claire Shipman examine the art and science of confidence—what it is, why it matters, why women have more trouble accessing it than men, and how this shortage affects professional success, personal achievement, and even happiness. Biology plays a role, and so do systemic inequalities, but confidence is also largely a choice. Learn how to make it in The Confidence Code.

A cult classic among professional athletes, The Obstacle Is the Way is a guidebook to solving any problem preventing you from achieving ambitious goals. It’s based on the tenets of Stoicism—an ancient Greek philosophy promoting calm rationality in any situation. Ryan Holiday argues that by choosing to view your obstacles in an empowering way, you can turn them into your greatest assets.

Holiday is a marketing mogul turned Stoic guru whom the New York Times credits for the modern movement of ancient Stoicism as self-help. In this guide, we’ll provide specific strategies to help you exert Stoic discipline over both your internal world and the external world. We’ll also compare and contrast Holiday’s “life hack” Stoicism with the original philosophical texts that inspired it, as well as connect it to relevant contemporary self-help such as Grit by Angela Duckworth and Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke.