📚 Beyond Belief, Tim Ferriss's New Book, and more.

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👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

• 3 Insights from my most recent author dinner.

• 10 Concerning stats and charts about reading.

• 10 Reading rules from bestselling author and podcaster Tim Ferriss.

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📚 Book Summary:

This week’s book is “Beyond Belief” by Nir Eyal.

Most of your limits aren’t physical. They’re psychological.

In his newest book, bestselling author Nir Eyal reveals how the hidden assumptions you carry shape what you see, how you feel, and what you do—and how to replace them with beliefs that unlock your true potential.

Here are 3 lessons from the book:

📖

1) The Most Important Question To Ask Yourself

If you only take one lesson from this summary, I hope it’s this:

• Ask yourself, “Is this belief serving me?”

If not, it’s time to change your limiting belief into a liberating one.

One way to do that is to reframe it in a positive light. If you can think of the worst-case scenario, you can also think of the best-case scenario.

For instance, reframe:

• “Mondays are miserable” to “Mondays are a fresh start.”

• “Networking events are a waste of time” to “I’m sure there will be at least one interesting person at the event.”

• “I’m not good at this skill” to “If I put more time and energy into this skill, I’ll get better at it.”

You don’t have to live with your negative beliefs, you can question and reframe them.

📖

2) How You Think About Aging Affects Your Aging

In a landmark study, Dr. Becca Levy and her colleagues at Yale University followed 660 adults aged 55 and older for 20+ years.

They found that people with a more positive view of aging lived, on average, 7.5 years longer than those with a negative view, even after controlling for health status, socioeconomic factors, and other variables.

Dr. Levy’s research shows that how we think about aging affects how we age.

People with positive aging beliefs showed:

• Better memory performance and slower cognitive decline.

• Better cardiovascular stress responses and lower blood pressure.

• Recovered functional ability more fully and quickly than those with negative beliefs.

And these beliefs don’t just affect older people, but also young people as well.

Participants who held negative age stereotypes in young adulthood were significantly more likely to experience heart attacks or strokes in later life than those with more positive views, even after accounting for other risk factors.

The stories we tell ourselves about aging matter far more than we think. We cannot stop aging, but we can stop the negative stories we tell ourselves about it.

📖

3) Procrastination Is Just Pain Management

When we procrastinate–be it putting off exercise, avoiding difficult conversations or challenging work–what we’re actually doing is avoiding anticipated discomfort.

Procrastination is actually a form of pain management.

Our brain predicts that the workout will hurt, the conversation will feel awkward, or the mental effort will strain us, and looks for ways to avoid that activity.

I’m feeling this right now while writing this newsletter. I just checked my email twice and three different social media sites before going back to writing (lol).

Nir found himself in a similar situation while working on his book.

His mind would constantly find excuses for procrastinating, such as “I need to do more research” or “I should answer these emails before I start working on my book.”

He was dodging the mental discomfort of writing by doing everything but writing his book.

However, instead of trying to eliminate his discomfort, he focused on changing his relationship with it. He started to view those feelings of resistance as signals that he was about to do important and meaningful work.

This didn’t make writing effortless, but it did make the struggle feel purposeful.

So if you feel your mind trying to trick you into procrastinating or doing a different activity, realize that you’re on the right path. Ignore that temptation and keep moving forward.

✅ Actionable Advice:

1) Take a piece of paper and write down all of your negative beliefs. Then reframe them in a positive light so that they serve you.

2) Develop a positive perspective about aging, and you’ll improve your lifespan and healthspan.

3) Realize that procrastination is a form of pain management. If you’re feeling tempted to procrastinate, realize that you’re on the right track to doing meaningful work.

💎 Weekly Gem:

Sample: “The NO Book” by Tim Ferriss & Neil Strauss

To become successful and happy in life, you need to know what to say “Yes” to and what to say “No” to.

However, saying “No” to opportunities and people can be difficult. But, there is a way to say “No” while still being nice. That’s the premise for this new book by Tim Ferriss and Neil Strauss.

They’re both still working on the book, but you can read a free sample of it here.

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Alex W.