BETA
SKILL TREE
It seems that no matter which achievement you set your sights on in the Game of Life, these core skills will be instrumental in attaining it. Ever felt like you keep repeating the same mistakes in life over and over? It's a skillset error that will keep reappearing in your life until you learn it.
Self-awareness
Start here. Ask better questions of yourself, know your strengths & weaknesses, cut through the self-delusion, and preprogrammed responses. Self-awareness is the ability to objectively evaluate the self. It’s the ability to question our own instincts patterns and assumptions. Powerful stuff!
Lifelong Learner
Your education did not stop at college. Those were just the basics, if even. There's so much more you need to learn, so don't stop!
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“Your best investment is yourself. There is nothing that compares to it.”
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- Warren Buffet
Delayed Gratification
Arguably one of the toughest skills to master due to our wiring! Mother nature tends to prioritize rewards now, rather than rewards later for obvious reasons... you might be dead later, so take your prize now! Therefore, to master this skill is to go against your very nature. Easy, right?
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Pro tip: start with figuring out your 'why'. If the 'why' is strong enough the 'what' and the 'how' will happen more naturally.
Self-discipline
“Willpower is what separates us from the animals. It’s the capacity to restrain our impulses, resist temptation – do what’s right and good for us in the long run, not what we want to do right now. It’s central, in fact, to civilization.”
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- Dr. Roy Baumeister, Ph.D.
Time Management
With delayed gratification and the power of self-discipline at our disposal tackling the next set of skills should be a breeze!​ If you've lived long enough, then you know time can be a slippery beast.
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Having a personal secretary that manages your time for you is wise but doesn't count. :)
Focus and State of Flow
Next step, is to learn to use the time allocated for your task to the max. Removing distractions and focusing on your work for 3-4 hours at a time will get you closer to a state of flow. It's magical, raw, and deeply satisfying.
Habit Hacking
Habits are simply actions that we take in order to achieve the desired outcome when we receive the right cue, consistently. Think of habits as autopilot. Understanding how to direct this autopilot in order to achieve a more desirable outcome is crucial for reaching your destination (goals).
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Sales and Negotiation
We all have something that we need to "sell" to someone else and negotiate more favorable terms in the process. Seems easy until you start to do it. Some say this is a high-value skill to poses in your toolkit.
Leverage
This skill is like the multiplier or a power boost to your already awesome streak of wins. Understanding what, how, and when to use as leverage is truly priceless.
Law of Attraction
Where your focus goes, your energy flows. It almost seems that the universe realigns itself to give you what you're asking of it, or perhaps it's just a good dose of confirmation bias coupled with a Baader-Meinhoff illusion. At the core of it all, is the eternal question of predetermined or random fate vs. self-directed outcomes. Perhaps, as with most things, the answer hangs perched in the balance between the two.
Influence & Power
At a certain point in your life, you no longer need to sell people on something, you simply have to enter the room. Better yet, when you express an interest in something - you see the reaction in the global markets.
Playfulness
More of a mindset than a skill, but... Turns out that this kind of state of being is actually quite perfect. It allows you to make mistakes, be silly, and not cling to results. After all - it's just a game, so go have fun!
Creativity
The stuff that might save us from joblessness in an age of all-knowing, all-calculating AI. Creativity can be learned and often comes to us when we are in a state of ease and playfulness. If it wasn't for our ingenuity and creativity we'd probably still be enjoying the stone age.