101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

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The most successful people in history—the ones many refer to as geniuses in their fields, masters of their crafts—had one thing in common, other than talent: Most adhered to rigid (and specific) routines. Do you ever really forget your lovers’ birthdays, or all your first times, intimate and not? Do your anniversaries ever become normal days of the year again? Are the things you did and promises you made ever really neutralized? Do they become void now that you’re broken up or do you decidedly ignore them because there’s simply no other choice? The mind tells you to go on and forces your heart to follow suit, I guess. When you regulate your daily actions, you deactivate your fight or flight instincts because you’re no longer confronting theunknown.

Brianna 's writing style is very engaging and easy to read. The way it is written is very encouraging and supportive, which makes it easy to feel like you have a friend who is there to help you through tough times. Honestly the way all of the essays force you into introspection is astonishing. All of the essays are very impactful and inspiring. Either way, it’s inevitable that you expand. That you’re left knowing that much more about love and what it can do, and the pain that only a hole in your heart and space in your bed and emptiness in the next chair over can bring. Whether or not that hole will ever again include the person who made it that way…I don’t know. Whether or not anybody else can match the outline of someone who was so deeply impressed in you…I don’t know that, either. In short, routine is important because habitualness creates mood, and mood creates the “nurture” aspect of your personality, not to mention that letting yourself be jerked around by impulsiveness is a breeding ground for everything you essentially do not want." When we don’t settle into routine, we teach ourselves that fear is an indicator that we’re doing the wrong thing, rather than just being very invested in theoutcome. The presence of indifference is a sign you’re on the wrong path. Fear means you’re trying to move toward something you love, but your old beliefs, or unhealed experiences, are getting in the way. (Or, rather, are being called up to behealed.)I'm not sure why, but I was expecting essays by different people in this book, but it's all articles by Brianna Wiest.

The fundamentals of any given monoculture tend to surround what we should be living for (nation, religion, self, etc.) and there are a number of ways in which our current system has us shooting ourselves in the feet as we try to step forward. Here, 8 of the most pervasive. So much of our inner turmoil is the result of conducting a life we don’t inherently desire, only because we have accepted an inner narrative of normal and ideal without ever realizing.Wiest writes that: “Each generation has a kind of ‘monoculture’, a type of ruling pattern or belief system that people unconsciously accept as the ‘truth’… The objectivity required to see the effects of today’s monoculture is very difficult to develop. Once you have so deeply accepted an idea as “true”, it no longer registers as “cultural” or “subjective”… The foundations of any given monoculture tend to surround what we should be living by… Do you think creating your best life is a matter of deciding what you want and then going after it, but in reality, you are psychologically incapable of predicting what will make you happy… You extrapolate from the present moment because you believe that success is somewhere in you . “arrive”, so he is constantly trying to take a snapshot of his life and see if he can still be happy… he convinces himself that any given moment is representative of his life as a whole. Flow” (in case you don’t know—you probably do) is essentially what happens when we become so completely engaged with what we’re doing. All of the essays were short and some of them were excellent and “spot-on”. Other essays seemed as if they were more appropriate for a self-help therapy session book that may or may not apply to the reader. Some of the essays were fascinating and some were a struggle to finish reading. One of the 101 essays is entitled: “101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think”, that is, the exact same title as the book, which rather begs the question of what is added by the other 100 essays.

I also want to say before diving in deeper that I do believe this book was written with good intentions. I know there will be people out there who read this and it will help them and it will resonate with them. I’m happy for those people. I just wasn’t one of them. I applaud the amount of work and effort that went into this book and by no means mean to shed a negative light on the author. I think the author’s thoughts are authentic. I genuinely enjoyed some parts of the book. (But I got somewhat annoyed when I realized it won’t be 101 essays, but (mostly) of various lists. Please deliver on your promises next time.) Because we are programmed to believe that success is somewhere we arrive, when goals are achieved and things are completed… Achieving goals is not success. How much you expand in the process is…. You think that “problems” are obstacles to achieving what you want, when in reality they are paths… Simply encountering a “problem” forces you to take action to solve it.”Almost every great master, artist, teacher, innovator, inventor, and generally happy person could attribute some similar understanding to their success. Many of the world’s ‘best’ people understood that to change their lives, they had to change their minds. Other essays seemed more appropriate for a self-help therapy session book that may or may not apply to the reader. Some of the essays were fascinating and some were a struggle to finish reading. One of the 101 essays is titled: “101 Essays That Will Change Your Mind”, i.e. the exact same title as the book, which rather begs the question of what the other 100 essays will add.

They recognize their emotions as responses, not accurate gauges, of what’s going on. They accept that those responses may have to do with their own issues, rather than the objective situation athand. As someone who doesn't know what their 'big objective' is, this is not motivating or helpful. It's not like people like me haven't spent hours, days, months thinking about what their purpose is on this planet. It just makes me feel like giving up. If I'm not going to do much of anything at all, why bother, right? Accomplishing goals is not a success. How much you expand in the process is." - I tend to disagree. I think both are successes but for different reasons.In a sense, the notion that thoughts create reality is more than just a nice idea; it’s also a fact of evolution. It was because of language and thought that we could create a world within our minds, and ultimately, it is because of language and thought that we have evolved into the society we have today—for better and for worse.