Lakeside & Tide is an artfully devised book by Jimmy Tomczak. It is his collected thoughts compiled from ten years of reading and pondering about personal growth. Instead of focusing on making money, he wrote the book with an emphasis on artistic expression and provoking thought in readers. The book is a mix of stories, poems, exercises, and random thoughts. Any reader should find at least one gem of information after reading for a few minutes. Here are ten gems I’ve found for myself:
- Live close and connect in person.
- Let go! Life is more fun when you live for once with no boundaries, no ownership and no hanging on.
- Live a life true to yourself, not the life others expect of you.
- “But I’ve already taken all the steps,” you say. Think about it, though. Have you really? Did you write everything down? Did you share it with a friend? Did you tell it to a stranger? Do you take daily action in the direction of your dreams? If you’ve done all these things and you haven’t had results, you need to start over and do them each again and really do them. Every day. Maybe musician Brian McKnight knows best: start back at one.
- Declare who you are based on who you’re going to be. Continue to be that from that point on. Commitment is action beyond words. If you believe you already are whatever you want to be, you will be that, because you already are that. Commitment carries with it a consistent urgency.
- One of my friends, once fearing conferences and similar experiences of meeting an overwhelming number of new people, said he found a way to overcome that challenge and fear by going into a room like that and thinking, “Wow, look at all my new friends!”
- If you’re having a bad day, ask yourself these three questions: 1. Did I eat yet? 2. Did I sleep enough? 3. Did I exercise?
- Focus on accomplishing a single goal. You can use small monthly (or daily, weekly, 30/60/90-day) challenges to build a habit. Once you’ve achieved one, layer on another and watch your personal growth skyrocket.
- Happy people come to know more happiness in time. They exercise. They sleep more. Happy people spend more time with family and friends. Happy people get outside no matter the weather. Happy people help other people know happiness. Happy people smile and plan a trip. They meditate. They know gratitude.
- How do the most successful people succeed? They make more decisions faster. That means that they also make more failures, but they’ve realized how to learn from these mistakes faster too. Want to have more success? Make more five-second decisions. Try that now. Improve your intuition and decision-making speed by taking decisive action immediately on a problem or challenge you’ve been pondering for too long.
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