“Noted author and speaker Jim Rohn once said, “We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.” Throughout your life, you can make a choice as to how you suffer; discipline is usually what keeps you from what you truly want. Having self-discipline and willpower is the ability to do difficult or unpleasant things because those things are better for your well-being in the long run.”

Excerpt From: Peter Hollins. “The Science of Self-Discipline“

“Currently I have more than 13 000 money questions in my inbox. At a glance I can tell which ones are sent by the groundhogs (most of them). They ask questions like, ‘So I’ve been thinking about learning about day trading’ or ‘I can’t pay my bills … should I just go bankrupt 🙁 ?’ Groundhogs want the magic diet shake rather than the daily 5am run. And that’s why, for most people, five years ago looks pretty much the same as today … with a few nicer clothes — but with the same excuses, the same regrets and more debt.”

Excerpt From: Scott Pape. “The Barefoot Investor.”

“Personal finance is only 20 percent head knowledge. The other 80 percent—the bulk of the issue—is behavior. And it’s our behaviors with money that can get us into the biggest trouble or lead us into the biggest successes.”

Excerpt From: Dave Ramsey. “Dave Ramsey’s Complete Guide to Money”

“And what we’ve seen is that there is a villain that afflicts each of these stages:
• You encounter a choice. But narrow framing makes you miss options.
• You analyze your options. But the confirmation bias leads you to gather self-serving information.
• You make a choice. But short-term emotion will often tempt you to make the wrong one.
• Then you live with it. But you’ll often be overconfident about how the future will unfold.”

Excerpt From: Chip Heath. “Decisive.”

“My own choice of a single-variable measure for rapid and revealing comparisons of quality of life is infant mortality: the number of deaths during the first year of life that take place per 1,000 live births.
Infant mortality is such a powerful indicator because low rates are impossible to achieve without having a combination of several critical conditions that define good quality of life—good healthcare in general, and appropriate prenatal, perinatal, and neonatal care in particular; proper maternal and infant nutrition; adequate and sanitary living conditions; and access to social support for disadvantaged families—and that are also predicated on relevant government and private spending, and on infrastructures and incomes that can maintain usage and access. A single variable thus captures a number of prerequisites for the near-universal survival of the most critical period of life: the first year.”

Excerpt From: Vaclav Smil. “Numbers Don’t Lie.”

“But being a scientist is not just a profession. It’s a frame of mind—a mode of thinking that differs from preaching, prosecuting, and politicking. We move into scientist mode when we’re searching for the truth: we run experiments to test hypotheses and discover knowledge. Scientific tools aren’t reserved for people with white coats and beakers, and using them doesn’t require toiling away for years with a microscope and a petri dish. Hypotheses have as much of a place in our lives as they do in the lab. Experiments can inform our daily decisions. That makes me wonder: is it possible to train people in other fields to think more like scientists, and if so, do they end up making smarter choices?”

Excerpt From: Adam Grant. “Think Again.”

“Although we glamorize rocket scientists, there’s an enormous mismatch between what they have figured out and what the rest of the world does. Critical thinking and creativity don’t come naturally to us. We’re hesitant to think big, reluctant to dance with uncertainty, and afraid of failure. These were necessary during the Paleolithic Period, keeping us safe from poisonous foods and predators. But here in the information age, they’re bugs.
Companies fail because they stare at the rearview mirror and keep calling the same plays from the same playbook. Instead of risking failure, they stick with the status quo. In our daily lives, we fail to exercise our critical-thinking muscles and instead leave it to others to draw conclusions.”

Excerpt From: Ozan Varol. “Think Like a Rocket Scientist.”

“The only thing you have control over that can influence the way your life turns out is the quality of your decisions.”

Excerpt From: Annie Duke. “How to Decide.”

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates famously conducted “Think Weeks” twice a year, during which he would isolate himself (often in a lakeside cottage) to do nothing but read and think big thoughts. It was during a 1995 Think Week that Gates wrote his famous “Internet Tidal Wave” memo that turned Microsoft’s attention to an upstart company called Netscape Communications.

Excerpt From: Cal Newport. “Deep Work.”