#496 An Indestructible Mind

In our last +1, we talked about inviting the Conquering Hero to your mind-wandering party and escorting out the Suffering (Whiney) Martyr.

Today, let’s continue that chat by talking about how to construct an Indestructible Mind.

For this, we’re going to check out Alex Lickerman’s The Undefeated Mind. In addition to placing high on the list for best title ever, I think this may at least tie for first for best sub-title ever: “On the Science of Constructing an Indestructible Self.”

Who DOESN’T want an “INDESTRUCTIBLE Self”?

I picked this book up after Ryan Holiday recommended it in The Obstacle Is the Way.

Want to turn any and everything into fuel for your Optimization?

Well, here’s how.

I’ve read a fair number of books at this stage and this passage ranks right up there with the best ever. It’s long but worth it. Here’s how Alex puts it:

“This, then, is what it means to possess an undefeated mind: not just to rebound quickly from adversity or to face it calmly, without being pulled down by depression or anxiety, but also to get up day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade—even over the course of an entire lifetime—and attack the obstacles in front of us again and again until they fall, or we do. An undefeated mind isn’t one that never feels discouraged or despairing; it’s one that continues on in spite of it. Even when we can’t find a smile to save us, even when we’re tired beyond all endurance, possessing an undefeated mind means never forgetting that defeat comes not from failing but from giving up. An undefeated mind doesn’t fill itself with false hope, but with hopes to find real solutions, even solutions it may not want or like. An undefeated mind is itself what grants us access to the creativity, strength, and courage necessary to find those real solutions, viewing obstacles not as distractions or detours off the main path of our lives but as the very means by which we capture the lives we want. Victory may not be promised to any of us, but possessing an undefeated mind means behaving as though it is, as though to win we only need to wage an all-out struggle and work harder than everyone else, trying everything we can, and when that fails trying everything we think we can’t, in full understanding that we have no one on whom we can rely for victory but ourselves. Possessing an undefeated mind, we understand that there’s no obstacle from which we can’t create some kind of value. We view any such doubt as delusion. Everyone—absolutely everyone—has the capacity to construct an undefeatable mind, not just to withstand personal traumas, economic crises, or armed conflicts, but to triumph over them.”

Yep. There you go.

That’s Today’s +1.

Here’s to your undefeatable mind.