ICYMI: 📚 The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama 🕯️, The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday (video) 🏛️ & The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People 🏋🏼♂️ (+ Dumbledore's Best Quotes 🪄)
Hey hey, it's Nik with Saturday's The 4 Minute Read in case you missed it. On the last day of Memoir May, Michelle Obama slid her new biography through my door slit, so here we are with one more memoir! Here's everything we've got this week:
Michelle Obama's father died when she was just 27 years old. He had suffered from a motor neuron disease that slowly eroded his ability to move and think. The family had adapted to his needs, but now, facing a big loss, a new approach was needed. Obama calls that approach "overcoming" in the sense of persevering. In this follow-up to her extremely popular biography, Becoming, she highlights various obstacles to overcoming. Fear is the biggest one, and that's what we'll talk about in this week's summary. Worth a peek! 👀
"One light feeds another. One strong family lends strength to more. One engaged community can ignite those around it. This is the power of the light we carry."
— Michelle Obama
The Big 3 From the Book
1. There are two kinds of fear: protective and restrictive.
2. Most of the time, fear subtly undermines us instead of stopping us dead.
3. When fear strikes, breathe, reflect, and plan to keep moving forward.
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday is one of my favorite books of all time. I read it every year for 5 years in a row. Why? Well, for one, because it's so easy! Just one page a day, and you're done!
For another, no matter how often I read the same words, they resonate differently each time. That's because each time I read them, I'm a different person.
While we can't replicate the original 365-day calendar structure of the book in a video, we can do something else that's very useful: Explain the 3 core Stoic disciplines Ryan uses throughout the book.
If you want to develop more self-discipline and perseverance thanks to the Stoic practices of perception, action, and will, don't miss this video!
The Freebie
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. I learned that name literally half a lifetime ago, when I was 16 years old. I've been waiting to be asked for it in a pub quiz ever since, but oh well.
To pass the time until I can put my Harry Potter knowledge to better use, this week, I compiled the very best quotes from the most powerful wizard of all time. Some of them are among the most popular quotes ever, period.
My personal favorite? If we're talking books, then it's...
"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
The movies?
"Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it."
I also dug up some gems I think you'll never have heard before — plus a few surprising bonus goodies and tidbits. Here's what I compiled:
Oh, and in line with this week's fear-beating theme, good old D also has a few words about that:
Dusty But Brilliant
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
The part I would most recommend reading from this book is the intro. Why? Because after that, you'll be sold on the rest. Covey makes it very clear that, even though it is somewhat posing as a productivity book, this is actually a book about being a good human being. The section is pretty inspiring, and I think it is this deeper message that has allowed the book to do so well for so long. Worth picking up!
What's that story about Lincoln admiring a man's willingness to trade down from asking for a job to being content with a pair of pants? "Ah, it is well to be humble." Applies to reading too... 😁
That's all for now! Have a great start to June, and as always...
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