Being Successful Is Actually Easy

There isn’t a single reason to be pessimistic in any situation. It’s a great time to learn to be unconditionally optimistic. And actually, it’s not even that hard. The only thing that makes it hard is telling yourself it’s hard. Just believe you can do anything, and that’s it. It’s clear that pure optimism alone can lead to big positive changes in how you act.

Recently, I came to the conclusion that increasing general intelligence is a great solution to almost any complex problem. In fact, you often can’t solve a problem because you aren’t smart enough in the first place. And when I say general intelligence, I literally mean everything. Having good reasoning skills, knowing various facts, being able to quickly understand situations, and not acting on emotions - all of this is part of intelligence. I could pretend that the way to achieve it is complex and requires a lot of effort, like I often do. But there are no secret tricks, just do what is generally known to be good for you: Read books, talk to people, think about complex topics, don’t waste your time on meaningless activities, and spend your free time actively.

I love reading books. It’s played a huge role in making me who I am today. I have a habit of reading every day for at least 30 minutes. This morning I thought, why not increase my daily goal, given how much I benefit and enjoy books? I set a new goal of 2 hours of reading per day. The idea of becoming better four times faster sounds insanely cool. Today was the first day, and even though I was a bit afraid, but in fact, it was an absolutely amazing experience. The sense of purpose adds additional pleasure to the process. It turns out everything becomes much easier the moment you stop complaining and looking for reasons why you can’t do it.