The Science of Self

Hear it Here - http://bit.ly/GeniusHollins00:09:20 1. Clarification Questions00:09:28 2. Probing Assumptions00:09:35 3. Probing Rationale, reasons, evidence00:09:44 4. Questioning Viewpoints and perspectives00:09:51 5. Probing Implications and consequences00:10:02 6. Questions About the question00:15:09 The Socratic method as a thinking technique 00:17:46 Turning the questions on ourselves • Socrates’ genius traits included curiosity, intellectual honesty, and non-conventionality.• Though not much is known about Socrates’ personal life, his students and followers wrote down dialogues and plays containing some of his main ideas, where he demonstrated a heightened ability for rational argument and insight.• Like other people considered great philosophical thinkers, Socrates took total ignorance as a starting point and cleared his mind so that he could inquire genuinely into the nature of things. His Socratic method is a classic question-driven approach to seeking out knowledge and understanding.• To practice this in our own lives, we can use six main types of questions to get to the heart of a matter.• We can ask clarification questions, questions that probe assumptions, explore rationale, reasons, and evidence, challenge viewpoints and perspectives, consider implications and consequences, and ask questions about the nature of the question itself.• Our goal is to find out why certain ideas matter, to see what hidden or unconscious assumptions we hold, to look more rationally and closely at evidence, to consider and weigh up potential perspectives we haven’t considered, to think about the meaning of the answer we are looking for and how it relates to other pieces of information we have, and to examine the way we are framing our question and why.• The Socratic method can be used to inquire more deeply into our own beliefs, but it can also help us debate more effectively with others. We can use the fundamentals of Socratic dialogue to structure more logical arguments or design experiments that follow the scientific method, i.e. making a hypothesis (a question) and testing it against evidence and observation to reach an insightful conclusion.• To be more like Socrates, we can get into the habit of routinely asking questions of our own deeply held beliefs and assumptions, taking nothing for granted. Be like the child who always asks, “But why?”#Clarification #DirectQuestions #FalseAssumptions #Genius #GenuineUnderstanding #GoodQuestions #GreatPhilosophicalThinkers #IncorrectAssumptions #LogicalArguments #MentalHabits #Plato #RWPaul #ScientificMethod #Socrates #TriangulateUnderstanding #Socrates’EndlessQuestions #RussellNewton #NewtonMG #PeterHollins #TheScienceofSelf #ThinkLikeaGeniusPhoto Courtesy of Anastasia Shuraeva and Pexels

Hear it Here - http://bit.ly/DecisionMakingHollinsWelcome to the science of self 00:00:24 Don't know what your personal values are?00:12:59 STEP ONE: CLEAR YOUR MIND 00:14:15 STEP TWO: START A LIST 00:16:45 STEP THREE: PULL IT ALL TOGETHER 00:18:25 STEP FOUR: RANK YOUR VALUES 00:19:39 STEP FIVE: LET YOUR VALUES COME ALIVE 00:20:56 STEP SIX: TRY THEM ON FOR SIZE • Understanding your needs helps you discover your values and principles, ensuring the decisions you make fulfill you on a deeper level. • A value is a rule, principle, or belief that gives meaning to your life. It is usually something you consider very important in life and base many of your decisions around. This is why when you’re confused about what to do in a certain situation or circumstances that you find yourself in, the cause is usually a lack of clarity on what your real values are. • The first step to discovering what your values are is to simply abandon all preconceived notions you have of who you are. Often, the values we have been living by are actually derived externally. This can be through our family, culture, historical era, etc. By starting from a clean slate, we avoid such influences from clouding our judgment regarding our true values. • Next, think about the things that you feel most strongly about. This could be a personal success, close family bonds, serving others in the form of social work, etc. Finding one will often lead you to other values you hold because they point to a “higher” value you possess. Thus, valuing family over career means that your interpersonal relationships in general are valuable to you.#CoreValues #CreativeExpression #DeepestValues #EssentialValues #FinancialIndependence #FOMO #PainfulMemories #PeoplesOpinions #PersonalManifesto #PersonalSuccess #PhysicalFitness #PoliticalEnvironment #ReligiousPursuits #RoleModels #SocialCohesion #UnderstandingYourNeeds #RussellNewton #NewtonMG #PeterHollins #TheScienceofSelf #TheArtofStrategicDecisionMakingPhoto courtesy of cottonbro-studio and Pexels

Hear it Here - bit.ly/3FooG0d• Toxic positivity is a kind of cognitive distortion and is an overgeneralization of a positive and optimistic attitude. It consists of denial, minimization, and invalidation of your own experience. Toxic positivity grows with shame, silence, and judgment. Positivity itself isn’t toxic, but denying our reality is. Human beings are wholes that contain both good and bad. • We can embrace the whole instead of the good by watching the phrases we use, making friends with discomfort, being patient while we are in process, distinguishing between productive and unproductive negativity, and reconnecting to what we value and want to achieve in life. Ask yourself, “How does a person who values what I value behave when they experience what I’m experiencing?”#BreneBrown #CarlJung #Negativity #Positivity #StopNegativeThinking #AvoidTheTrapOfToxicPositivity #RussellNewton #NewtonMG #StopNegativeThinkingPhoto by Olia Danilevich at Pexels.com

Hear it Here - http://bit.ly/GeniusHollins• Einstein’s genius traits included curiosity, having broad areas of interest (i.e. being a polymath), and a refusal to bow to convention.• Einstein is known today as one of the 20th century’s most influential scientific thinkers, and was considered by many to be a genius in both mathematics and physics. He won the Nobel Prize for his work on the photoelectric effect, but he is best known today for his groundbreaking theory on relativity and his famous E=mc2 equation.• Einstein coined his own term for the kind of playful, freeform connections he’d make between different topics and ideas: combinatorial play. By putting two unrelated ideas together to create something new, Einstein often solved problems, came up with creative new ideas or opened new avenues of thoughts to pursue. • The game of “what if?” is another way to flex the curiosity muscle and bring freshness and novelty to conventional thinking. By running hypothetical situations and thought experiments in his mind, Einstein satisfied his thirst for learning and understanding, and accessed new insights that were beyond conventions at the time. • Einstein was a polymath and had a broad range of interests, rather than one narrow focus. He played violin and piano, and had some of his best new ideas during play. This kind of broadmindedness and diversity of interest promotes intellectual agility and wide-ranging, flexible perspectives. • Einstein was also non-conventional and worked independently, regardless of the established rules that surrounded him in early life. This allowed him to engage in truly independent ideas and contribute something entirely different to the field. • We can see in Einstein’s case that non-linearity of thought, insatiable curiosity and a wide range of interests were not just helpful to his success, but essential. We can follow suit by freely engaging in interdisciplinary play and “what if?” games in the areas that grab our intense interest. • Though conventions may occasionally be useful, the best territory to explore is that which is uncharted!• To be more like Einstein, we can think of ways to break down artificial limits and categories in our own thinking, and blend concepts and ideas together freely—can you think of a way to combine two of your interests to produce a third, completely new idea?#Bewusstseins #Einstein #Gedankenexperiments #Genius #Hadamard #Medici #NobelPrize #Pangaea #EinsteinAndCombinatorialPlay #RussellNewton #NewtonMG #PeterHollins #TheScienceofSelf #ThinkLikeaGenius

Often, decisions can be consciously articulated. If you want Chinese food for dinner, that’s easy to justify. But for both quicker and bigger decisions, you are likely more influenced by your subconscious than you realize. The importance of knowing potential subconscious influencing factors is thus extremely high to deciphering your actions.There are three models of subconscious needs and desires, the first of which is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He articulates the following needs: physiological fulfillment (like food and shelter), safety, love and belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization (a level which he claimed few people reach). Identifying your location in the hierarchy is identifying your subconscious needs, which can then inform how you appraise different choices in life.By making these unconscious needs conscious, we give ourselves more clarity and control over the process of making decisions. Maslow’s theory also reminds us that our needs can and do change over our lifetime, and we need to factor this in for longer term decisions.The next model is Tony Robbins’s six needs: love and connection, certainty, uncertainty and variety, significance, contribution, and growth.Robbins believed that each of us is motivated to act by at most two of these needs, which guide how we act and what we value in the world.Unlike Maslow’s hierarchy, these needs function like traits and are present in different quantities in people, as well as being expressed in endless different ways. Pinpoint your particular needs and understand your decision process better.There is nothing inherently better or worse about any of the levels in the hierarchy, or between the six fundamental needs. It’s more about discovering what is actually motivating you so that the decisions you make are satisfying your needs.Understanding your needs helps you discover your values and principles, ensuring the decisions you make fulfil you on a deeper level.#Acceptance #Belonging #BillGates #Freud #Goldilocks #IvanPavlov #Maslow #MaslowsHierarchy #MaxNeef #Pavlov #PhysiologicalFulfillment #Relationships #SelfActualization #SelfEsteem #Selfunderstanding #SigmundFreud #Significance #Survival #Security #TonyRobbins #TheCoreOfDecisions:You #RussellNewton #NewtonMG #PeterHollins #TheScienceofSelf

• The ancient Stoics were masters of living in the present. • One way of rethinking your relationship to the past is to adopt the Stoic attitude of amor fati. This translates roughly to “love of one’s fate.” Whatever happens is embraced, wanting “nothing to be different.” To practice it, look at events as neutrally as possible and then respond to them with a simple mantra like “good.” By focusing on action and solutions, we are able to transform adversity.• Negative visualization is where we occasionally spend a short amount of time imagining in detail the negative things that could happen in life. This renews appreciation and gratitude for what matters, allows us to prepare for the future, and creates psychological resilience. • With the “what-if” technique, we write down a fear and ask, “What if this were true?” and explore the worst that could happen, showing ourselves that it is tolerable and not so bad after all. Likewise, remember Memento mori, Latin for, “remember that you will die” to help remind you of what matters. • Problem-focused thinking zooms in on what’s wrong. Solution-focused thinking zooms in on what could be right and looks to taking action to change the situation. Thinking needs to be balanced with action. Focus on the problem needs to be balanced with focus on the solution.• Remember the Serenity Prayer and try the two-column exercise to help you identify what you can change and what you can’t. Accept what you can’t, act where you can. • Ask what you want and value, then ask yourself, “Is what I’m doing, thinking, or feeling bringing me closer to that?”#AnthonyDoerr #BeHonest #Negativity #Resilience #SerenityPrayer #Stoic #Theres #“RememberThatYouMustDie” #RussellNewton #NewtonMG #PeterHollins #TheScienceofSelf #

• Spartacus was able to do what he did because he was exquisitely focused on his goal – justice. Freedom is being outside of the control and dominion of any other being except yourself. Even if you are enslaved, you can emancipate yourself first by refusing to submit to injustice.• It may feel like you have nothing but use what you do have, reach out to others, and do whatever it takes to get where you want to be.• Finally, there is no virtue in tolerating something you cannot bear, instead of summoning up the courage to fight against it. Whether you succeed or not is beside the point – you assert your own autonomy and dignity in merely taking a stand.Get the audiobook on Audible at https://adbl.co/3NBG3vWShow notes and/or episode transcripts are available at https://bit.ly/self-growth-homePeter Hollins is a bestselling author, human psychology researcher, and a dedicated student of the human condition. Visit https://bit.ly/peterhollins to pick up your FREE human nature cheat sheet: 7 surprising psychology studies that will change the way you think.#Capua #Gaul #Gellius #GeneralMarcusLiciniusCrassus #Grit #KarlMarx #Lentulus #Lucania #Marx #MountVesuviusA #Plutarch #Pompey #ServileWars #Sparta #Spartacus #Spartan #Thermopylae #Thrace #SpartacusAndTheServileWars #RussellNewton #NewtonMG #Old-SchoolGrit

• Intellectual honesty is also important, and this includes humility and the ability to admit that you don’t know something, or that you have made a mistake. Geniuses know that stubbornness, bias, expectation and ego can undermine genuine learning.• Most genius types are usually polymaths (skilled in many areas) and have broad rather than narrow interests. They are well-read and make connections between all disciplines, see relationships and analogies, and find inspiration in all fields, never limiting themselves to one area.• Finally, geniuses are usually assumed to be novel, out-of-the-box thinkers. Such people are non-conventional and tend to disregard arbitrary rules, fashions or unquestioned assumptions and habits. They are comfortable pushing outside of the norms and exploring new territory—and this makes them natural innovators and trendsetters (as well as problem solvers!).• We can always be aware of these mindsets particular to geniuses and deliberately work to cultivate them in ourselves, in a variety of ways. #CoreBeliefs #CreativePossibilities #DeepThinkersPerspective #GeniusMindset #GeniusPerspective #GeniusThinker #GeniusTypes #IntellectualHeavyweights #IntellectualHonesty #IntellectualMaturity #NaturalCuriosity #NaturalInnovators #NegativeFeedback #PersonalFailure #SuccessfulEntrepreneur #IntellectualHonesty #RussellNewton #NewtonMG #PeterHollins #TheScienceofSelf

• The ancient Stoics were masters of living in the present. • One way of rethinking your relationship to the past is to adopt the Stoic attitude of amor fati. This translates roughly to “love of one’s fate.” Whatever happens is embraced, wanting “nothing to be different.” To practice it, look at events as neutrally as possible and then respond to them with a simple mantra like “good.” By focusing on action and solutions, we are able to transform adversity.• Negative visualization is where we occasionally spend a short amount of time imagining in detail the negative things that could happen in life. This renews appreciation and gratitude for what matters, allows us to prepare for the future, and creates psychological resilience. • With the “what-if” technique, we write down a fear and ask, “What if this were true?” and explore the worst that could happen, showing ourselves that it is tolerable and not so bad after all. Likewise, remember Memento mori, Latin for, “remember that you will die” to help remind you of what matters. #Aurelius #Buddhist #CBT #Cicero #Cyrenaics #Desensitizing #Disputation #EcceHomo #EnchiridionEpictetus #Epistles #FriedrichNietzsche #GayScience #JockoWillink #Lucilius #LuciliusSeneca #MarcusAurelius #Meditations #Nietzsche #Seneca #Stoic #Stoicism #StopNegativeThinking #Tusculan #UpgradeYourPsychologicalToolkitWithStoicAmorFatiPhilosophy #RussellNewton #NewtonMG #StopNegativeThinking #NickTrenton

• The Spartans lived by a set of principles and core beliefs that guided everything they did, and this is ultimately what allowed them to act with strength, conviction, and discipline. When you commit to a cause and belief greater than yourself, you become unstoppable, and even death itself is no longer something you fear.• We don’t have to believe the Spartans were perfect in every way to appreciate the courage it took to live life the way they lived it. We can be inspired in our own lives and ask, what do we care about so deeply that we would be happy to die for it? Knowing the answer to that question allows you to access vast stores of grit, courage, and strength.• Be active. Be tough. For the Spartans, physical prowess was everything, but we can follow suit by making strength – all kinds of strength – a non-negotiable part of our personal identity. If life seems scary and challenging, then train yourself to be equal to the challenge. Work hard, dedicate yourself, and choose toughness even when it would be easier to fold.Get the audiobook on Audible at https://adbl.co/3NBG3vWShow notes and/or episode transcripts are available at https://bit.ly/self-growth-homePeter Hollins is a bestselling author, human psychology researcher, and a dedicated student of the human condition. Visit https://bit.ly/peterhollins to pick up your FREE human nature cheat sheet: 7 surprising psychology studies that will change the way you think.#Darius #FrankMiller #GeorgeHarris #Gerousia #Golding #Herodotus #HotGates #Leonidas #Salamis #SirWilliamGolding #Sparta #Spartan #Sperthias #Theban #Thermopylae #Thespian #Xerxes #ZackSnyder #TheBattleOfThermopylae #RussellNewton #NewtonMG #Old-SchoolGrit