Notes from the book - Extreme Ownership

 This is a solid book. You must have read A lot of the principles in various books. What makes it special is the storyline, and lessons learned from SEAL training & War experiences.

The book has 12 chapters around 12 key principles.

Every chapter starts with an anecdote from a war experience.

That follows a principle explanation

and followed by the “application to business’ section.

This is another way to read the book if you wish to skip the war experience storytelling.

I particularly found application to business helpful.

Here is what I learned from it.

1. Extreme ownership- acknowledge mistakes, not blame others. It is about leading the team to success.
2. There are no bad teams, only bad leaders. Extreme Ownership means taking full responsibility for projects, teams, and outcomes.
3. It is not what you preach, it's what you tolerate. Focus on Quality and performance. Set Benchmarks. Iterate until teams achieve those and provide support to make those happen.
4. Believing in the cause and spreading the ‘why’. Understanding why something is being done helps teams persevere through challenges.
5. Team and mission should always be above ego. Operating with a high degree of humility is important for leaders and teams.
6. Success is always a shared goal. It comes from understanding the end goal and the role everyone has to play to get there.
7. Complexity compounds every problem. Keeping things simple and concise is important. This applies to communication, protocols, expectations, goals, and everything.
8. Focus and execute. Determine the highest priority tasks and execute them. It helps not lose focus, or get lost in the details. Communicate priorities. Ask for inputs. then go solve them and execute. Repeat the process.
9. Setting up decentralized command. setup boundaries and within those, let everyone make decisions and experiment. It is important for leaders to step back and have a bigger and broader point of view.
10. Planing is the most critical part of executing any mission. Even more important is the post-mission brief. It is critical to reflect and learn. Consider that as your own feedback loop. The purpose of the plan - objectives should be clear to all the folks responsible for executing it.
11. Leading up/down the chain. The big picture should be always understood by the team. Leaders and teams must understand each other’s roles. They are always working to achieve a common goal. Take responsibility for leading everyone be it superiors or juniors or peers.
12. Leaders must act decisively amid uncertainty based on available information. The picture is never complete, perfect or 100% data is available.

Lessons from the book 'Atomic Habits'

I read James clear's "atomic habits' earlier this year. Sharing some notes which re-reading today.

On Motivation

• We don't lack motivation. We lack clarity.
• Instead of looking for motivation, create intent. Focus on 'what', 'when' and 'how'. let them propel you forward.

Do the work

• Reps matter. there are no other shortcuts. Every rep moves you closer to your goal. Don't get stuck on perfecting something.
• Focus on creating more and more and then focus on improving them.

Power of habits

• True change comes when you change your identity. Identity emerges from the habits you have.
• Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.
• Every action we take is a vote for the kind of person we want to become.
• The way to becoming something is by doing something.
• Use habits to optimize for the starting line, not for the finish line.
• For habits with long-term implications, create practices to gain short term positive momentum. [checking off the boxes, striking off to-dos, etc]
• To maintain your momentum, James suggests following the 'never miss twice' rule.
• Jerry Seinfield referreded to it as 'don't break the chain'.

Lessons from the book : Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

I got 'meditations' by Marcus Aurelis as a Father's day gift(2020). I actually chose the book. The family happily gifted it. The book has been on my reading list for a while, especially after I read the 'The daily stoic'. The Daily Stoic by Ryan holiday does an excellent job of articulating principles of stoicism, but I have always wanted to read the sourcebook. This is it.

Below are some of my notes or learnings which i took while reading the book. I took the help of my daughter to type up some notes, so I can share the lessons from the book 'Meditations' with others and hopefully help spread the word of Stoicism and writings of Marcus Aurelius to others.

Marcus Aurelius Wrote this diary "To Himself" as the original title, during the intervals of the battle.

Before I jump into sharing my learnings and specific quotes from The legend here are some observations on the book itself:

1. It's a short book but may not be a short read.  
2. English writing can be very cryptic at times
3. Some pages are loaded with wisdom and points. So, take the time to read and absorb.
4. Reflection is part of reading this book. I found myself reflecting on some thoughts post reading through it.
5. It goes to show that even in 100 AD and before, men have always faced the biggest challenges in front of them. Most of them begin within the heads. hence, "tame your own mind" continues to be the age-old wisdom.

Now, let me share some of the quotes from his book, which I thought are extremely valuable. Some of these, you have to read a couple of times to let them sink in. It is amazing still that thousands of years ago, someone was thinking and answering what we constantly battle with, even today.

Books I read in 2017

2017 has been a good year for me, in terms of advancing my learnings and spending some quality time with the books. This year, I have made a lot of travel happen, and some of that time has been spent with books.
One major change which happened initially was my switch to kindle. I began reading books on kindle and it is a fantastic medium to carry books in a small package. The most valued feature is being able to add notes to your books.

Books I read during 2015 & 2016

here is a partial list of books I read in 2016, and a complete list of books I read in 2015. The two years have been extremely worthwhile in reading and listening to some of the greatest folks in the world, be it from the field of sales, motivation, athletes or army. the learnings from their lives have provided with so many lessons, that I can't thank them enough.

If you are interested do read about why i feel reading is such an important hobby for anyone looking to do better in life.