Damon D'Amore

* Mindsets: Optimism vs. Complacency vs. Pessimism: “A real optimist wakes up every morning knowing lots of stuff is broken, and more stuff is about to break. Big stuff. Important stuff. Stuff that will make his life miserable. He’s an optimist because he knows all this stuff does not preclude eventual growth and improvement.”

* Self-Doubt Is Good: “Self-doubt is an indicator. It’s the proof of a hidden positive. It’s the flip side of our dream.”

* Breaking Bad Habits (Video)

* Why You Feel At Home In A Crisis: “During the worst times of our lives, we can end up experiencing the best mental health and relationships with others.”

* Which I Am I?: “I’m not lonely because I’m with this other “me,” who is me and not-me at the same time and whom I have spent my entire life trying to find, to prove myself worthy of, and to labor in collaboration with.”

* The Creative Element of Conflict (Podcast): “Even on a hostage rescue team I carried a book of sonnets everywhere I went. The guys who make it into Special Operations are a cerebral set.

* The Law Of Reciprocity: Closing The Loop On Generosity (Video): “Your goal should be to close the loop of generosity whenever it’s opened.”

* Same As It Ever Was: “People spend too much time on the last 24 hours and not enough time on the last 6,000 years.”

* Stop Preparing For The Last Disaster: “The same disasters tend not to happen twice in a row. A more effective approach is simply to prepare to be surprised by life, instead of expecting the past to repeat itself.”

* A Body Of Work: “It exists inside you … and has existed from the moment you were born, and possibly even before that.”

* Why Do People Avoid Facts That Could Help Them?: “Deliberate ignorance is a widespread preference not only in relation to painful news and events, such as death and divorce, but also pleasurable ones, such as birth. Research shows that people enjoy the suspense.”

* On Luck Relative to Hard Work: “Absolute success is luck. Relative success is hard work.”

* How to Feel Better When You Don’t Know What’s Wrong: “Like many people I’ve spoken to this spring, I don’t know how I’m doing, only that some things feel off.”

* Yes, It’s All Your Fault: Active vs. Passive Mindsets: “The hard truth is that most things in your life – good and bad – are your fault.”

* Permanent Assumptions: “If you were told in January what April would look like, you wouldn’t have believed it. If you were told in April that in May we’d face a nationwide protest so important it would crowd out almost all COVID-19 news, you wouldn’t have believed it.”

* If You Feel Like You’re Regressing, You’re Not Alone: “For a leader, a crisis can be both the finest hour and the darkest day. Teams will remember their actions and decisions — good and bad — for years to come.”

* The Habits of Happiness (video): “Our control of the outer world is limited, temporary and  often illusory.”

* The Art of Being Alone: “Loneliness, longing, does not mean one has failed but simply that one is alive.”

* How to Get Rich in the Kindness Economy: “You produce goodwill, rather than indifference, and send it out into the world. This wealth reaches others, and supports them in producing more of it.”

* Emotions, Integrity and Wisdom: “I used to think that relationships were about being liked. This was an error.”

* 35: “Am I a good father? Am I a good friend? Am I taking care of myself?

* Mental Models For a Pandemic: “Mental models help us understand the world better, something which is especially valuable during times of confusion, like a pandemic. Here’s how to apply mental models to gain a more accurate picture of reality and keep a cool head.”

* The Three Sides of Risk: “Once you go through something like that, you realize that the tail-end consequences – the low-probability, high-impact events – are all that matter.”

* Nobody Cares About Your Failures: “The world isn’t watching you as closely as you think. Take more chances. Your failures will mostly go unnoticed. And those who do notice rarely care.”

* Emotions, Integrity, and Wisdom: ” If feelings are natural, why is the nature of feelings so obscure?”

* Empathy Starts with Curiosity: “There is a way in which this pandemic may be calling us to slow down and listen. What if we resist the urge to act — to just do something — and, instead, stop doing? Just be present.”

* My Favorite Picture of You (video): “A Man Looks Back On Life – On The Ebb And Flow Of Memories”

* Marcus Aurelius Helped Me Survive Grief And Rebuild My Life: “Aurelius reminded me that where I was wasn’t just where I was but when – and that there was no advantage to be found in unsticking myself from time.”

* Focus On The Inputs: “All you need to do is define the result and accept nothing less from yourself.”

* When You Have No Idea What Happens Next: “How do you think about a world where fundamental assumptions about the future are so fragile?”

* Sugar Ray Leonard Interview: Resilience: “Most people look at boxing or any contact sport and say, “Wow, I couldn’t do that,” because they don’t possess the thing inside of us that makes us go through pain. It takes something to activate that. That’s what separates fighters from other people.”

* Winning the First Battle in the Lifelong War of Art: “A true story from the writing trenches by Steven Pressfield.”

* Learning To Let Go: “This should not be an extremely painful process. Learning to let go of things is mainly about questioning the actual value of your stuff and letting go of unnecessary things.”