Overview Is it becoming increasingly harder to keep your attention focused on a single task? If so, you’re not alone. In Stolen Focus (2022), Johann Hari identifies twelve main factors that are contributing to our collective loss of concentration and shortening our attention span. Hari details how all these forces converged into a perfect storm that is stealing our focus. Our sleep declines, we experience mental and physical exhaustion, and we lose interest in slow-paced activities like reading, meditation, and free play as we become hooked on fast-paced social media sites. Surveillance capitalism thrives on keeping our attention captive, but Hari outlines steps we can take to fight back. Attention Crisis In the twenty-first century, people around the world are finding it harder and harder to concentrate on any one task because so many things constantly clamor for their attention. Tour a museum, and you will rarely find visitors actually looking at the pieces of art. Instead, they take...

Overview If you are in a difficult, heart-wrenching situation, it’s likely hard for you to imagine how God could put you through this if He really loves you. But all you need to do is surrender and trust His plan. In It’s Not Supposed To Be This Way (2018), Lysa TerKeurst writes about her personal experience in finding the strength to put all your life into the hands of God and trust that He still longs to help you, and that He loves you. It’s difficult to live assured when life doesn't turn out like you expected, and doubts start creeping in from every crack in your faith. Yet you have the power to shut down the voice of evil and stay focused on the truth that you know deep down, that God knows what He is doing, and He is putting you through hardship to prepare you for better things. Insights from Introduction and Chapter 1 #1 Each of us has a vision of how our life should turn out. None of us want to skip to the end of our story and see what happens – we’d rather write it ourselv...

What’s in it for me? Learn how to handle toxic coworkers. In a world filled with uncertainty, one thing you can always count on is this: If you work, you will most definitely meet a jerk. You can work at Google, Netflix or Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, there’s basically no jerk-free zone out there. They can come in many shapes and sizes – a boss who’s always breathing down your neck, the guy who’s constantly interrupting you at meetings, the kitchen bandit who’s always steals bites of other people’s lunches or the colleague who’s trying to outright manipulate you. We all have met our fair share of jerks at work. But here’s the deal: you don’t actually need to put up with them. There’s more you can do than venting to your friends about them after work. In fact, the author Tessa West provides researched-based strategies for how to constructively handle toxic coworkers – from the Kiss Up/Kick Downer to the dreaded Gaslighter. In these lessons, you’ll find out how to avoid getting ...

Overview The New Great Depression (2021) by James Rickards is an eye-opening look at the devastating economic effects of the Covid-19 global pandemic. Coronavirus has completely changed the world. With businesses and schools still shut down all across the globe, the social and economic landscape has been uprooted. In particular, the effects of lockdowns and quarantines in the United States will be felt for generations to come. Not only will there be mental health issues to deal with, but also a crippled economy that is struggling with unemployment, debt, and deflation. However, encouraging inflation by reinvesting into gold is one method that seems to provide hope for America digging itself out of the hole that the coronavirus has created. Insights from Chapter 1 #1 SARS-CoV-2 is a deadly virus more commonly known as coronavirus. The resulting disease from the virus is called Covid-19. Some infections produce no symptoms at all, while others cause lung inflammation, which leads to diff...

What’s in it for me? Open yourself up to both joy and pain. Imagine a world without sadness, loss, or suffering. It’s pretty great. No one is ever in a bad mood. Tears are unheard of. You never wake up at 3:00 a.m. riddled with worry or anxiety about the future. Lovers never leave each other. Loved ones never die. Could you be happy in this kind of world? Maybe you’re thinking, Of course! But it might be harder than you think. See, sadness, pain, and loss all have an important role to play. Without them, life’s joys would be more mundane. The people you love wouldn’t feel so precious. And moments of happiness wouldn’t feel special at all. Without darkness, you don’t notice the light. If you’ve never tasted bitterness, you can’t recognize sweetness. In other words, as you’ll learn in this lesson, these two seemingly conflicting ideas often work in tandem. Learning to reconcile ourselves to – and even embrace – the bitter side of life can help us live more sweetly. And as you open...