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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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Get Smart! summary
How to Think and Act Like the Most Successful and Highest-Paid People in Every Field
28 mins
Brief summary
Get Smart! by Brian Tracy is a guide for those seeking to improve their intelligence, memory, and mental performance. It provides practical tips and exercises to enhance cognitive abilities and achieve success in all areas of life.
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Get Smart!
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Key idea 1 of 9
The first step to unlocking your brain’s potential is to change your perspective.
Let’s imagine you have a bank account with a balance of one million dollars. Now imagine you can only access $20,000 of that million. That’d be a pretty frustrating situation, right? But, incredibly, that’s pretty much how little access you have to the wealth of brainpower inside your head. Recent studies have discovered that the average person only uses around 2 percent of their mental powers.
In other words, 98 percent of our potential power lies idle. But how much potential is this? Well, we all have around 100 billion brain cells, and each one of these cells is connected to about 20,000 other cells.
According to Tony Buzan, an expert on the brain, if everyone could use all of their brain cells, each person could generate more ideas than there are molecules in the universe!
Luckily, each of us is capable of tapping into this unused brainpower. To start, all we have to do is shift our perspective.
How we look at and interpret life is incredibly important to getting the most out of it. For example, someone with an optimistic perspective will see a world full of potential and good, while a pessimist will only see problems and negativity. Faced with constructive feedback, a pessimist may become overwhelmed with his failure, while an optimist will probably see it as a chance to learn and grow.
Unfortunately, our perspectives tend to be narrow and limited, as the following famous Buddhist anecdote demonstrates.
Six wise blind men are trying to describe an elephant. The first man touches the elephant’s ear and says that an elephant is like a thick blanket. The second touches a tusk and decides that the animal is sharp and pointy. The third touches the leg and concludes that an elephant is like a tree trunk. The fourth touches the side and believes it’s like a wall. The fifth feels the tail and imagines a rope. And the sixth man puts his hands on the elephant’s head, which reminds him of a rock.
They all have different perspectives, and though none of them is exactly wrong, each misses the full picture by focusing only on particular parts. We must broaden our own perspectives if we wish to avoid the same fate.
In the blinks ahead, we’ll look at the ways you can shift your perspective to start thinking and living successfully.
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What is Get Smart! about?
Get Smart! (2016) offers a variety of tips on how to tap into your unused brainpower and live a happier, more successful life. With a change in your perspective, and an outlook based on long-term positivity, you can discover how to get great results out of life and turn any challenge into an opportunity.
Get Smart! Review
Get Smart! by Brian Tracy is a practical book that offers valuable insights on personal and professional success. Here's why you should definitely read it:
- Loaded with actionable strategies, it equips readers with practical tools to achieve their goals and unlock their full potential.
- Drawing from real-life examples and personal experiences, the book provides relatable and inspiring stories that make the content engaging and relatable.
- The book's no-nonsense approach delivers powerful advice in a straightforward manner, keeping readers captivated and motivated throughout.
Best quote from Get Smart!
Michael Kami:Those who do not plan for the future cannot have one.
—Brian Tracy
Who should read Get Smart!?
- Autodidacts looking for a learning opportunity
- Unhappy people hoping to improve their lives
- Creative and ambitious people hoping to be more productive
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Get Smart! FAQs
What is the main message of Get Smart!?
The main message of Get Smart! is that success can be achieved through effective time management, goal setting, and continuous learning.
How long does it take to read Get Smart!?
The reading time for Get Smart! varies, but it typically takes a few hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.
Is Get Smart! a good book? Is it worth reading?
Get Smart! is worth reading because it offers practical strategies for personal and professional success. It provides actionable advice in a concise format.
Who is the author of Get Smart!?
The author of Get Smart! is Brian Tracy.
What to read after Get Smart!?
If you're wondering what to read next after Get Smart!, here are some recommendations we suggest:
- Think Again by Adam Grant
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
- Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
- How Successful People Think by John C. Maxwell
- No Excuses! by Brian Tracy
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Hidden Potential by Adam Grant
- The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss