“Before The Leaves Fall From The Trees”

“Before The Leaves Fall From The Trees”

 Notes From the Field By Simon Black

October 26, 2020   Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico

The morning of June 28, 1914 began like any other normal day.

It was a Sunday, so a lot of people went to church. Others prepared large meals for family gatherings, played with their children, or thumbed through the Sunday papers. At that point, tensions had been high in Europe for several years; the continent was bitterly divided by a series of complex diplomatic and military alliances, and small wars had recently broken out. 

Italy and the Ottoman Empire went to war in 1912 in a limited, 13-month conflict. And the First Balkan War was waged in early 1913. Overall, though, the continent clung to a delicate peace. And hardly anyone expected that most of the next THREE DECADES would be filled with chaos, poverty, and destruction.

And then it happened.

That Sunday afternoon, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated during an official visit to Sarajevo. And the world changed forever.

Five weeks later the entire continent was at war with itself. But even still, most of the ‘experts’ thought it would be a simple, speedy conflict.

Germany’s emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, famously told his troops who were being shipped off to the front line in August 1914, “You will be home before the leaves fall from the trees. . .”

It took four years and an estimated 68 million casualties to bring the war to a close. But that was only the prelude.

Following (and even during) World War I, a series of bloody revolutionary movements took hold in Europe, including in Russia, Greece, Spain, Turkey, and Ireland.

Then came the Spanish flu, which claimed the lives of tens of millions of people. Later, Germany sunk into one of the worst episodes of hyperinflation in human history.

Communism began rapidly spreading across the world almost as quickly as the Spanish flu, often through violent fanatics who engaged in murder and arson in order to intimidate their opponents; this became known as the ‘Red Scare’ in the United States.

Of course there were some good years during the 1920s when people generally felt prosperous and happy; but it all came crashing down at the end of the decade when a severe economic depression strangled the entire world.

It lasted for more than ten years, during which time the world was once again brought to an even more destructive war that didn’t end until atomic weapons obliterated the civilian populations of two Japanese cities.

Again– go back to June 1914. Who would have thought that the next 30+ years would play out so destructively?

Even for the people who did predict that Europe would go to war in 1914, most leaders thought it would be over quickly. And almost no one expected it would spawn decades of chaos.

Today we’re obviously living in different times and under different circumstances.

But we may be standing at a similar precipice as in 1914, staring at enormous trends that could shape our lives for years to come.

Covid only scratches the surface.

We now know without a doubt, for example, how governments will respond the next time they feel there’s a threat to public health.

They’ll say, “We’re listening to the scientists.”

Really? The same scientists who tell people they can’t go to work, school, or church, but it’s perfectly fine for peaceful protesters to pack together like sardines without wearing masks because they’re apparently protected from the virus by their own righteousness?

The same scientists who want to lock everyone down to prevent Covid, but are happy to accept skyrocketing rates of cancer, depression, suicide, heart disease, and domestic abuse as a result of those very lockdowns…?

The public health consequences from this pandemic will reverberate for years to come. And that doesn’t even begin to take the economic consequences into consideration.

Western governments have taken on trillions of dollars in new debt this year as a result of the pandemic; and central banks have printed trillions more.

Even with all that stimulus, however, there are still hundreds of millions of people worldwide who lost their jobs, and countless businesses that have closed.

Future generations who haven’t even been born yet will spend their entire working lives paying interest on the debts that are being accumulated today. The long-term consequences of all this are incalculable.

And then there are the social trends– the rise of neo-Marxism that’s sweeping the world faster than Covid-19. It’s the Red Scare of the 21st century.

They despise talented, successful people. They believe it’s greedy for you to keep a healthy portion of what you earn… but it’s not greedy for them to take it from you and spend it on themselves.

Many of the people in this movement, of course, are violent fanatics who routinely engage in arson, assault, and vandalism.

Same for the social justice warriors who are just as quick to violence and intimidation; plus they’ve already commandeered the decision-making of some of the largest, most powerful companies in the world.

You can’t even watch a football game or a TV commercial anymore without some commentary on oppression and victimization.

And any intellectual dissent is met with intimidation… or censorship.

In fact the largest consumer technology companies in the world have become our censors.

We’re not allowed to share scientific information that doesn’t conform to the Chinese-controlled World Health Organization’s guidance. And news articles that don’t match their ideology are blocked.

Let’s not kid ourselves– these trends are not going away any time soon.

It’s great to be optimistic, hope for the best, and enjoy the good years as they come.

But it makes sense to at least be prepared for the possibility that we could be at the very beginning of a period of instability that may last a very long time.

On another note… We think gold could DOUBLE and silver could increase by up to 5 TIMES in the next few years.

That's why we published a new, 50-page long Ultimate Guide on Gold & Silver that you can download here.

To your freedom and prosperity   Simon Black, Founder, SovereignMan.com

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/before-the-leaves-fall-from-the-trees-29166/

The First Law of a Plan B

The First Law of a Plan B

Notes From The Field By Simon Black

October 19, 2020   Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico

In the summer of 1687, after years of study and reflection, the legendary English scientist Isaac Newton published one of the most important works in the history of the world.  He called it Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, and the insights Newton wrote about shaped the very world we live in today.  Literally *nothing* in modern engineering, from iPhones to skyscrapers, would exist today without Newton and his three-volume treatise.

Among the many game-changing concepts he discussed were his now famous Laws of Motion.  Newton’s first law of motion, for example, is often summarized as something like “an object at rest stays at rest, unless acted upon by an external force.”  Makes sense. A rock isn’t going anywhere unless someone picks it up and throws it.

And this is true not only of objects in our universe, but of human behavior as well.

Human beings are creatures of habit; our species resists change and succumbs to the inertia of our lives. When at rest, we tend to stay at rest.

Think about it: do you ever wonder why so many people are in unhealthy, destructive relationships? Or why they remain in jobs that they hate working for bosses they despise?

It’s because of inertia.

We know deep down when we need to make a change. And often we know what we need to do. But inertia is the reason why we don’t do what’s necessary to improve our lives.

There are countless different forms of inertia.

For example, life gets in the way, and we procrastinate. We put things off and just never get around to taking action. This is a type of inertia.

Or, our ‘normalcy bias’ makes us believe that, no matter how much chaos we see before our very eyes, everything will get better soon… so we don’t take any action.

Or, we recognize that taking action might create conflict. And since most people prefer to avoid conflict, we take the easier road, follow the crowd, and abdicate our decision-making to other people.

Or, we have a great fear of the unknown. And we’d rather suffer a known danger than accept the risk of an uncertain outcome.

Or (especially these days), more and more people are being taught to think of themselves as helpless victims who have no control over the direction of their lives. We’re rewarded for coming up with excuses rather than for taking action.

Each of these is a form of inertia, and there are many more. But they each lead to the same place: inaction.

The funny thing about inertia, though, is that it is simultaneously one of the costliest aspects of our lives, yet one of the easiest to overcome.

Inertia holds us back. It prevents us from achieving what we really want from life.

But overcoming inertia is simply a choice. There’s no special skill… no privilege required.

Anyone from any circumstance or background has the ability to choose: today I’m going to start taking action. I’ll educate myself and gather every tool or resource available to me to improve my life.

Again, this is merely a choice… and only requires summoning the willpower to follow through on that choice.

No one needs to move mountains to get started. It only takes a few baby steps.

For example, I’ve long been talking about the need to set up a Plan B. This is something that makes sense. In light of everything that’s happened in the world lately, it’s only rational to have a Plan B.

Deep down I think most folks recognize this is completely sensible.

But then inertia takes over. For whatever the reason, days, weeks, and then months go by… and we still haven’t started.

This is not uncommon. But it’s easy to fix.

Remember-- baby steps. Any time you find that you need to overcome inertia, ask yourself, “What’s the most important thing I can do right now to get moving in the right direction?”

It’s a great question to ask about your business, your relationships, and your life in general… as well as with your Plan B.

To your freedom and prosperity  Simon Black, Founder, SovereignMan.com

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/the-first-law-of-a-plan-b-29136/

Nearly Half Of All Professional Women Make This Money Mistake

Nearly Half Of All Professional Women Make This Money Mistake — And It’s Easy To Fix

By CD Moriarty  Oct. 7, 2020

How to stop deferring to a partner on financial matters

More than one married female friend has confided in me she leaves the “money stuff” to her husband. My professional self shakes her head — these women are giving their financial power away, jeopardizing their retirement and making themselves ill-prepared for the realities of daily life without a partner. Unfortunately, these friends are not alone; among well-educated professional women almost half defer to their partners on financial decisions. This is true across ages and professions, even 29% of those in financial services do this, according to a recent UBS study.

Though many enter marriage with the intention of sharing financial responsibility, they change course once married. This is true even for millennials, who defer to their spouses even more than Boomers (54% vs. 39%, according to the study). This issue goes beyond men and women, as 41% of women in same-sex relationships defer financial responsibility to their partner.

The reasons for this range from lack of confidence to complacency to entrenched roles or to keep the peace in their relationships. Most women believe their spouse knows more, according to UBS. In fact, a partner doesn’t always know what is best for the couple unless both speak up. Indeed, women often are better long-term investors.

Some discussion and disagreement are necessary to come to the best financial decision for you as a couple. Deferring to anyone to prevent difficult conversations starts you on the path to financial problems, not a solution. Compromise and communication may lead to healthy trade-offs, better intimacy and accomplishing joint goals like an earlier retirement.

One partner carrying all of the investment, financial and estate-planning decisions is a burden in a partnership. Even when the woman is the one who takes on all of this responsibility — 16% of the cases, according to UBS — they are not being fair to themselves or their partner.

In my 30 years of experience as a financial planner, I have heard the financial leader in the couple often say, “You do not need to know the details. If something happens to me, call our financial advisor.” That’s not a good answer, especially when eight of 10 women will be alone and financially responsible for themselves at some point.

Change Is A Step-By-Step Process.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/nearly-half-of-all-professional-women-make-this-money-mistake-and-its-easy-to-fix-2020-10-06?mod=personal-finance

Money Matters

Money Matters
By Jonathan Clements 

We make countless decisions—financial and otherwise—with little or no thought to the dollars at stake:
 
We purchase items that we know are overpriced and almost guaranteed to lose value, but we do so happily, because they have a meaning for us that’s far greater than their price tag.  Think of artwork and vacation souvenirs that are purchased because they remind us of moments we treasure. We prize family possessions for their sentimental value, even though they typically have scant financial worth. Indeed, after a family member dies, often the biggest squabbles are over possessions with no resale value. We spend endless dollars on our family, while rarely—if ever—asking whether we’re wasting money.
 
None of this is especially surprising or, I’d argue, irrational. We’re talking about the pursuit of happiness—and that involves making choices where we receive greater value than the dollars we’re forking over. 
Instead, what’s surprising is this: When that emotional resonance isn’t there, we typically default to money as the yardstick for measuring someone or some thing’s worth.

We assume successful entrepreneurs and Hollywood stars must—in some sense—be special, simply because they have or earn a lot of money. We assume items are desirable, simply because they come with a large price tag. These are, to borrow from a recent piece by HumbleDollar contributor Jim Wasserman, Veblen goods. It’s hard to shake this way of thinking, even though it runs contrary to what we experience every day. We don’t think our older daughter is superior to our younger son, just because she earns more money.
 
We don’t have the urge to throw out every household possession that would command little or nothing on eBay. When we think about the people and things in our lives, we think in absolute terms. If we care about them, we care about them—period—and not on a scale of one to 10. 

But when we turn to the larger world—the world we don’t know personally—the 10-point scale comes into play.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://humbledollar.com/2019/03/money-matters/

Every Financial Document You Need To Gather Before You Evacuate

Every Financial Document You Need To Gather Before You Evacuate

Lindsay Mott  |  September 23, 2020

Planning ahead by gathering everything you’ll need can help reduce your stress in the aftermath of an evacuation.

When the worst is happening around you, you might not have the time or the wherewithal to run down an itemized list of the important things you’ll need to get you through.  Preparing for an emergency situation – such as having to evacuate due to a natural disaster – will take some time on the front end, but it will absolutely save you stress in the long run.

While many of us work hard to plan ahead for big life events, statistics show that most of us are not prepared for an unexpected evacuation. According to a June 2020 study by Allstate,  85% of Americans have not mapped out an evacuation plan.

“In the aftermath of a disaster, there are things you are thinking about that you never thought you would be dealing with,” says Wendy Burpee, owner of a State Farm agency in Huntsville, Alabama. “Anything you can nail down ahead of time so you can focus on the things you couldn’t anticipate, the better off you are going to be.”

Greg McBride, CFA and chief financial analyst with Bankrate.com, agrees: “When you’re faced with sudden evacuation, time is of the essence and there are bound to be things that slip the mind. Advance preparation means one less stressor at an otherwise extremely stressful time.”

THE LIST

For everything on the below list, McBride suggests keeping either originals or copies, in a sealable plastic bag to protect against the elements. Please note that copies of most of these documents are fine, as long as the originals are in a secure location, like a safety deposit box at a bank. (In other words, never leave originals at home, especially when your home is in the path of a hurricane, or fire!)

A certified copy of your birth certificate

Your driver’s license, social security card, passport, or ID card

Health insurance ID cards/policies and medical records

Auto insurance ID cards/policy details

Homeowners insurance policy declaration pages

Home deeds

Car titles

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.hermoney.com/protect/insurance/every-financial-document-you-need-to-gather-before-you-evacuate/

How Your ACE Score Affects Your Money Habits

How Your ACE Score Affects Your Money Habits

What is Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)?

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are the traumatic events that occur during childhood between the ages of 0-17 years.

Money Triggers

Imagine grocery shopping one sunny afternoon. You have all the right ingredients in your grocery cart, and you’re ready to purchase.   But you have a taste for Honeycrisp apples.  You look at the price tag and see that the apples are $3.49 a pound. That’s, like, a dollar more than any of the other apples! You have money to purchase the product, but you experience a weird uneasy feeling in your gut. Your brain is running several ideas:

Girl, don’t waste your money on that! You can get cheaper apples at Kroger.

But on the other hand, apples are healthy, and you know what they say about apples and doctors.

You don’t have any money at all.

If I had a man (or woman) who supported me, I could buy apples.

I bet White people don’t have this problem.

We can’t afford that because papa is looking for a new job.

Now in the 35,000 thoughts that we run through our brain, which thought was the weirdest?

It was probably, “We can’t afford that because papa is looking for a new job.”

Why was that thought in your brain, you might ask?  It’s because even though we are deciding on an action in the present, our minds can be triggered by Financial PTSD.

Our Money Triggers Can Help Us.

We experience money triggers from our traumatic experiences in the past. In many ways, these triggers help us avoid a lot of terrible situations.  When I was little, my family told me never to walk in a check-cashing business because many of them engage in predatory lending.

And I’m glad that they did because, according to the National Associates of Consumer Advocates, payday lending could ruin your credit and charge you five times more than cashing your check at a bank. This warning was given to be because my family did go to the check-cashing place and learned from their experience.

Our Money Triggers Can Hurt Us.

On the other hand, our money triggers can hurt us. They can stop us from getting the things we want. It can be as little as not purchasing Honeycrisp Apples — even though you can afford them. It could manifest as accepting less pay than you’re worth, even though you’ve attempted to negotiate your pay.

Trauma and Money Habits

On a personal level, the most challenging thing as a writer is to convey to readers the urgency around money and trauma. Using trauma as a reflective-interactive tool can help Women of Color process their cultural beliefs around gender and race. As I was looking for more scientific research to support this case, I stumbled upon a TED Talk by Dr. Nadine Harris Burke entitled Adverse Childhood Experiences.

What is Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)?

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are the traumatic events that occur during childhood between the ages of 0-17 years. Some examples of these traumatic events are: 

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://femmefrugality.com/how-your-ace-score-affects-your-money-habits/

5 Emergency Funds That Will Prepare You For The Unexpected

5 Emergency Funds That Will Prepare You For The Unexpected

Jaycee Tenn   Mon, October 19, 2020,

If there is anything that 2020 has made glaringly apparent, it’s that the future is a series of unforeseeable events. This unpredictability has reinforced the importance of financial security, putting an immense amount of emphasis on savings.

In mid-2020 the amount of money held on credit cards in the U.S. hit $413.7 billion, according to an annual report from NerdWallet. Within each American household, the analysis estimated the average credit card debt to be $6,124.

Planning for the unexpected ahead of time is essential in keeping you away from credit card debt. And one way to help keep you out of the debt cycle is through emergency funds.

An emergency fund is a way to save for a specific expense by adding a certain dollar amount to that fund every month. The goal of an emergency fund is to gradually build your way to a certain expense so that by the time it comes to put the money down, the burden or worry of spending a large amount all at once dissipates.

So, in contemplating what unexpected expenses you should save for, below are 5 emergency funds to consider.

Car Insurance & Repairs

While car insurance may not be an unexpected expense, it is a sizable one. The average cost of car insurance in the U.S. is $1,348 per year. Whether you have a yearly or six-month policy, having to put down that amount of money at once is never ideal.

Going off the average amount, try setting aside $112 a month into an emergency fund, so that by the time that bill rolls around it won’t feel overbearing.

This could also be extended into other car expenses such as maintenance and repairs. Adding a small dollar amount to your monthly emergency fund, in addition to your insurance payment, could provide extra money for costs such as tires, brakes, or a new transmission.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-emergency-funds-prepare-unexpected-151016386.html

What We Should Have Learned in School But Never Did

What We Should Have Learned in School But Never Did

Srinivas Rao

For the last ten years, I’ve read 100s of books and interviewed more than 700 people. We have an ongoing joke at The Unmistakable Creative. My guest choices are usually a reflection of some problem in my life. I guess you could say I’ve been trying to figure out what we should have learned in school but never did.

Fortunately for me, it seems like most of our listeners are interested in those same issues. There’s one big lesson I’ve taken away from my guests on the Unmistakable Creative: There are many life skills that we should have learned in school but never did. I would have taken a different approach in college, my career, and my relationships knowing what I do at age 41.

Our current model of education is outdated and ineffective. We live in a world where access to knowledge and information is ubiquitous. The value of memorizing information to regurgitate it, pass tests and get good grades has declined. According to Chase Jarvis, we’re moving towards a portfolio model of careers. Kids growing up today will probably have five jobs at the same time. But the current model of education is preparing them for a future that doesn’t exist.

If the purpose of education is to turn us into fully functional, happy and healthy adults, it is failing on numerous levels.

What We Should Have Learned in School

When I started writing this article, I asked my community on Facebook what they thought you should have learned in school but never did. Three themes kept emerging.

1. Managing Your Psychology

These seasons of suffering have a way of exposing the deepest parts of ourselves and reminding us that we’re not the people we thought we were. People in the valley have been broken open. They have been reminded that they are not just the parts of themselves they put on display. — David Brooks

At the beginning of 2007, my life went into a tailspin. The girl I was dating had an abortion. During an already tumultuous relationship, I almost got fired from yet another job. And every business school I applied to rejected me. It was a low point in my life.

Rock Bottom

It didn’t get much better when I graduated from the MBA program at Pepperdine. I was broke, jobless and living with my parents at the age of 31. At the same time, my sister got into medical school. And she finished graduate school with one of the highest GPAs in her class.

I felt like she was the source of their pride and joy, and I was the source of all their disappointment. This was a major test of my own ability to manage my psychology. And it was the catalyst for my 10-year journey of building Unmistakable Creative into what it is today.

Managing our psychology is essential to navigating what one of my mentors referred to as a world of diminishing permanence. We have to deal with highs and lows. We have to avoid tying our self-worth to external events and circumstances. And in the midst of that somehow show up in the world as a fully functional, not completely screwed up human being. It’s what we should have learned in school but never did.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://medium.com/the-mission/what-we-should-have-learned-in-school-but-never-did-88450ce83963

Managing Money Is Ridiculously Simple—and Unbelievably Hard

Managing Money Is Ridiculously Simple—And Unbelievably Hard

Jonathan Clements  |  September 26, 2020

Seems So Easy

Figuring out what we should do with our dollars is typically straightforward: We should save regularly, diversify broadly, rebalance occasionally and so on. Instead, the tough part is getting ourselves to do what we intellectually know is right.

Take the notion of buying low and selling high. Every investor knows that’s the goal—and yet, when the S&P 500 slumped 34% earlier this year, many folks just couldn’t bring themselves to buy stocks. For these investors, the knowledge was there, but that knowledge proved no match for the instinctual fear triggered by plunging share prices and the accompanying narratives of doom.

Other examples? Here are nine basic financial strategies that many people struggle with:

1. Save diligently. What could be simpler than spending less than we earn? It’s the fundamental step on which almost all other financial success is built—and yet so many of us find it so very hard to do.

*****

2. Rebalance occasionally. This is just a disciplined version of the buy low-sell high strategy, and many investors find it equally tough. It seems like madness to lighten up on what’s currently faring well and purchase more of what’s struggling. Yet this simple strategy keeps our portfolio’s risk level under control, while also potentially bolstering long-run results.

3. Diversify broadly. If we build well-diversified portfolios, we should always own a piece of whatever’s faring well, while inevitably ending up with some investments that currently appear to be duds.

But what will the future bring? That we don’t know—but that doesn’t stop us from extrapolating the recent past into the future, leaving us dissatisfied with our diversified portfolio and the investments that have lately fared poorly. For some, owning out-of-favor investments proves too emotionally uncomfortable and they end up ditching their laggards, often just before the market cycle turns.

4. Ignore the crowd. How many times have we been told that, to be successful investors, we need to stand apart from the mob and think independently? Whether it’s buying low, rebalancing or diversifying, we have to buck current market sentiment.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://humbledollar.com/2020/09/seems-so-easy/

Don't Ever Do These 10 Things With Your Money

Dave Ramsey Says Don't Ever Do These 10 Things With Your Money

MoneyWise Sarah Cunnane October 16, 2020

Dave Ramsey says you can solve your money troubles just as soon as you stop causing them.

The money-management guru has doled out his signature blend of tough-love financial advice and Biblical wisdom since 1992. He learned it all the hard way: In his 20s, Ramsey built a million-dollar fortune flipping houses but lost it all when banks started calling in his debts. He had to buckle down to build back up from bankruptcy.

Now his radio show is syndicated on more than 600 stations, and he’s authored several books. He teaches Americans how to avoid wallowing in debt — even during the current financial crisis.

 Here are 10 of Dave Ramsey's biggest money "don'ts."

1. Don’t Try To Tackle Your Biggest Debts First

When you’re deep in debt with multiple loans, freeing yourself can seem impossible. That’s why Ramsey suggests the “debt snowball method.”  Rather than start with the loan with the highest interest rate, Ramsey says to pay off the loan with the lowest balance first, making only minimum payments on the rest. The idea is that each small victory inspires you to tackle bigger challenges.

“It’s more about behavior change than numbers. Once your income is freed up, you can finally use it to make progress toward your savings goals,” Ramsey explained on his website.

The snowball method is one of Ramsey's most common pieces of advice but it's also controversial. If your credit score is hurting, it may be better to use an online service that can help you determine which bills to pay off first to get your score back up.

2. Don’t Buy With A Credit Card What You Can Buy With Cash

Ramsey says you don’t need fancy software to help you save. Once you’ve worked out your monthly budget, withdraw that much cash from the bank and separate it into envelopes labeled gas, groceries, entertainment and whatever else you need.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dave-ramsey-says-dont-ever-161300981.html

33 Things I Stole From People Smarter Than Me

33 Things I Stole From People Smarter Than Me

By Ryan Holiday

Take them, adapt them, and apply them to your life

I can tell you two things with confidence. One, I’m living the life I want to live. And two, I’m able to do so in part by ruthlessly stealing secrets from people who are smarter than me.

Throughout my career, I’ve had the fortune of meeting bestselling authors, successful entrepreneurs, investors, executives, and creative people. They’ve offered me some of their best advice, which I’ve eagerly taken. So here, to mark my 33rd birthday, I’ve made a list of 33 of my favorite pieces of wisdom — things I try to live by, things I tried to revisit and think about this year. If you like them, steal them for your own life, too.

1.           The legendary basketball coach George Raveling has said he sees reading as a moral imperative. “People died,” he said, speaking of slaves, soldiers, and civil rights activists, “so I could have the ability to read.” If you’re not reading, if books aren’t playing a major role in your life, you are betraying the legacy that they left for the generations after them.

2.           Another one on reading: In his autobiography, General James Mattis points out that if you haven’t read widely, you are “functionally illiterate.” As Mark Twain said, if you don’t read, you’re not any better than people who can’t read. This is true for specific topics, too. I am functionally illiterate about many things, and that needs to be fixed.

3.           The clinical psychologist and author Sue Johnson talks about how when couples (or people in general) fight, they’re not really fighting. Instead, they’re doing a dance, usually one that’s about attachment. The dance — you go this way, I go that way, you reach out, I pull away, I reach out, you pull away — is the problem. Not the couple, not either of the individuals.

4.           The past year has revealed some things about a lot of folks that I know well — or at least I thought I did. But as I feel myself rushing to judgment, I think of the beautiful line from F. Scott Fitzgerald at the beginning of The Great Gatsby: “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://forge.medium.com/33-things-i-stole-from-people-smarter-than-me-on-the-way-to-33-c38e368e5cb8