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Life is like a giant smorgasbord of more delicious alternatives than you can ever hope to taste. So you have to reject having some things you want in order to get other things you want more.

Ray Dalio

Some people seek to understand, and some people seek to portray what they want to portray.
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People Seek Understand
What matters most is that the people you work with share your values.
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People Share Value Work Yourself
It’s more important to do big things well than to do small things perfectly.
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Big Important Inspirational Perfection Small
When you think that it’s too hard, remember that in the long run, doing the things that will make you successful is a lot easier than being unsuccessful.
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Easy Hard Remember Success Thinking
Treat your life like a game.
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Game Life One Liner Treat
Since the only way you are going to find solutions to painful problems is by thinking deeply about them – i.e., reflecting – if you can develop a knee-jerk reaction to pain that is to reflect rather than to fight or flee, it will lead to your rapid learning/evolving.
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Development Leadership Learning Pain Problem Solution Way Yourself
People who confuse what they wish were true with what is really true create distorted pictures of reality that make it impossible for them to make the best choices.
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Choice Confusion Creation Impossible People True
The best advice I can give you is to ask yourself what do you want, then ask ‘what is true’ – and then ask yourself ‘what should be done about it.’ I believe that if you do this you will move much faster towards what you want to get out of life than if you don’t!
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Advice Believe Best Life True Yourself
Success is achieved by people who deeply understand reality and know how to use it to get what they want. The converse is also true: idealists who are not well-grounded in reality create problems, not progress.
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Achievement Creation Ideal Problem Progress Reality Success True Understand
Once you accept that playing the game will be uncomfortable, and you do it for a while, it will become much easier (like it does when getting fit). When you excel at it, you will find your ability to get what you want thrilling.
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Acceptance Comfortable Excellence Game Play Thrill Yourself
Most people have a hard time confronting their weaknesses in a really straightforward, evidence-based way. They also have problems speaking frankly to others. Some people love knowing about their weaknesses and mistakes and those of others because it helps them be so much better, while others can’t stand it.
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Evidence Hard Time Mistake People Problem Stand Way Weakness
Meditation more than anything in my life was the biggest ingredient of whatever success I’ve had.
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Big Life Meditation Myself Success
Ask yourself whether you have earned the right to have an opinion. Opinions are easy to produce, so bad ones abound. Knowing that you don’t know something is nearly as valuable as knowing it. The worst situation is thinking you know something when you don’t.
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Bad Easy Oneself Opinion Production Right Situation Value Worst
Watch out for people who think it’s embarrassing not to know.
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Embarrass People Thinking
The media has the power to create an entrenched perception of reality that’s incorrect.
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Creation Media Perception Power True
In the end, what matters most is that the people you work with share your values, so I’ve wanted people who value the meaningful work and meaningful relationships that always motivated me in building Bridgewater.
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End Motivational People Relationship Share Value Work
There is a strong tendency to get used to and accept very bad things that would be shocking if seen with fresh eyes.
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Acceptance Bad Eyes See Strong
If inflation-adjusted interest rates decline in a given country, its currency is likely to decline.
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Country Current Decline Interest Rate
The pain of problems is a call to find solutions rather than a reason for unhappiness and inaction, so it’s silly, pointless, and harmful to be upset at the problems and choices that come at you (though it’s understandable).
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Call Choice Harm Pain Problem Solution Understand Yourself
Over the long run, the price of gold approximates the total amount of money in circulation divided by the size of the gold stock. If the market price of gold moves a long way from this level, it may indicate a buying or selling opportunity.
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Gold Market Money Opportunity Price Way
I believe that the biggest problem that humanity faces is an ego sensitivity to finding out whether one is right or wrong and identifying what one’s strengths and weaknesses are.
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Believe Big Humanity Myself Problem Strength Weakness Wrong
I’ve learned that each mistake was probably a reflection of something that I was (or others were) doing wrong, so if I could figure out what that was, I could learn how to be more effective.
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Learning Mistake Myself Reflection Wrong
It is a law of nature that you must do difficult things to gain strength and power. As with working out, after a while you make the connection between doing difficult things and the benefits you get from doing them, and you come to look forward to doing these difficult things.
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Difficult Law Nature Work Yourself
That’s what I mean by radical truth. I mean accepting reality.
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Acceptance Myself Radiant Truth
To test if you are worrying too much about looking good, observe how you feel when you find out you’ve made a mistake or don’t know something.
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Appearance Goodness Mistake Observation Worry Yourself
A beautiful deleveraging balances the three options. In other words, there is a certain amount of austerity, there is a certain amount of debt restructuring, and there is a certain amount of printing of money. When done in the right mix, it isn’t dramatic.
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Balance Beautiful Drama Money Option Printing Word
When you’re centered, your emotions are not hijacking you.
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Emotion Spiritual Aware Yourself

Life is like a giant smorgasbord of more delicious alternatives than you can ever hope to taste. So you have to reject having some things you want in order to get other things you want more.

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Life is like a giant smorgasbord of more delicious alternatives than you can ever hope to taste. So you have to reject having some things you want in order to get other things you want more.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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