What look like differences in natural ability are often differences in opportunity and motivation. (Location 160)
Potential is not a matter of where you start, but of how far you travel. We need to focus less on starting points and more on distance traveled. (Location 166)
People who make major strides are rarely freaks of nature. They’re usually freaks of nurture. (Location 169)
ambition is the outcome you want to attain. Aspiration is the person you hope to become. (Location 176)
Character is more than just having principles. It’s a learned capacity to live by your principles. (Location 219)
The true measure of your potential is not the height of the peak you’ve reached, but how far you’ve climbed to get there. (Location 340)
Character is your capacity to prioritize your values over your instincts. (Location 364)
If personality is how you respond on a typical day, character is how you show up on a hard day. (Location 366)
Traveling great distances requires the courage to seek out the right kinds of discomfort, the capacity to absorb the right information, and the will to accept the right imperfections. (Location 389)
Becoming a creature of discomfort can unlock hidden potential in many different types of learning. Summoning the nerve to face discomfort is a character skill—an especially important form of determination. It takes three kinds of courage: to abandon your tried-and-true methods, to put yourself in the ring before you feel ready, and to make more mistakes than others make attempts. The best way to accelerate growth is to embrace, seek, and amplify discomfort. (Location 441)
playing only to your strengths deprives you of the opportunity to improve on your weaknesses. (Location 468)
You don’t have to wait until you’ve acquired an entire library of knowledge to start to communicate. Your mental library expands as you communicate. (Location 567)
Being polite is withholding feedback to make someone feel good today. Being kind is being candid about how they can get better tomorrow. (Location 810)
It’s easy for people to be critics or cheerleaders. It’s harder to get them to be coaches. A critic sees your weaknesses and attacks your worst self. A cheerleader sees your strengths and celebrates your best self. A coach sees your potential and helps you become a better version of yourself. (Location 821)
Instead of seeking feedback, you’re better off asking for advice. Feedback tends to focus on how well you did last time. Advice shifts attention to how you can do better next time. (Location 825)
Being a sponge is not only a proactive skill—it’s a prosocial skill. Done right, it’s not just about soaking up nutrients that help us grow. It’s also about releasing nutrients to help others grow. (Location 886)
Perfectionists excel at solving problems that are straightforward and familiar. (Location 956)
In their quest for flawless results, research suggests that perfectionists tend to get three things wrong. One: they obsess about details that don’t matter. They’re so busy finding the right solution to tiny problems that they lack the discipline to find the right problems to solve. They can’t see the forest for the trees. Two: they avoid unfamiliar situations and difficult tasks that might lead to failure. That leaves them refining a narrow set of existing skills rather than working to develop new ones. Three: they berate themselves for making mistakes, which makes it harder to learn from them. They fail to realize that the purpose of reviewing your mistakes isn’t to shame your past self. It’s to educate your future self. (Location 969)
Expectations tend to rise with accomplishment. The better you’re performing, the more you demand of yourself and the less you notice incremental gains. Appreciating progress depends on remembering how your past self would see your current achievements. (Location 1063)
when people assess your skills, they put more weight on your peaks than on your troughs. (Location 1073)
People judge your potential from your best moments, not your worst. (Location 1077)
Ultimately, excellence is more than meeting other people’s expectations. It’s also about living up to your own standards. After all, it’s impossible to please everyone. The question is whether you’re letting down the right people. It’s better to disappoint others than to disappoint yourself. (Location 1146)
the best way to unlock hidden potential isn’t to suffer through the daily grind. It’s to transform the daily grind into a source of daily joy. (Location 1244)
It’s not a coincidence that in music, the term for practice is play. (Location 1245)
Harmonious passion is taking joy in a process rather than feeling pressure to achieve an outcome. You’re no longer practicing under the specter of should. (Location 1271)
research suggests that the people with the most discipline actually use the least amount of it. (Location 1371)
Relaxing is not a waste of time—it’s an investment in well-being. (Location 1449)
A rut is not a sign that you’ve tanked. A plateau is not a cue that you’ve peaked. They’re signals that it may be time to turn around and find a new route. (Location 1503)
Even if your chosen expert can walk you through their route, when you ask for directions on yours, you’ll run into a second challenge. You don’t share the same strengths and weaknesses—their hills and valleys aren’t the same as yours. You might be heading for the same destination, but you’re starting far from their position. This makes your path as unfamiliar to them as theirs is to you. (Location 1625)
Weak leaders silence voice and shoot the messenger. Strong leaders welcome voice and thank the messenger. (Location 2698)
When we confuse past performance with future potential, we miss out on people whose achievements have involved overcoming major obstacles. (Location 2772)
It’s often said that talent sets the floor, but character sets the ceiling. (Location 2824)
Yet when we judge potential, we often focus on execution and ignore degree of difficulty. (Location 2860)
