1. Quarter Life
Quarter life is a nature phase of human development. Depending on the person, this phase typically starts in early twenties and can go to mid-thirties. My quarter life journey began upon graduating college at age 22.
This book has provided wanted guidance through my transition from adolescence to adulthood. A time where you reflect on your childhood and decide who you want to be going forward.
Personally, quarterlife has been an emotional rollercoaster of joy, rejection, failure, and growth. A period of time some tend to avoid. I believe the lessons from my quarterlife will allow for great success in my next phase of life.
I really appreciated the overall message of this read.
2. Emotional Intelligence
One’s emotional intelligence proves to be a shared quality among successful professional leaders as well as living with purpose outside of work. Emotion intelligence or “EQ” is a broad foundation of maturity which allows for perspective and growth.
A few takeaways
- Self-awareness is an undervalued skill. This book reviews how to identify your own emotions and understand how you respond to those emotions.
- Change how you digest your emotions – “Quit treating your feelings as good or bad…suspending judgement of emotions allows them to run their course and vanish”.
- Reflect on your emotions through journaling.. I’ve found my blog to be incredibly therapeutic.
- Visualize yourself succeeding – Dream about what future you looks like, put a plan in place, then make it happen.
3. Extreme Ownership
“Extreme ownership” is concept championed by well-known U.S. Navy Seal and podcast host Jocko Willink. Extreme ownership means the leader, or “you” are ultimately responsible for the outcome the situation.
What I like about Extreme Ownership
This concept provides a baseline for accountability and dismisses a “blame others” attitude.
As it relates to business.. The project manager is ultimately responsible for failure AND success of the team. If a teammate underperforms and the project fails to meet a deadline, ultimately the leader failed to setup the team for success. When reporting the missed deadline internally to upper management, the project manager will simply communicate “This is on me. I will correct the issue and we will hit the next deadline”. What great leaders do..take accountability.
Where I disagree with Extreme Ownership
Practice extreme ownership with a grain of salt. I think the inverse effects of extreme ownership is low-confidence and lack of self-worth. If you blame yourself for EVERYTHING that goes wrong, it could result in a unfulfilling, under-accomplished existence.
Example – You did everything right in a personal relationship, but she still breaks up with you. She just wanted something different and that’s okay.
Cut yourself some slack homie.
