Book Summary - Everything Is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo.

No matter what you’re facing, you have what it takes to figure anything out and become the person you’re meant to be.

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From the host of the award-winning MarieTV and The Marie Forleo Podcast, an indispensable handbook for becoming the creative force of your own life. Everything is figureoutable is more than just a fun phrase to say. It’s a practical, actionable discipline. A mantra that helps you operate at your best and achieve what you want. It’s a mindset to help you solve meaningful problems, learn new skills, and find ways to help and contribute to others. Once adopted, this attitude will make you virtually unstoppable.

Purpose fuels persistence. Reasons come before results.

Premise of Everything Is Figureoutable: No matter what you’re facing, you have what it takes to figure anything out and become the person you’re meant to be.

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”- Maya Angelou

Here are my favourite take aways from reading Everything Is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo:

Stats

An estimated 350 million people around the world suffer from depression, which is the leading cause of disability and a major contributor to the burden of disease. In the US, suicide rates are at a thirty-year high.”
Every day we throw away more food in our homes, restaurants, and supermarkets than it would take to feed the nearly one billion people who go hungry.

As a species, we choose to spend more money each year on ice cream—a whopping $59 billion—rather than provide the basic human dignities of education, health care, and sanitation to all humans on earth, for a mere $28 billion

While everyone is unique in their tech usage, one recent study estimates Americans now spend nearly five hours a day on their phones. That’s seventy-six days a year—roughly a third of our waking lives—glued to a glowing box!
Nielsen shows that, on average, American adults are still watching some five hours of TV a day.
One landmark study showed a lack of social connections is more harmful to your health than smoking, obesity, and high blood pressure. In fact, loneliness is as lethal as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day.

A study by the Association for Talent Development found that you’ve got a 65 percent chance of completing a goal if you commit to someone. Add a specific accountability appointment and you’ll increase your chances of success by up to 95 percent.

Rules of Play

This mental container helps you stay focused on what matters—your growth, your fulfillment, and your ability to access your inborn wisdom to solve problems and contribute to others.

Rule 1. All problems (or dreams) are figureoutable.
Rule 2. If a problem is not figureoutable, it’s not really a problem—it’s a fact of life or law of nature (e.g., death or gravity).
Rule 3. You may not care enough to figure this problem out or achieve this particular dream. That’s okay. Find another problem or dream that ignites a blazing fire in your heart and go back to Rule 1.”

Your Belief System

In order to solve any problem or achieve any dream, we must first make a change at the level of belief. Because when you change a belief, you change everything.

Your beliefs are THE master commanders of your behavior and your results. Beliefs control our bodies and how we respond to crises, criticisms, and opportunities. They tell us what to notice, what to focus on, what it means, and what to do about it. The fact that your beliefs shape your reality is undeniable. They affect you physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, intellectually, and culturally.
Every belief has a consequence. Your beliefs either heal you or harm you. They either support your aspirations or thwart them. Belief becomes the source of your limitation or your liberation. It doesn’t matter what’s true, it matters what you believe.

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

If you don’t believe something is possible for you, it’s not. Period. End of story. The moment you tell your brain, “That’s not possible” or “I can’t” or “That will never work for me,” you’re 100 percent right. You command your brain to shut down. The mind and body will follow.
Some of our most pivotal beliefs are forged during significant emotional experiences—many of which happen in childhood. The more heightened and penetrating the emotions, the more likely it is that they’ll shape our lives.

“We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.”- Anaïs Nin

Eliminate Excuses

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the economy, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.” – Albert Ellis

One of the biggest obstacles that holds us back are those excuses. The little lies we tell ourselves that limit who we are and what we ultimately accomplish.

“Clarity comes from engagement, not thought.”

Can’t Won’t

99 percent of the time when we say we “can’t” do something, “can’t” is a euphemism for “won’t.” What does “won’t” mean? “Won’t” means we’re not willing. In other words . . . You don’t really want to.”
Often, when we use the word “can’t,” we start to behave like victims—powerless against our circumstances. It’s as though we have no control over our time, energy, or choices. We take no responsibility for our lives.
When you use the word “won’t,” you feel and behave more powerfully. You remember that you’re in charge of your thoughts and actions. YOU get to determine how to spend your time and resources. You’ll feel more alive and energized and free because you’re taking full responsibility for the state of your life.

“You are 100 percent responsible for your life.”

There are external forces, situations, and social constructs that affect us all. What’s crucial to understand is that no matter what happened in your past or what’s happening now, if you’re not at least willing to take full responsibility for your life—which includes your thoughts, feelings, and behavior—you give up the power to change it.

“You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.”- Erica Jong

“THE OPPORTUNITY COST OF WASTING YOUR TIME”

Today’s Unconscious Cost

30 minutes a day dickin’ around on your phone/social media

Total Time Spent per Year

182.5 hours a year or 22 full 8-hour workdays

What You Could’ve Accomplished Instead

Michelle-Obama-like arms
Built a brand-new website
Learned how to meditate

Today’s Unconscious Cost

60 minutes a day on news, email, and celebrity gossip

Total Time Spent per Year

365 hours a year or 45 full 8-hour workdays

“What You Could’ve Accomplished Instead”

Written a first draft of your book
Launched a new revenue stream
Secured a raise or made a career change

Opportunity cost is no joke. Every choice has a price. Everything you say yes to means you’re saying no to something else. Translation? Each time you pick up your brain-draining gadget and say YES to watching another cat video, you’re saying NOPE to ever reaching your biggest and most important long-term goals.

Overcoming Fear – Face Everything and Rise

“Fear is not the enemy. Waiting to stop feeling afraid is.”

Everyone feels afraid. Every top artist, athlete, writer, performer, parent, businessperson, social activist, entrepreneur, scientist, and military leader. Newbies to icons. Every person you know and admire. They all experience fear on a regular basis. You’re not broken or weak if you’re afraid. You’re human.
Nine times out of ten, our fear is directive. It’s a signpost, pointing us in the exact direction our soul wants to go.

Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much. – Helen Keller

You believing and behaving as though everything is figureoutable will radically change your life. But when the people around you—friends, family, and colleagues—also believe and behave as though everything is figureoutable, you’ll become capable of experiences and achievements beyond your wildest dreams.

Do whatever you can to put yourself in an environment that focuses on contribution, not complaint. Giving, not getting. Service, not self-importance.

Everything Is Figureoutable Products

All the best in your quest to get better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.

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