#Reading log
2019-12-12: The book wasn’t that catching. Random excerpts from historical people and how they used solitude to become what they were. The best chapter was the last which gave useful advice for how to find solitude throughout every day.
#Things to consider
- Personal leadership is the foundation of leading others. And personal leadership comes through solitude. Use solitude to gain insight and clarity.
- Put white space in your calendar. This is not vacation time, but a time to do nothing. Use this as a tool to create margin and breathing room to reflect and process.
- Spend time in solitude to marinate information. Solitude doesn’t have to be weeks alone in the woods. It can be going for a walk, or eating by yourself in a restaurant.
- Eisenhower’s most rigorous way to think about a subject was to write about it. He put thoughts on paper to clarify his own mind.
- Analytical challenges are the ones that needs concentrated effort. Best done in solitude. “To ponder the problem”.
#Seize the opportunities for solitude
Seize the unexpected opportunities for solitude. When you’re stuck in traffic, having a flight delay, or waking up in the middle of the night—capture these opportunities to reflect.
#Intuitive clarity
Solitude brings out intuition. In the moment you’re just responding to stimuli. Instead take the time to think to reassert your decisions with your values.
- Intuition forms beneath the surface of conscious thought.
- Intuition helps you to connect seemingly unrelated facts to form new concepts. Take Newton and the apple for instance.
- Use your intuition to gain competitive advantages, see the things others are not seeing.
#Last bastions for solitude
Last bastions—places for unconditioned response. The church, the car, the shower, the park. Anywhere where you can be alone with your thoughts for a moment (Seize the opportunities for solitude). Solitude doesn’t have to be this “all or nothing” approach (Solitude doesn’t have to be weeks alone in the woods). You can find it in small doses throughout every day.
#Moral courage
Think about all the sources you have to gain moral courage:
- The bond to a friend or mentor that you haven’t talked to in years—but could still call upon.
- Important life events that you could rediscover.
Remember that to sustain moral courage, you must tend to the soul as well as the mind.
#Embrace hard thinking
Use solitude to identify your highest-value functions and then do them. The most important functions you can perform is hard thinking about complex problems.