Status Updates From 5 Essential Dimensions: How...

Life is NOT about pleasing God.

'Decisions are nothing but trade-offs between priorities, sacrificing those at the bottom.'

'Whatever we learn, the act of learning daily is important. It stems from the realization that learning in itself is a good thing, and necessary to our growth and development.'

'Life becomes more complicated as we grow older, and those who refuse to build their mental capacities by educating and evolving their brains will shy away from its complexity, and therefore turn away from success.'

'To find truthful answers we must replace the search for answers with the search for truth.'

When emotions are just depriving us from enjoying the pleasure that comes from achieving a goal you forget that enjoyment can also come from the small steps you are taking to achieve it!

'Social skills also help us understand that their encroachment comes from the fact that people rarely see other people’s boundaries, because they are too busy concentrating on their own affairs.'

I need to remember this: 'There is a rich reward to be had from dealing with people that we would prefer to avoid, in that it teaches us valuable social skills.'

'And the person who walks in a straight line finishes first.'
Well this is just not true, because when there are many obstacles it's sometimes better to take a detour to get to your destination quicker.

'We should bear in mind that too much skepticism can undermine our resolve too, for we will not try at our maximum effort unless we are convinced that the effort is worthwhile. The more we believe in the theory underlying our purpose, the harder we will try.'

Right, this makes sense:
'We face many obstacles that are severe tests of our resolve. Unless we gather our strength to the utmost, we will fail to overcome them. A half-hearted effort will not be enough.'

Now here is a part I already totally agree with.
'Focusing on our ignorance helps us improve'

This book really should come with a warning:
Not for atheists or believers of the God=love theory...

The ranting about God has stopped and now I can get into it again, I hope.
The previous just feels very untrue in my heart.

Finally a short part (B) that doesn't include an opinion on how 'God' is in all this!
Too bad it's so short, then the ranting continues...

I'm not an atheist at all but believe we are all connected. God is not outside, but inside of us.
When expressing gratitude to all things in your life we get a stronger connection out of it.

I have a lot of resistance against the comparison between gratitude and religion.
The study proves the positive effects on expressing gratitude. The link with religion is made out of the blue and is not believable while written like this, I think.

Quote: 'Because there is so much to take in, we need to approach the exercise slowly, gradually expanding our knowledge and understanding.
But the rest of the path we have to navigate under our own steam, feeling our way forward step by step, until we reach the understanding we seek.'