Riana Elizabeth > Recent Status Updates

What was originally a "fluff" book has delivered into preaching. It hasn't made it any more enjoyable.

"You had to figure things out on your own.."

"If we had handed you the problem and solution, it would've surely been counterintuitive..."

"It would've been a shortcut that, ironically, would've led to further setbacks..."

"Unfortunately, they're right...figuring things out on your own is part of your evolution. It will mold you into the person who can conquer the upcoming challenges."

I had high hopes with the character premise, but the main protagonist has already shown strong narcissism, entitlement, and had a name-dropping "Don't you know who my family is?" scene with her brand-new boss when he didn't greet her as warmly as she wanted. I'm losing faith rapidly.

Novel premise for a protagonist!

"Paris Beaufont was and remained the only half-fairy and half-magician in the world. She was the product of a genie's wish, one her mother had made to ensure that Paris wasn't born a demon since her father had been bitten by one. The whole thing was very complicated...and it only got more so. You see, Paris was also part-demon. So she was more than a halfling. She was unique."

Wordlessly, I flipped the camera and she stuttered to a stop as the man's image filled the screen. A squeal filled the air, "Is that the hottie you shoulder kissed?"

"Have you forgotten how phones work?! He can hear you!" I hissed before unceremoniously ending the call before she embarrassed me further.
"Right. Can we pretend you heard none of that?”
...
"Not likely. No."

Every great performer...has developed the ability to concentrate on optimizing their particular skill for long, uninterrupted periods of time. This capability...allows them to generate such high quality results in a world where too many people dilute their cognitive bandwidth and fragment their attention, accepting poor performances and ordinary achievements while leading lives of disappointing mediocrity.

Researchers now call this kind of a core behavior that multiples all your other regular patterns of performing a "keystone habit."

My antidote to average

If you do not rise early, you can make progress in nothing.

As with any good routine, he did it so many times it became impossible not to do it.

The two by three by mindset: to double your income and impact, triple your investment in two core areas - your personal mastery and your professional capability.

You never want to be the richest person in the graveyard.

Anyone can be a critic. It takes guts to be an encourager.

I'm really disliking Croft in this book - rather than a character of integrity who stumbles into dire circumstances beyond his ken, in this installment he's the pretty much the creator/instigator of the less-than-stellar situations due his own ego or by taking rash actions without thinking even half-heartedly about consequences. It's like the character has been morphed into a steroid-addled frat boy with magic. :-/

"He could have set any manner of notification spell for when the mirror's twin called out, but he'd chosen pain for many reasons - the most important of which was that it was something only he could perceive. Sounds were overheard, glowing runes noticed, but pain belonged only to its owner."

Information Minimalism
3:26:30

"It's useless being hung up over something you can't prove."
3:09:45

"We stop worrying about how other people see us."
3:06:58

"The importance of daydreaming"
(i.e. The importance of boredom/space/moments in time where you can hear your own voice rather than the voices of others or just the white noise of media & technology)
Query: How is this enriching me & making me a better person?
(Want to see people at their most creative while lying? Ask them to justify a continual poor habit.)
2:41:35

How to break media's manipulation & control
2:33:15

"If you can't remember how many presents you've given, don't worry about the gifts you've gotten."
1:51:18

"I will Dewey decimate you!"
hahahahaha

I spoke too soon. The "realistic" characters just made a wish at the town's historical stones, one declared love, a ghost confronted them, and then they went home as if it were just an exciting day...on the first evening they met.

{gasp} An actual believable character introduction? Realistic-sounding characters?

I can grin & bear it.
That's the moment someone tries shoving me & ends up pushing Zakia. The entire crowd snaps silent.
Zakia looks minorly offended & gives a tail flick but is no worse for wear as my eyes lock onto the man. He hesitates before dropping 3 shades of color as I hold my hand out.
"I'm SO sorry," he whispers...
"You have OFFENDED my cat." I growl.
"Oh fuck," someone in the audience says.
"RIP, my man."

"She gave me her number but I never called her, as you heard."
"Not that; that's fine.”
"That's...fine?" A line bisected his brow. "You don't mind if other women proposition me?"
"It's in the past, so not really my business.
Plus, she's dead. I win."