Welcome to Readably Yours – where we talk about all things books, coffee and life-musings! Today, I am excited to share some insightful book quotes from my latest read “The Practice of Groundedness” that are sure to resonate with readers seeking a more fulfilled and balanced life. In this book, written by Brad Stulberg and published by Penguin Random House the author guides us towards a path of self-awareness and resilience, and also signifies the importance of establishing meaningful connections with both ourselves and the things we care about.
As a book blogger, I have highlighted and annotated these tiny lessons throughout my reading journey over the past month. Despite the pressures of work limiting my fast-paced reading, I am so glad to present these ideas and passages that have latched on to me.
Let’s dive in!
Finally, decades of research on motivation and burnout shows that striving toward a goal is most sustainable and fulfilling when your drive comes from deep within. Not from the need – or for some, the addiction, and a hard one to shake – to receive external validation.
– Brad Stulberg, The Practice of Groundedness. P.16
The first principle of groundedness is acceptance. Progress in anything, large or small, requires recognizing, accepting and starting where you are. Not where you want to be. Not where you think you should be. Not where others think you should be. But where you are.
– Brad Stulberg, The Practice of Groundedness. P.29.
Computers and robots can dual-process. They do not experience fatigue. Nor do they have rich, emotional lives that depend on the quality of their attention. We humans are different. When we strive to be everywhere and do everything, we tend to feel like we’re not fully experiencing anything. If we’re not careful and protective of our attention, it can seem like we’re losing control of our lives, bouncing from one distraction to the next.
– Brad Stulberg, The Practice of Groundedness. P.57.
According to Adam Alter, author of the book Irresistible and a behavioral scientist who studies digital devices at New York University, a big reason that all of us, including McMillan’s athletes, can’t put down our phones or log off our e-mail is because we’ve come to associate nonstop notifications with validating our importance in the world. Each and every notification we get – the likes, retweets, comments, emails, texts – sends the message, however superficial, that we exist and matter. And that’s a pretty significant reward to pursue. Picking up and refreshing our digital devices is like playing an existential slot machine. No wonder so many of us get hooked.
– Brad Stulberg, The Practice of Groundedness. P.61.
Every time you check your phone, you sacrifice the potential for a creative thought that could have filled that space. Every time you shift out of focus to respond to an email, you do so at the expense of progress in an endeavor that might matter. Every time you get caught up thinking about something that happened in the past or might happen in the future, you lose the ability to connect intimately to the person or work in front of you.
– Brad Stulberg, The Practice of Groundedness. P.64.
Trying to live up to an inflated persona – and not only your online self, but your workplace self, the self you bring to the community events, and even sometimes the perfect story you tell yourself about yourself – creates what psychologists call cognitive dissonance, or an inconsistency between who you portray yourself to be and who you really are.
– Brad Stulberg, The Practice of Groundedness. P.117.
It’s hard to care – to really care – be it about a person, a pursuit, or a movement. Things don’t always go the way you want them to, and they always change. The kids move out. Your body ages and you’re forced to retire. You lose the race. The project goes down the drain. The movement fails to accomplish its aim. Your partner of twenty years receives a cancer diagnosis. Your partner of thirty years dies. This is just how it goes.
A common defense is to prevent yourself from caring. To coast instead of giving it your all. To put up a wall around your heart, a barrier between the deepest parts of you and the world. Perhaps the hurt isn’t as intense this way. But neither are the joys. You miss out on a lot of richness. A full life requires vulnerability.
– Brad Stulberg, The Practice of Groundedness. P.121.
If anyone says or comes across like they have everything figured out, that’s generally a good sign to run in the other direction. The appearance of fervent confidence and absolute certainty may seem like signs of strength, but they are usually signs of weakness. Why? Because if someone or something disrupts your model, worldview, or sense of yourself, then you are prone to falling apart.
– Brad Stulberg, The Practice of Groundedness. P.126.
Ask anyone whose day regularly includes pushing their bodies and they’ll likely tell you the same: A difficult conversations doesn’t seem so difficult anymore. A tight deadline, not so intimidating. Relationship problems, not so problematic.
– Brad Stulberg, The Practice of Groundedness. P175.
Despite the challenges of a busy month, I’m grateful for the moments I could dedicate to this book and the valuable lessons I’ve learned along the way. I hope that these highlighted quotes resonate with you as they have with me, and that they serve as a reminder that, even amidst the chaos of daily life, we can find the path to a more fulfilling, balanced, and grounded existence. Thank you for joining me on this reading journey, and I look forward to sharing more insightful content with you soon. Happy reading!
Until next time,
Ri @ Readably Yours.
