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The ripple effect of willpower
Mario Peshev
February 26, 2025
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Welcome to The Smarter Brain, a curation of thought-provoking ideas and actionable reads to help you build better habits and become more productive.
Happy reading - See you on Sunday!
Cheers,
The Smarter Brain Team
Estimated Reading Time: 2 mins
3 Ideas for Better Habits
The Ripple Effect of Willpower
Bestselling author, Charles Duhigg, on how willpower transforms multiple areas of life.
“As people strengthened their willpower muscles in one part of their lives—in the gym, or a money management program—that strength spilled over into what they ate or how hard they worked. Once willpower became stronger, it touched everything.”
The Paradox of Perfection
Finance writer, Morgan Housel, on the risks of striving for perfection.
“Just like evolution, the key is realizing that the more perfect you try to become, the more vulnerable you generally are.”
Embracing the Eternal Ascent
Pioneer of positive psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, on the essence of climbing.
“The mystique of rock climbing is climbing; you get to the top of a rock glad it’s over but really wish it would go on forever. The justification of climbing is climbing, like the justification of poetry is writing; you don’t conquer anything except things in yourself…. The act of writing justifies poetry. Climbing is the same: recognizing that you are a flow. The purpose of the flow is to keep on flowing, not looking for a peak or utopia but staying in the flow. It is not a moving up but a continuous flowing; you move up to keep the flow going. There is no possible reason for climbing except the climbing itself; it is a self-communication.”
Source: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
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Productivity Tools and Resources
Beam Your Team Up to Success
Constant context switching, too many open tabs and distracting notifications - sounds familiar? Let beams guide you through your day and join calls with a single click. Always be on time and in control.
Transform Your Life in 365 Days With a New Approach
Learn how you can create financial freedom with just one hour a day. By focusing on high-leverage tasks, building an audience, and crafting scalable digital products, Dan Koe explains how to shift from overworking to working smarter.
What We're Reading
🚀 Growth Shuttle Insider is our weekly B2B newsletter covering enterprise growth, macroeconomic shifts, and how to interpret global news in a business environment. If you’re an executive, angel investor, or currently building an international business, this is your go-to read for how organizations scale in 2025.
Brain Food
Today I Learned: Star Wars composer John Williams holds the record for the most Oscar nominations by a living person, averaging one nomination a year since his first in 1967. (Source)
Science: Scientists have conducted a pioneering study on the benefits of intermittent fasting. Not eating anything from 5 p.m. until 9 a.m. the following day (early fasting) helps to a greater extent to improve blood sugar regulation and reduce abdominal subcutaneous fat, i.e. the fat just under the skin. (Source)
Have a productive rest of your week,
The Smarter Brain Team
Resource Spotlight
7 Ways to Get Better at Asynchronous Communication
If you’re tired of the daily scramble to stay on top of everyone else’s schedule, asynchronous communication might be the antidote.
It gives you room to think, respond thoughtfully, and plan your workday on your own terms—without missing important updates or leaving anyone hanging.
Curious to learn more? See how you can make asynchronous communication work for you.
How Marketing Psychology Shapes Desire
If you’ve ever been drawn to a product because of its design or the buzz around it, you’ve experienced marketing psychology in action.
Brands that utilize tactics such as scarcity, the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, and Gestalt principles often differentiate themselves from the competition.
(Everything in the section above is an ad, book yours here)
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