12 Things I Stole From People More Successful Than Me

If you like any of them, steal them for your life too.

Vincent Carlos
Mind Cafe
Published in
14 min readFeb 11, 2021

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Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

I’m lucky.

Throughout my entire life, I’ve been fortunate enough to have read 100’s of books written by people who are a lot more successful than I am.

People like Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, billionaire investor Charlie Munger, Founding Father Ben Franklin, NBA legend Kobe Bryant, modern-day Stoic Ryan Holiday, and many more.

This has exposed me to thousands of new insights and practical ideas for living a better life. And let me tell you something…

I’ve happily stolen and applied every single piece of advice these people have kindly given away in their books.

Whether it’s building better habits, elevating my level of happiness, or earning more money, these ideas have greatly benefited my own life.

So to make these ideas easier for you to benefit from, here are 12 of the best and most unconventional ideas I’ve shamelessly stolen from people who are a lot more successful than I am.

I hope you enjoy it!

1) Pare Down The Number of Decisions You Make Every Day

Every single day, you make thousands of decisions: Should I hit the snooze button or not? What time should I leave for work? Should I exercise today? And if so, what time? The list goes on and on. Some of these decisions are important, but most are trivial.

Unfortunately, researchers have found that, as humans, our capacity to consistently make well thought out decisions is finite.

What this means is that when you use your brainpower earlier in the day deciding what to eat for breakfast, for example, you’ll consequently have less of it later in the day when you have to decide if you should have that piece of cake or not. As a result, you’ll most likely give in and decide to eat the cake. This is what’s known as decision fatigue, which is the psychological condition where making a decision in the present will reduce your decision making ability in the future.

John Tierney, coauthor of the New York Times bestselling book “Willpower,” says,

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Vincent Carlos
Mind Cafe

2X LinkedIn ‘Top Voice’ Writer | Avid Reader | Interested In Spreading Good Ideas | Join My Book Club @ www.vincentcarlos.com