I love Brian Johnson’s style of writing. His enthusiasm is infectious.

Here are 8 key things I learned from his wisdom-packed book, A Philosopher’s Notes:

– Optimism takes work and training

– Consistency is the most important thing in any endeavor

– Start a morning routine (which I’ve been doing consistently for years now). It doesn’t have to be long, just something to keep you anchored.

– The 100 questions exercise – an exercise where you come up with 100 interesting questions to grow your “curiosity muscle”

– Set creative production goals in addition to outcome goals

– Stretch zones – the best place to be is where you’re stretching yourself enough to grow, but not enough to snap (like a rubber band)

– 10,000 hours – that’s about how much practice and learning it takes to master a subject

– Don’t do anything reluctantly. Even if at first you’re reluctant to do something, decide that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing fully and presently.

P.S. Brian is the KING of giving away free stuff. He’s created 100 mini-videos – 1 for each Big Idea in the book – which you can watch on his website or on YouTube. And if you like those, you can also check out 100 more videos about 100 of the top personal growth books ever.