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January 2023

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In Embrace the Suck: The Navy SEAL Way to an Extraordinary Life, former Navy SEAL Brent Gleeson shares his experiences from SEAL training, combat, business, and life in general. The phrase “Embrace the Suck” is a metaphor for leaning into the suffering and getting comfortable with being very uncomfortable.

Embrace the suck is a book about resilience. It provides tools and frameworks for dealing with adversity. In early 2000, Brent decided to leave his job as a financial analyst with a global real estate development company to join the United States Navy. He joined the Navy to become a Navy SEAL, one of the most challenging special operations training and selection programs in the world.

“Resilience is like any muscle. With focus and determination—you can strengthen your mind to overcome any obstacle, crush goals, dominate your battlefield, and live an extraordinary life.”

Be careful how you fight your fights because they will determine how you live your life. – Cus D’Amato

Mike Tyson’s autobiography: Undisputable Truth is a story of paradox and contradictions. Tyson used self-discipline to become the youngest heavyweight champion in the world at the age of 20. Tyson grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn New York, in his words “A place where dreams are broken and memories are best forgotten.” He was a student of the game, groomed for greatness by his trainer and legal guardian Cus D’Amato. Tyson’s story shows what is possible, even if you grew up in a high-crime environment, was raised in dysfunction, and had low expectations from your family and friends.

 I was the youngest heavyweight champion in the history of boxing. I was a titan, the reincarnation of Alexander the Great. My style was impetuous, my defenses were impregnable, and I was ferocious. It’s amazing how a low self-esteem and a huge ego can give you delusions of grandeur.

At the height of Iron Mike Tyson’s career, he was earning approximately $30 million per fight. He was the youngest person (20) to become the youngest heavyweight champion in history. He made over $400 million in his 30 years (1985-2005) boxing career. He lost all of his wealth due to financial indiscipline, substance abuse, infamy, sex addiction and numerous litigations.

Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Iron Mike Tyson is considered one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. In a career that spanned thirty years (1985-2005), he reigned as the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990. Tyson made over 400 million dollars in his boxing career. However, he lost most of his wealth due to a series of poor financial decisions, drugs, alcohol and sex addiction. In 2003, Tyson filed for bankruptcy with $23 million dollars in debt.

It is often said that we get rewarded in public for what we diligently practice in private. One of the hallmarks of the highly successful is their obsession with sweating the details; they are usually the hardest workers in the room, and they are also the first to get to the gym and the last to leave. They sweat the small stuff, paying attention to details and executing relentlessly.

It is that time of the year again when we are all setting new year’s resolutions and goals. As the saying goes, “How you do one thing is how you do everything.”  As the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, once noted: “We often underestimate what we can achieve in a year and overestimate what we achieve in five years.” The hardest part of starting most journeys is the beginning.

We often underestimate what we can achieve in a year and overestimate what we achieve in five years

In Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, author and psychiatrist Dr. Anna Lembke unpack the neuroscience of reward and profer strategies to find a better, healthier balance between pleasure and pain. The book is based on true stories of her patients falling prey to addiction and finding their way out again. The author offers practical solutions for how to manage compulsive overconsumption in a world where consumption has become the all-encompassing motive of our lives.


Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski is the winningest coach in men’s college basketball history. During the four-plus decades he was head coach of the men’s basketball team at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski built one of American college basketball’s most storied dynasties. He led his team to five National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships and 13 Final Four appearances (the tournament’s semifinals). He also served as head coach of Team USA’s men’s Olympic basketball team during six gold-medal-winning runs.

John C. Maxwell is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author, coach and speaker who has written more that 100 books which have sold more than 24 million books in 50 languages. John was named #1 leadership expert in the world by Inc. Magazine in 2014.

John C. Maxwell is my favourite non-fiction author especially on the area of leadership. As John often says “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” I am always looking for ways of getting better as a human, exploring the pursuit of excellence and greatness. John Maxwell writes some of the best books on leadership, he is a great communicator and story teller. In my bid to work on my leadership skill/self-leadership, I am committing to reading 50 John C. Maxwell books in 2023.

In 2022, I experimented with the 50 Biography Reading Challenge and I was able to read 38 biographies.

A biography is a detailed description of a person’s life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person’s experience of these life events. 1

Goal: Read 50 biographies by December 31st 2023
Strategy: Read and Finish one biography per week.

January

Since 2016, I have been setting a goal to read 100 non-fiction books per year. I started documenting my progress on this blog during the COVID-19 pandemic. I strive daily to become a better version of myself, work on my strengths and weaknesses, gain insights from the brightest minds, be at the forefront of the latest trends and execute goals through lessons learned.

The 100 Books Reading Challenge 2022 is my most successful attempt thus far as I was able to read 114 books – Non-fiction (52), Biographies (38), and Reputiva (24).

In October 2022, I started experimenting with listening to a podcast in french every day (French Language Listening Challenge). I have been able to listen to lots of spoken french daily, although I was not able to listen daily but have been able to schedule and maintain momentum.

Goal: Listen to 365 podcasts by December 31st, 2023.
Strategy: Listen to one podcast per day.