Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers

by Timothy Ferriss

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Full actionable summary

Tim Ferriss seeks wisdom from successful people and uses it to supercharge his life. In this book, he distills the performance-enhancing tools of nearly 200 inspirational people—from CEOs to athletes and everything in between. Embrace these ‘tools’: philosophies, routines, and habits; and watch your health, wealth, and wisdom expand beyond your wildest dreams.

What You'll Learn

This summary distills the key insights from Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers into actionable steps you can apply immediately. Perfect for busy professionals who want to learn and implement quickly.

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Summary Notes

Key Insights & Chapters

Summary

It turns out that to dramatically change your life, you don’t need to run a 100-mile race, get a Ph.D., or completely reinvent yourself. Big changes can come in small packages, and it’s the small things, done consistently, that happen to be the big things. The “performance-enhancing tools” in this book can be added to anybody’s life, no matter what their career, personal preferences, or unique responsibilities.

The term ‘tool’ is defined very broadly in this book and includes routines, books, common self-talk, supplements, favorite questions, practices, systems, and much more. They are listed in detail under the categories of “Healthy”, “Wealthy”, and “Wise”. When applied, these tools enable you to rapidly increase your results with very little effort. Follow this advice and you will be healthier, wealthier, wiser, calmer, and infinitely more successful, with more control over your work and life, and greater creativity.

Part 1: Healthy

“Kids don’t do what you say. They do what they see. How you live your life is their example.” -Paul Levesque

Actions to Take

Part 2: Wealthy

“If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.” —James Cameron

Actions to Take

Part 3: Wise

“The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.”—Neale Donald Walsch

Actions to Take

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Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers

Read in the App

What You'll Learn

Read in the App

Key Insights & Chapters

Summary

Part 1: Healthy

Actions to Take

Journal for five minutes every morning and evening to prioritize tasks and increase appreciation.

Prime your body and mind for a successful day by designing a morning ritual.

Prime your bedroom and your mind for quality sleep.

Sit and meditate for 10 to 20 minutes every day.

Meditate daily.

When you are distressed, simply note that something has gone.

Increase happiness by wishing for random people to be happy.

Take three-minutes to attend to the joy of loving-kindness.

Send good friends loving-kindness at the end of your day to bring joy to your days.

Part 2: Wealthy

Actions to Take

Stress-test ideas with a ‘red team’ who provide opposition to your point of view and improve your decision-making ability.

Investigate the lives of people you admire so you understand how they became successful and how you can do the same.

Treat your life as a series of experiments to progress your dreams.

Use your company’s communications to show your customers you care about them.

Use this 8-step process for maximizing efficacy and doing the most important things every day.

Do ten minutes of morning priming, which produces a rapid change in physiology, to cue your enabling emotions.

Write three pages of longhand every morning to supercharge your life.

Give the mind an overnight task to solve.

Generate 10 ideas every morning to develop your creativity.

Create your own MBA or graduate program, then commit to action instead of just theory.

Flood the mind for creativity, then attune yourself to your body’s reactions to pinpoint the best ideas.

Elicit stories with authentic moments of emotion by using these questions and prompts when interviewing.

Pick the right audience to fail in front of to trial your product, pitch, or material.

Schedule the top priorities first so that the lesser priorities fit around them.

Help yourself by helping your mentors to be better at their work.

Edit for you, your fans, then your detractors, so that you keep your work rewarding.

When interviewing, be vulnerable and create a safe space to induce vulnerability in your guests.

Answer three questions to find your purpose or mission, then take a step towards it.

Check whether you're having a breakdown or a breakthrough

Think about a decision you have been putting off and challenge the ‘what ifs’ so that you can take action.

Part 3: Wise

Actions to Take

Consider whether the best ‘no’ to an unsolicited communication is no reply, and define what you need when requesting responses.

Increase mental toughness with these three practices.

Have a conversation with your future self and implement the actionable advice immediately.

Elevate your mood by laughing at yourself and posting daily vlogs.

Face your fears by defining and exploring them.

Create a death countdown clock to focus on living.

Conquer your fears by rehearsing your worst-case scenarios.

Send a silent ‘I love you’ to everyone you meet to set the tone for positive interactions.

Get unstuck by setting small, doable goals and achieving them.

Use writing prompts to overcome writer’s block.

Handle hecklers from the stage to either shut them down or build a show around them.

Be authentic in any situation, so that you can always bring your best to life.

Identify the three options you have in any situation, act on one, and move on.

Elicit feedback on your jokes and other pitches over the phone.

Create a gratitude jar and fill it with notes of appreciation of everyday moments.

Share the details of how you attained success in an endeavor (a blog, speech, podcast) to help others and yourself create more success.

Incorporate planned reductions in workload (deloading phases) into your life to increase creativity and to reduce reactive living and burnout.

Respond with the word ‘good’ to every setback and failure, then focus on the solution and turn the situation into something positive.

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