%% ID: 13204902 Updated: 2022-01-28 %% ![](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/article0.00998d930354.png) # About Title: [[Other/Obsidian Starter Vault(Second Brain)/Readwise 1/Articles/Personal Growth Means Recognizing Youre the Sum of Your Inputs]] Author: [[Dylan Ogline]] Category: #articles Number of Highlights: ==26== Last Highlighted: *2021-12-30* Readwise URL: https://readwise.io/bookreview/13204902 Source URL: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/390865 # Highlights 90% of a chef’s job is done if they can obtain the best ingredients, but how does he or she go about obtaining the best ingredients? ^278319118 --- To find their secret ingredients, chefs must first master the craft of identifying what the best ingredients are. ^278319119 --- Many of them even go so far as to establish their own gardens so that they can control the process from the ground up. Then they invest in the best seeds and the best soil. ^278319120 --- think of your life as a banquet. What kind of ingredients are you cooking with? ^278319121 --- Garbage in, Garbage out ^278319122 --- if you write bad code, you'll get bad results. ^278319123 --- What do you take in on a regular basis? Does it reflect the outputs and results that manifest in your business and your life? ^278319124 --- Belly. ^278319125 --- Let’s start at the gut level, literally. What do you put in your mouth? Fast food, soda, cigarettes and alcohol? Or do you turn toward whole foods and water? I’m not talking about a cheat meal or a night out — I mean consistently, on a regular basis. What outputs do you see — sluggishness and gastric distres, or meal prep and clean running? ^278319126 --- Body. ^278319127 --- What inputs do you subject your body to? ^278319128 --- An entire day sitting in chairs or lying on sofas, or do your days involve ome quantity of standing, walking and exercise? What outcomes do you observe? A body that’s falling apart, or a well-oiled and attractive productivity machine? ^278319129 --- Mind ^278319130 --- We live in an attention economy with millions of stimuli fighting for our attention. Which ones get in — Netflix shows and TikTok feeds, or books, lectures, courses and meditation? What outputs do you observe — a gradual dulling of your motivation and a compulsive need for stimulation, or mental agility, the ability to solve problems, and the ability to find peace in silence? ^278319131 --- Work ^278319132 --- What inputs go into your professional life? Is your day peppered with distractions and interruptions — emails, phone calls, DMs, impromptu meetings and chatty colleagues? The urgent always crowding out the important ^278319133 --- Is your time consumed by low-level tasks, or do you delegate and ruthlessly eliminate the unimportant — applying the 80/20 rule and blocking yourself off from distractions so that you can focus and do deep work ^278319134 --- Relationships ^278319135 --- who do you spend the most time with? Legacy friends and family members who don’t have the outcomes you want? People who settle for “good enough” and complain about how the world is against them, or do you associate with a crew of dynamic, successful go-getters who encourage you to take risks and excel? What outcomes do you observe — a safe social circle stuck in neutral, or a rising tide that lifts all boats? ^278319136 --- If you aren’t seeing the outcomes you want in any of these area, try this: Change your inputs along at least one of the vectors. ^278319137 --- change an input around a different vector. ^278319138 --- Replace Coca-Cola with water. Commit to reading a chapter of a new book every day in place of an hour of Netflix viewing. Take inventory of your friends and quietly cut out someone toxic. No need to pick a fight, just cancel any plans and unfollow them on social media so they don’t even pop-up on your radar. ^278319139 --- It may take time. It may take discipline. But as you start to see the results, it will make you hungry for more positive outcomes and encourage you to replace more toxic inputs with positive ones. ^278319140 --- Some people think successful people are just lucky. ^278319141 --- While sometimes this may be the case, more ofen that not, these theories do not stand up to scrutiny. The success hall of fame is lined with dropouts, repeat failures and people who started from nothing. Meanwhile, plenty of people with every advantage flame out and fail to launch. ^278319142 --- So what creates the different outcomes? Different inputs. If you want different outcomes for yourself, follow this advice and change your way of doing things. ^278319143