Tools of Titans is a collection of interesting and helpful notes that Tim pulled from his podcast interviews.

There’s a focus on what he calls “actionable details.”

Specific questions, such as “What is your workout routine?” Or “How do you spend the first hour of your morning?” Or “What books do you recommend most often?” lead to specific, detailed answers. Because the answers are specific and detailed, they’re going to either be super helpful and applicable to you, or not really interesting at all…

I have a lot of highlights from this book, so I guess that means a lot of the advice was super helpful and applicable for me.

Have I actually applied any of it? There’s a good question.

Here’s what I’ve taken from this book that has actually been implemented, in one way or another, in my life:

1. Book recommendations

I added a lot of books to my reading list from both this book and the Tribe of Mentors book. Unfortunately I didn’t really keep track of which books those were and I don’t want to spend time cross-referencing, so I don’t really know how many of those books I read. Oh well. Moving on.

2. Fasting

I did more fasting last year. A period of intermittent fasting, several 1 and 2-day fasts, and one 5-day fast with my husband and one of our best friends in which, on day 3, I began vomiting water. That was a fun time. I should have paid more attention to the advice on fasting before I did the 5-day fast. Anyway, I had a protein shake and felt better and finished the fast with coconut water. Does it still count? I say yes.

3. Lowering cortisol

There’s some interesting info about lowering cortisol. Turns out that when you have a hysterectomy and go full-force menopausal, your body responds with all sorts of hormone wackiness, and making way too much cortisol is part of that. Too much cortisol is not fun. Cortisol does not make you feel good and it can really fuck up, among other things, your ability to deal with stress, your emotions, your moods, your sex life, your general sense of well-being. Yeah. Lots of shit.

4. The Cossack squat!

Which is a squat that… Oh god, just look it up, I am not going to try to describe it. I was just starting to run regularly and having a lot of pain in my calves and ankles. I started doing cossack squats and it helped enormously. I still do them every time I run because if I don’t, guess what? Pain happens. I don’t like pain.

5. Bare feet

There was a recommendation to let kids run around in flat shoes (like Vans or Chuck Taylors) or be barefoot “as much as possible.” I didn’t change anything based on this recommendation: I just felt better about my parenting, because our kids are barefoot most of the time, and when they’re not barefoot they’re probably wearing Vans or flip flops. So, cool. Validation.

6. Meditation

This is a thing I was already doing, but not consistently. A vast majority of the people interviewed has some type of “daily mindfulness practice” which was affirming and validating and helped up my motivation to be more consistent with morning meditation.

7. Journaling

Same as meditating. I’ve been keeping a journal since… I don’t know, forever. I have a box of notebooks from the journaling I’ve done since moving to Puerto Rico. It’s always nice to hear affirming things about one of your regular practices. I didn’t really change anything about how I journal— there were recommendations for specific questions to write about every day, or other formats. I’m sure those are helpful but it works pretty well for me to just sit still and write shit for 20 or 30 minutes every morning.

8. Don’t beat yourself up over setbacks, and don’t worry about the timeline.

And focus on the process.

This point and the next, about making a single big decision, instigated or influenced a major mindset shift in my approach to life and goals and progress.

“Throw out a timeline. It will take what it takes.”

“…quality long-term results require quality long-term focus. No emotion. No drama. No beating yourself up over small bumps in the road. Learn to enjoy and appreciate the process. This is especially important because you are going to spend far more time on the actual journey than with those all too brief moments of triumph at the end.”

9. Make a single big decision rather than a lot of small decisions.

This has been a really helpful concept for me.

“If the commitment is to a long-term goal and not to a series of smaller intermediate goals, then only one decision needs to be made and adhered to. Clear, simple, straightforward. Much easier to maintain than having to make small decision after small decision to stay the course when dealing with each step along the way. This provides far too many opportunities to inadvertently drift from your chosen goal. The single decision is one of the most powerful tools in the toolbox.”

And I’ll end with this one… There are more, but this is already turning into a monstrously long thing, so time to cut it short.

10. Trust starts with vulnerability, not the other way around.

This is one of those ’in hindsight, I see that this concept has seeped into my brain and been subconsciously influencing me” moments. Trust and vulnerability have been coming up over and over for me lately.

Here’s the quote from the book:

“People always [think] you gain trust first and then you’re vulnerable with people. But the truth is, you can’t really earn trust over time with people without being somewhat vulnerable [first].”

Highlights: 📖 Ferriss - Tools of Titans