I wrote a book called Winning Isn't Normal

In my book I talk about:

- what it is like to dislocate your knee, undergo multiple surgeries, and come back to win a national championship in gymnastics. The good and the bad. Not so you can be a gymnast. But so you can have a framework for approaching a difficult situation in your life.

- the latest research on how to build willpower and develop better habits. So that you can be healthier, more productive, and direct your energies more towards things that matter to you in life.

- what I've learned in 16 years of training on how to learn new skills. Gymnastics is one of the most intellectually demanding sports. Ever. And thus I've learned a lot about how to master skills, and share that. Same with performing under pressure and overcoming fear. Specific, actionable tactics.

- how to get people to buy into your ideas at work. This is a problem for smart people everywhere. I have a very specific case study that I break down, then explain more tactics that I've personally found effective.

This is not about "The Secret" or passive income or vision boards. This is about specific things I've personally learned that works, and that perhaps could work for you too.

Is 99.99% of the self-help industry bullshit? Probably. No, let's go even further: almost assuredly. And to Chesterton's point: even the authors who aren't bullshitting us might be drawing upon very personal experiences and idiosyncratic circumstances that we can't replicate. So be it. But here's the thing: nobody's ever gotten massively successful at any endeavor, skill, or enterprise without trying. If nothing else, books like Jason's may provide a boost of motivation and a wake-up splash of cold water (literally or figuratively) to those of us who've temporarily lost our paths or our focus. And if it does that for even one reader, it's served its purpose.

I don't get the impression that Jason is selling snake oil or magic checklists here. I do get the impression that his book could probably be summed up in a few sentences, and one of those sentences is probably "Get off your ass!" But a lot of people could benefit from hearing that. I know I could from time to time. I spend a heck of a lot of time writing on HN, daydreaming, and putting my biggest ambitions on hold. If this book slaps me across the face and tells me to get my shit together, so be it. Maybe I'm the kind of person who needs to pay $8 to learn that lesson -- and if so, $8 is pretty cheap compared to the opportunity cost of never learning it, or of allowing myself to forget it.

To Chesterton's point, no book about success is ever going to tell us how to be successful. But books that motivate us, that provide us interesting skills, and that -- if nothing else -- remind us to stay hungry and buckle down, can tell us why we're not as successful as we want to be. From there, it's up to us to figure out what to do about it.

Publishing magnate Felix Dennis wrote a really interesting self-help book, cheekily titled How to Get Rich. The book is essentially a very long-winded way of saying that what worked for Felix Dennis worked for Felix Dennis, and it probably won't work for you -- but, as he puts it, and as I'll paraphrase, 'Nobody ever became extremely rich without wanting to be extremely rich.' And by that he means, becoming extremely rich (or successful by any other metric) has to become a laser-guided focus, to the exclusion of all else. It's a very difficult choice people have to make, and in fact, Dennis argues that it's the wrong choice for most people. Regardless, we need to be cognizant of our choices on a daily and even hourly basis, and that's a lot easier said than done.

I hope no one takes his word that the only instinct that makes people rich is greed, or that it's "cheating" to seek to better yourself in any way besides skill at your trade, which we should tell young people will make them rich because at least this advice is noble even if it's "fallacious."

1) First off, if you're not exercising much, you should probably spend your willpower on ramping that up. In general, research has shown that willpower acts more like a muscle than a purely "fuel tank" model and taxing your willpower in small increments can actually strengthen it in the long run. [1] But in general, your shower time is already allocated for, and happens at a regular interval, so after exercise (which takes up time that people sometimes say "they don't have") it is a good place to do some willpower strengthening.

2) In the book, I actually explain that I start cold for 3 minutes and then end warm/hot. It's actually better than just going warm right away.

3) I admit that when the water is cold, you are not able to think about much. But if you turn it back to warm after a period, you still can spend the rest of the shower thinking. Also I find that clearing your head via the cold means the rest of your day's thinking is more clear, which may be worth the trade off.

Ultimately, you should just try it once, go through it, and see if it serves you.

[1] http://blog.bufferapp.com/what-the-research-on-habit-formati...

1) Over time, you'll find it takes less will power to do it & you'll recognize it gets easy. In other words, you get stronger and you'll find yourself spending less time worrying about whether or not you can do something & more time just doing it. Over time, you'll find yourself taking the same attitude towards other difficult or uncomfortable things in life[1].

2) This sounds like something different than cold showers, but I'll take a crack at it. When you start CST - and do it for a few days - you start to realize that it's not really as bad as you thought it would be after all[2] and every single reason why people don't take cold showers comes down to one of two different "reasons." [3]

3) I've actually had some of my best idea time while taking a cold shower. You can either choose to freak out or become really zen & when you do it's crazy the ideas you can come up with.

4) There's always the health benefits (I don't get into this a ton, but it helps with quite a few things physically from circulation to healthy hair[5].

[1] http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-therapy-guide

[2] http://impossiblehq.com/cold-showers-india

[3] http://impossiblehq.com/cold-showers-excuses

[4] http://impossiblehq.com/cold-shower-health-benefits

Sorry for all links - thought it was better than leaving a block of text.

As for your point about "I" - also great and one I don't address enough.

1) I do cite ideas and thoughts by other people as well as research by peer reviewed journals in the book.

2) That said, most of the book is about my experience. Here is why: I am not in your head. I have not lived your life. I can only observe other people from a far distance - look at what they say and do, guess their intentions and understanding, etc. The only thing I can definitively say with certainty is what I have learned and what i have experienced.

3) I think self knowledge is extremely important and that you (and everyone) should seek to appreciate how you differ from other people. And this filter all advice through the lens of "I'm like this, they are like that, therefore I should modulate the advice in this way". If you read my book, you get a fairly good sense of how I think ans approach things. Only you know how to modulate my suggestions to your own life and your own goals.

There few universal truths when it comes to getting shit done. What I hope to do is to illuminate ONE path, warts and all, in hopes that others can navigate their own journeys.

Yes, I'm thrilled the "Look Inside" section is now working. Amazon works in mysterious ways.

Hope this is helpful. I have written a book myself, so I know how much effort it takes.