PDF Summary:Think This, Not That, by Josh Axe

In Think This, Not That, Josh Axe outlines how to cultivate an empowering mentality by redefining success, visualizing goals, and developing self-awareness. He provides strategies for setting a clear path through finding your life's purpose, embracing challenges as opportunities, and seeking guidance from mentors.

The book also covers fostering growth within your community — nurturing supportive circles, accountability, and meaningful relationships. Additionally, Axe details ways to build moral excellence by upholding virtues like wisdom, justice, and charity while overcoming vices that hinder your potential.

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• Volunteer for a cause you care about once a month, making a point to reflect on the experience and the positive impact you're making. This not only contributes to a sense of gratitude for your ability to help others but also connects you with the broader positive effects of community service.
• Partner with a friend for a bi-weekly SWOT accountability meetup. During these sessions, share updates on how you're leveraging your strengths, addressing weaknesses, seizing opportunities, and mitigating threats. This partnership can provide external perspective and encouragement to stay committed to your personal development plans.

Embrace and dedicate yourself to our distinct purpose in life.

Our skills, when employed for the betterment of others and the advancement of the world, imbue us with a deep sense of purpose and steer us towards a journey of thriving.

Josh Axe believes that living a meaningful life is dependent on nurturing the health and success of the people in our community. The author, Josh Axe, utilizes a recognized psychological model that suggests the first stage in developing a sense of purpose is to make certain that basic human needs such as food, water, and shelter are met, which then allows people to help others achieve self-actualization and transcendence. Axe emphasizes that his deepest joy comes from assisting others in recognizing their utmost potential. He argues that our sense of purpose emerges when we acknowledge the importance of our being and comprehend how our deeds can have a beneficial impact on others and the planet's well-being. Helping others means prioritizing their needs over our own desires and using our distinct talents to improve their lives and make the world a better place.

Axe highlights various tactics for implementing this idea, including fostering a deep sense of duty and intention in children, supporting philanthropic initiatives with financial contributions, and creating enterprises that exert a positive influence on the community. Josh Axe advocates for the integration of the Japanese principle known as ikigai, signifying one's reason for being, into one's daily life, prompting individuals to seek out and embrace their unique life's mission through contemplation of what they are passionate about. Recognize the areas where you demonstrate exceptional skill. How might you enact change on a global scale? What leads to the utmost sense of fulfillment?

Axe posits that many individuals fail to reach their highest potential for making a positive difference because they are not fully aware of their life's purpose and have not intentionally developed habits to reinforce it. He presents his own journey as a warning to others. While pursuing his medical degree, Axe was so busy with his classes and responsibilities that he lost sight of why he'd chosen a career path as a healer. After a significant accident, Axe was restricted to his bed, a time he used to rekindle his zeal for leading a purpose-driven life. Josh Axe's wisdom teaches us that our life's purpose is constantly evolving and transforming, necessitating our attention even during difficult times or when faced with small distractions.

Practical Tips

• Start a neighborhood resource-sharing initiative to foster interdependence and mutual support. By creating a simple online bulletin board or physical space where neighbors can offer and request items for borrowing, like tools or books, you encourage a sense of community and reduce the need for individual ownership, which can lead to more meaningful local connections.
• Create personalized encouragement cards to hand out to friends, family, or even strangers who might need a boost. On each card, write a message that highlights a strength or potential you see in them. For instance, if a friend is good at art but hesitant to share it, your card could read, "Your art inspires those around you – don't be afraid to showcase your talent!"
• Engage in "impact conversations" with friends or family once a week. Discuss actions and their broader implications to gain new perspectives. You might talk about how reducing water usage during showers not only saves on your utility bill but also conserves community water resources and reduces stress on local treatment facilities.
• Start a 'talent bank' where you list your skills and offer them for free to neighbors or community members in need. For example, if you're good at fixing things, you could help an elderly neighbor with home repairs, or if you're a tech-savvy person, assist someone who's struggling with their computer.
• Start a family goal-setting workshop where each member, including the children, sets a personal goal that benefits someone else. This could be as simple as a child deciding to read a story to a younger sibling or as involved as volunteering together at a local charity. The process of setting, planning, and achieving these goals with an outward focus can instill a strong sense of purpose and duty in children.
• Consider purchasing from businesses that have a known social impact, such as those that donate a portion of their profits to community projects. By redirecting your regular spending to these businesses, you support philanthropic efforts without altering your budget. For instance, if you buy your morning coffee from a café that supports local youth programs, you're contributing to the community with every sip.
• Create a vision board that visually represents your life's purpose and desired habits. Use a corkboard or digital app to pin images, quotes, and symbols that resonate with your goals. This visual representation can serve as a daily reminder and source of inspiration, reinforcing your commitment to your life's purpose and the habits that support it.

Consider challenges and hardships as opportunities for growth and progression.

Reframing setbacks as stepping stones rather than roadblocks allows us to develop resilience and cultivate the tenacity and insight needed to surmount obstacles on our path to fulfillment.

Axe shares his own story of how, by putting his savings into an unsuccessful business, he learned that our challenges can guide us toward future success. Though he lost his money and had to begin anew, Axe's business collapse provided him with crucial insights into financial planning, strategic decision-making, as well as assembling an effective team. He achieved subsequent successes by carefully examining his mistakes, absorbing the lessons learned, and devising an improved approach for moving ahead. Axe advocates for a mindset shift from focusing on the fear of failure to embracing the potential growth opportunities it provides. He emphasizes the critical role that missteps play in promoting educational advancement, identifying opportunities for enhancement, and nurturing unwavering resolve.

This part of the text emphasizes the significance of discovering one's own meaningful pursuit in the face of challenges, referencing the wisdom of Viktor Frankl, the Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist. Frankl, along with his family members, endured the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust's concentration camps during the period of the Second Global Conflict. Frankl moved from despair to a pursuit of meaning, which gave him the strength to withstand hardships and at the same time offer support to his fellow sufferers. Frankl transformed his deep sorrow by leading others to uncover their own life's purpose, and he wrote the impactful book "Man's Search for Meaning," which has motivated and instilled hope in numerous people worldwide. Axe underscores eight key benefits of living a life imbued with purpose and significance, guiding readers to use their challenging experiences as a foundation for future success and fulfillment.

Practical Tips

• Engage in "Role Reversal" by pairing up with a friend to share setbacks and collaboratively find the silver linings. Take turns discussing a recent challenge and work together to identify how it can serve as a stepping stone. This exercise can help you practice reframing from an outside perspective, which can then be applied to your own challenges.
• Start a "Failure Resume" to document and analyze your setbacks. Create a resume just like a traditional one, but instead of achievements and successes, list your failures, what you learned from each, and how you've changed your approach as a result. This can help you to see failure as a step towards success and to track your personal growth over time.
• Create a mistake journal to document and reflect on daily errors. By writing down mistakes as they happen, you can analyze patterns over time and identify areas for improvement. For example, if you notice you often make errors in financial calculations, you might decide to take an online course to improve your math skills.
• Implement a "What If" ritual after every project or goal, where you ask yourself, "What if this doesn't work?" and then plan out steps to take if it fails. This proactive approach prepares you for potential failure and can help you pivot more quickly if things don't go as planned.
• Implement a "One Small Step" rule where for every challenge faced, you commit to taking one small action towards a meaningful goal that's been on your mind. If you're feeling overwhelmed at work, your small step could be to delegate a minor task or to take a short walk to clear your mind, potentially sparking an interest in mindfulness or leadership.
• Create a "purpose map" for your week, setting intentions that connect to your larger goals each day. This could be as simple as dedicating 15 minutes to learning a new skill that contributes to your career aspirations or choosing to spend quality time with family to nurture relationships.
• Create a "Resilience Map" by drawing a timeline of past challenges and noting the skills or insights gained from each. This visual representation can serve as a reminder of how far you've come and the cumulative benefits of overcoming obstacles.

Cultivating bonds within a community and across various relationships.

Cultivate an environment of exceptional individuals.

Surrounding ourselves with people who share our values and foster our development can significantly accelerate our progress in both our careers and personal lives.

Josh Axe believes that reaching our utmost potential is contingent upon the involvement of other people. Josh Axe advocates for the formation of a supportive circle of friends with aligned goals and principles, who are committed to mutually fostering each other's growth and advancement. The research emphasized in Josh Axe's book suggests that our habitual actions are often shaped by the social circles we are part of. To mitigate the effects of "social contagion," it's recommended to pinpoint the top five individuals who have the most significant sway over us and meticulously evaluate their characteristics, skills, flaws, and values. Our values and personal identity are significantly shaped by the traits they exhibit.

Axe uses his own experience of struggling to find a community of like-minded couples after he and his wife moved to South Florida as an example of how this type of intentional community is crucial for growth. Upon arriving back in Nashville, they were delighted to meet another pair who, driven by the same yearning for a deeper community connection, were getting ready to move to Los Angeles. They rapidly established a tightly interconnected community, immediately benefiting from the shared wisdom about life, fostering a nurturing space for sharing concerns, and together improving their business acumen.

Josh Axe highlights the crucial contributions of encouragement and insightful feedback from C.S. Lewis and his fellow Inklings in helping Tolkien finish his masterpiece, "The Lord of the Rings." Axe suggests that profound changes occur when people come together in a group with the common purpose of raising children with robust ethical values, supporting a political cause, or launching an entrepreneurial venture. He provides a detailed portrayal of his intimate group, consisting of six to eight individuals, who regularly convene to develop their leadership abilities across personal, spiritual, and career aspects. Axe emphasizes the importance of this gathering, pointing out that it serves as a collective where members support one another's accountability, foster development on an individual level, and work together towards common goals, such as supporting philanthropic projects and starting initiatives that benefit the wider community.

Other Perspectives

• The concept of significant acceleration due to a supportive social circle doesn't account for the complexity of personal growth, which can sometimes require solitude, introspection, and overcoming personal challenges without reliance on others.
• The concept of mutual growth and advancement assumes that all individuals in the group will progress at a similar pace, which may not be realistic and could lead to tension or feelings of inadequacy among members who develop at different rates.
• While research does suggest that social circles can influence habitual actions, individual agency and personal choice still play a significant role in determining behavior. People are capable of acting independently of their social environment.
• This approach may inadvertently encourage a transactional view of relationships, where individuals are assessed primarily on their utility for personal development rather than valued for their intrinsic worth or the mutual benefits of friendship.
• The traits of those around us might shape our values and identity, but this influence is not deterministic. Individuals can be exposed to a variety of influences, including books, media, and other forms of culture, which can also play significant roles in shaping their personal development.
• The benefits of intentional communities, such as sharing concerns and improving business acumen, can also be achieved through other means such as professional networking, mentorship, and independent learning.
• While encouragement and feedback from a supportive group can be beneficial, it is not the sole factor in achieving profound changes or completing significant works; individual perseverance, talent, and effort are also critical components.
• The success of a group in raising children with ethical values, supporting a cause, or launching a venture is not solely dependent on the group's unity but also on external factors such as socio-economic conditions, political climate, and access to resources.
• Relying solely on a small group for leadership development may limit exposure to new ideas and innovative practices that are often found through broader networking and professional development opportunities.
• The pressure to conform within a tight community might stifle individual creativity and discourage members from pursuing unique or innovative ideas that deviate from the group's norms.

Pursue guidance from experienced individuals to foster our development.

Guidance and accountability from those with experience can assist in steering clear of potential setbacks and enhance our ability to seize opportunities more efficiently than if we faced obstacles independently.

Axe emphasizes the significance of guidance from a mentor in realizing our full potential and achieving our goals. He firmly believed that mentors provide invaluable advantages such as seasoned understanding, encouragement, and accountability. During his time at university, he cherishes the wisdom a mentor shared with him, which was instrumental in forging his journey towards independence. The manual provided practical advice for life that helped Axe enhance his choices and value the importance of being in the company of supportive friends who had similar goals and faced similar challenges. Axe emphasizes the significant impact that guidance from a mentor can have, especially when it's part of a collective committed to maintaining high standards. Axe recommends choosing a handful of individuals, ideally one to three people, who are admired and from whom one wishes to learn, and then arranging a discussion about shared goals and interests. He emphasizes the importance of valuing mentorship by implementing their suggestions and remaining receptive to transformation.

Axe also encourages readers to become mentors, emphasizing the reciprocal benefits for the mentor. Josh Axe highlights the importance of helping others attain independence by underscoring the concept of charitable giving, drawing on insights from a thinker steeped in Jewish scholarly tradition. This approach provides a comprehensive plan that encompasses both learning and guidance to enhance a person's achievements, rather than just a temporary solution. Axe imparts to his audience a number of crucial suggestions derived from his extensive background in both accepting and providing guidance.

Concentrate on fostering deep and significant connections.

Practical Tips

• Develop a 'mentorship diary' to track your progress and reflections. Use a simple notebook or digital document to record your experiences, insights gained from your mentor, and how you've applied their advice to real-life situations. Regularly review your entries to assess your growth and make adjustments to your approach as needed.
• Start a goal buddies system with friends where you meet weekly to discuss progress on your personal goals. This creates a structured environment for accountability and encouragement. For example, if you're all trying to exercise more, share your weekly workout achievements and challenges, and offer each other support and advice.
• Engage in reverse mentoring to offer value to potential mentors. Identify areas where you have expertise or fresh perspectives that could benefit someone you admire. Offer to share your knowledge with them in a specific area, such as new technology or social media trends, as a way to initiate a mutually beneficial mentorship relationship.
• Develop a "Yes, And" practice for one week to enhance receptivity. Whenever you receive a suggestion, whether from a mentor or a colleague, respond with "Yes, And" followed by a constructive addition or acknowledgment of the idea. This improvisational technique encourages open-mindedness and builds upon the initial suggestion, fostering a mindset of collaboration and growth.
• Offer to help a local community center by providing guidance to young adults in career planning. This can be a weekly session where you discuss different career paths, the education needed, and the realities of the job market. Your insights can help them make informed decisions, and you'll gain a fresh perspective on the evolving workforce.
• Start a micro-grant program that provides small, no-strings-attached funds to local entrepreneurs. By offering seed money to individuals with business ideas but limited access to capital, you help them take the first steps toward economic self-sufficiency.
• Start a 'connection journal' to track and deepen your relationships. Each day, jot down who you interacted with, what you learned about them, and ideas for furthering your connection. This could be as simple as noting a coworker's interest in gardening and planning to share a related article with them.

Investing effort and commitment into cultivating our personal and professional connections creates a strong support system that enhances our overall health and magnifies our impact.

Axe suggests that the foundation of a fulfilling life is deeply anchored in the creation of meaningful connections. Josh Axe elucidates the concept that people typically maintain a certain number of meaningful relationships: five close friends or immediate family members, fifteen friends, fifty acquaintances, and one hundred and fifty individuals they are familiar with. The author underscores the importance of cherishing our bonds and ensuring that the five individuals who are most influential in our lives inspire us to grow and challenge us to enhance our character. He contrasts this with superficial social connections, such as those cultivated though social media, that typically provide little support or long-term fulfillment. Josh Axe is convinced that by cultivating an environment where support and encouragement are shared, the increasing feelings of detachment and isolation that many individuals encounter can be alleviated.

Axe emphasizes the significance of establishing relationships and alliances, which significantly strengthens our ability to effect positive changes on a worldwide scale. He offers the compelling example of how two work horses have a combined pulling capacity that's three times greater than the pulling power of one horse. When we combine our skills and efforts with those of others, we often see a substantial increase in our development and impact.

Context

• Studies indicate that people with strong social ties have better cardiovascular health, stronger immune systems, and lower mortality rates. Social interactions can encourage healthier lifestyle choices and adherence to medical advice.
• Engaging in deep relationships helps develop empathy, communication skills, and emotional intelligence, which are crucial for personal and professional success.
• The breakdown of relationships into categories (close friends, friends, acquaintances, and familiar individuals) reflects varying levels of emotional closeness and frequency of interaction, which can influence the quality and depth of these connections.
• Influential individuals often serve as role models or mentors, offering guidance and advice that can help us navigate personal and professional challenges more effectively.
• Studies have shown that excessive use of social media can lead to feelings of loneliness and depression, as it may create a false sense of connection without the emotional benefits of real-life interactions.
• Different cultures emphasize varying levels of community and individualism, affecting how support systems are formed and maintained. Understanding these dynamics can enhance connection strategies.
• In social science, network theory explains how interconnected systems can lead to more efficient communication and resource distribution, enhancing the ability to implement changes on a larger scale.
• In fields like science and technology, combining expertise from different disciplines can lead to breakthroughs that wouldn't be possible within a single field.

Cultivating one's own moral excellence and uprightness.

Acknowledge the importance of virtue in addition to values.

Foundational principles rooted in ethical integrity provide a more stable and impactful foundation for our lives than the ever-changing societal norms.

Axe characterizes virtues as the foundational elements essential for a life imbued with significance and satisfaction. Character development is significantly influenced by traits that are deemed virtuous. Josh Axe believes that a life brimming with inspiration, meaning, and the capacity to drive progress is fundamentally built on a bedrock of ethical integrity. Josh Axe underscores the importance of integrity and moral fiber, characteristics often overlooked as outdated and uninteresting, by highlighting that humanity's most notable achievements, like the singular work of art by the esteemed Italian painter, Martin Luther King Jr.'s relentless pursuit of civil rights, and his mother's triumph over a grave sickness, were all fueled by these virtues.

Axe contrasts the economic results of two groups of CEOs—those celebrated for their robust ethical principles against those recognized for lacking moral integrity—to emphasize his point. The outcomes were remarkable. Firms guided by CEOs with the strongest ethical principles demonstrated a quintuple increase in financial profitability compared to those directed by leaders with weaker moral foundations, underscoring the critical role of a robust ethical character in achieving success. Axe presents the idea of seven sacred virtues, which include wisdom, justice, temperance, and fortitude, along with faith, hope, and charity, that act as a moral compass to direct our actions and choices toward personal betterment and the pursuit of greatness.

Practical Tips

• Engage in random acts of kindness without expectation of recognition or reward. Choose to do something kind for someone else, whether it's helping a neighbor with groceries or paying for a stranger's coffee. The key is to do it anonymously and without any expectation of a 'thank you'. This exercise helps to internalize the value of selfless action as a component of ethical integrity.
• Create a "Moral Fiber Map" for your personal and professional relationships. On a piece of paper, draw a map that connects you to the people in your life, and label the lines with the values that define those relationships, such as trust, respect, or loyalty. This visual tool can help you see where your relationships are strong in integrity and where they might need attention or improvement.
• Start a virtue journal to track your daily actions and their alignment with your core values. Each evening, write down instances where you demonstrated integrity or where you could have improved. This reflection will help you become more aware of your behavior and encourage you to act with integrity consistently.
• Develop a mentorship program within your organization that pairs up-and-coming leaders with seasoned executives who exemplify strong ethical principles. This allows for the transfer of ethical values and decision-making skills, fostering a culture of integrity that could contribute to the company's financial success.
• Develop a virtue-based decision-making flowchart for use when faced with ethical dilemmas or important choices. This tool can help you visualize the process of aligning your decisions with the virtues you value. For instance, if honesty is one of the virtues, your flowchart could include questions like "Does this decision reflect the truth?" or "Am I being transparent in my intentions?"

Nurture the seven fundamental virtues.

Cultivating qualities such as prudence, equity, self-restraint, bravery, belief, optimism, and affection equips us to live with integrity and exert a beneficial impact on our environment.

This section of the chapter emphasizes the significance of embracing virtues and provides a detailed examination of them to direct the audience. Axe contends that fostering our virtues requires a clear comprehension of their true nature and how they manifest in our behavior. He likens this technique to the focus of an archer who must fixate on a specific spot, like the bullseye, prior to letting the arrow fly. He demonstrates the route to a virtuous life by asking a question that focuses on the core of altruistic love: "What is the kindest action I can take in relation to the person right now?" Axe suggests that this simple question can reliably guide us toward ethical conduct, transforming our lives and benefiting others in the process.

He emphasizes the paramount importance of love, placing it at the top of the hierarchy of virtues, and draws on familiar cultural icons and actual events to illustrate this concept. From Steve Roger's selfless act of diving onto a live explosive to protect his comrades in the initial scene of the Captain America film to Samwise Gamgee's fierce determination to carry his friend Frodo to the perilous heights of the volcano in "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," Axe underscores that the most genuine form of love is one that requires self-sacrifice and cannot be completely conveyed in mere words but must be demonstrated through actions.

Practical Tips

• Use a habit tracking app to monitor your progress in virtue cultivation. Choose an app that allows you to set specific, measurable goals for each virtue. For example, if you're working on generosity, you might track the number of times you perform acts of kindness each week. This digital log creates accountability and a clear path to your target.
• Develop a habit of pausing before responding in conversations, using that moment to ask yourself the kindness question internally. This pause can help you respond more thoughtfully and ethically. For instance, if someone shares a problem with you, instead of immediately offering advice or dismissing their concerns, take a brief moment to consider a kind and supportive response.
• Implement a "love-first" decision-making process where, for every decision you face, you first consider what the most loving choice would be. This could apply to work situations, personal relationships, or even mundane choices like which product to buy. For example, choosing to buy from a company that supports fair trade or deciding to spend quality time with family instead of working late could be outcomes of this process.
• You can recognize self-sacrificial love in your daily life by keeping a journal where you note moments when you or others put someone else's needs before their own. This could be as simple as giving up your seat on public transport for someone in need or choosing to spend time helping a friend move instead of enjoying a personal day off. Reflecting on these actions daily can increase your awareness and propensity to act selflessly.

Recognize and overcome destructive vices

By recognizing and consciously substituting detrimental patterns with beneficial ones, we can unleash our utmost capabilities and establish a life imbued with enduring significance.

Axe conveys to his readers that cultivating a noble disposition necessitates not only recognizing the essence of virtue but also a profound understanding and control of vices, which are harmful tendencies and habits that undermine our ethical principles. Axe believes that our capacity to grow in virtue is often threatened by an unhealthy preoccupation with vices (such as pride, envy, and sloth ) that lead us astray from our purpose and decrease our ability to contribute to the world. He elucidates his perspective by employing the metaphor of a "Character Tree." The observable foliage and limbs of this tree symbolize our acquired abilities, innate gifts, and notable achievements. Our hidden roots encompass our identity, ethical pillars, moral strength, and the aspirations we pursue throughout our existence.

A tree with an undeveloped strong root system will easily topple when confronted with challenges, just as it would in a storm. The formation of a strong character is fundamentally based on fostering ethical values. Cultivating positive habits deliberately can enhance our moral integrity, similarly to how persistent negative behaviors can lead to the formation of vices. This requires identifying what destructive vices are keeping us from flourishing, then replacing them with a corresponding virtues and incorporating consistent practice of that virtue into our daily lives. The author recounts his personal journey, detailing his deliberate choice to offer daily praise when he realized he was not meeting his personal standard of offering encouragement to others. As Axe provided assistance, the responses he received more and more suggested that he had evolved into a completely different individual.

Context

• Recognizing and controlling vices involves self-awareness and self-regulation. Techniques such as mindfulness, reflection, and cognitive-behavioral strategies can help individuals identify negative patterns and replace them with positive ones.
• Envy involves desiring what others have, which can create resentment and dissatisfaction. This focus on others' successes rather than personal development can prevent individuals from appreciating their own strengths and achievements.
• The "Character Tree" metaphor is a way to visualize personal development, where the visible parts of the tree (leaves and branches) represent external achievements and skills, while the roots symbolize the foundational ethical and moral values that support and sustain these achievements.
• These values are typically developed through cultural, familial, and educational influences. They can be reinforced through religious teachings, philosophical studies, and personal experiences.
• Habits are routine behaviors that are repeated regularly and tend to occur subconsciously. Positive habits can reinforce ethical behavior by making virtuous actions automatic and reducing the mental effort required to make ethical decisions.
• Vices are negative habits or behaviors that can hinder personal development and ethical living. Virtues, on the other hand, are positive traits or qualities deemed to be morally good and desirable in a person. Recognizing the difference is crucial for personal growth.
• Many cultures and philosophical traditions emphasize the importance of virtues, such as Aristotle's concept of "eudaimonia," which suggests that living virtuously leads to a fulfilling life.
• The brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. This means personal growth can physically change how the brain functions, leading to changes in behavior and personality.