I've followed Onnit for the last 5 years, so when Aubrey Marcus wrote a book, I had to read it. Own the Day, Own Your Life is a user manual on how to build the perfect day. No matter what your goals and life are, if you follow this blueprint you'll be happy and healthy. As the subtitle says, the book covers "optimized practices for waking, working, learning, eating, training, playing, sleeping, and sex." No need to try and make all these changes at once. I'll be taking one area at a time and mastering it before moving on to the next.
Key Takeaways
Memorable Quotes
Rating 9/10
There's a ton of great information and experiments to try in this book. Aubrey is goofy and uses a lot of jokes and references to keep it light. His style might not be for everyone, but I enjoyed it.
Key Takeaways
- The quality of your life is the quality of your daily habits.
- You don't have to be perfect, you just have to invest time in getting better.
- Sugar and carbs suck, fat rules.
- Proper supplementation is straightforward.
- The goal is to not work 10 hour days, but to get more out of the hours you do work.
- Sleep is the top factor in productivity.
- It's very simple to live an optimized day, but simple and easy don't always go together in this case.
Memorable Quotes
- Time is the wrong metric to use when we evaluate work. Because it’s not just about how much time you work, it’s about how effectively you use that time.
- As humans we desire to apply our force—our work—to the maximum effect possible. Our mission is what we want that force to accomplish. While the meaning of life might be complicated, your mission in life should not be complicated. What are you, in this lifetime, on this planet, in this body, here to do? What do you want more than anything else?
- To put it another way: if you don’t eat fat, you’re probably fat.
- SEE YOUR FUTURE I want you to imagine yourself a year from now. You know that in a year you are going to be different, whether you do nothing or something. And the choices you make between now and then will determine that difference. But for today, I want you to imagine owning all those other days. Visualize that you wake up with purpose and clarity. You push yourself against resistance. You take control of your diet and supplementation. You turn dead time into alive time. You work effectively and aren’t afraid to power down the engines to rest. You train your body into a durable, capable machine. You connect with yourself, your friends, and the universe. You turn sex into an adventure of pleasure. You go to sleep with a mission, and actually … sleep. Imagine what a year of living like that has done for you. Walk in the shoes of that new person. See yourself through that person’s eyes. Look in the mirror at that body. Maybe the circles under your eyes are gone, and that stubborn weight has lifted—mentally and physically. See what has happened in your career, and in your family. That person is you, on the other side of Resistance. If you see it clearly enough, it will be done.
Rating 9/10
There's a ton of great information and experiments to try in this book. Aubrey is goofy and uses a lot of jokes and references to keep it light. His style might not be for everyone, but I enjoyed it.
