3 out of 4 stars
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How to Be a Long Term Person in a Short Term World, by Michael Julius Motta, is a simple, non-fiction, how-to book for those looking to develop long term habits and consequently live a more meaningful life in a world that focuses so much on short term, instant gratification.
In this book, Motta discusses the difference between aspirations and goals and what constitutes a trackable, achievable and actionable goal. He describes the importance of determining and allocating resources in an efficient manner. And he delves deep into how to set up a system that will be manageable and maintainable for years to come.
I was admittedly a little nervous when I first picked up this book. I was concerned that it would be boring, lengthy, repetitive and useless, as I have found so many “long term” or habit-forming books to be. But within the first segment of the first chapter, Motta introduced the book with the humbling and effective statement that “most people die regretting the things they thought about doing but never actually did… Each of us thinks we are the exception.” This really struck me and I instantly knew that this book was for me!
I really appreciate how realistic Motta is in his approach to becoming a long term person. He explains how spending just 15 minutes a day working on long term tasks results in 90 hours of work a year and a full year’s worth of work over two decades! “What could you accomplish in a year?”
In addition to his realistic approach, Motta is also quite humble. He admits at the beginning of his book that “this book might be a waste of time for (some people)”. His goal is to write a book to help people realize their long term goals, not “bore (people) with details of how this system changed my life”. He openly admits that he does not always live up to his own system and, throughout the book, encourages the reader to adapt the system as necessary.
I really enjoyed the layout of this book. I loved how Motta started off each chapter with applicable, motivating quotes. It proved to me that this is a topic he is passionate about and has researched well. I felt that the book was very well organized. The material was presented in a very logical way that made it easy to move from one section to the next. Sometimes I get annoyed by too many headings, but I found them to be applicable and useful for this book.
Originally I started doing all of the exercises in the book, but I quickly realized that they had the potential to be very time consuming, especially if I wanted to do them properly, so I stopped doing them and vowed to reread the book in order to complete all the exercises and set up my long term goal-achieving system. Because of this, I had some trouble understanding some of the sections in the book as they assumed the reader had already done (or was currently doing) the necessary work. If you are reading this book without a deadline, I would strongly recommend taking the time to complete the exercises while reading the book as it will allow you to understand some of the sections in the book that may otherwise be difficult to follow.
One thing I wish Motta had done more of was give examples. There were times where I struggled to understand an exercise he explained or how something he described could be used in different circumstances. Examples would have helped clarify the expectations of the exercise as well as allow me to consider different situations that may not otherwise cross my mind.
This is a great book to have on hand and I expect to reread this book several times throughout my life. I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars – I would give 3.5 out of 4 if I could give half stars. The lack of examples as well as the occasional confusing paragraph and errors (e.g. missing words) prevent me from giving this book a perfect rating. I really enjoyed this book and strongly recommend it to anyone looking to develop good long term habits and stick with them.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a long term goal system to set up!
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How to be a Long Term Person in a Short Term World
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