The Reversal of Desire allows you to develop skills that require a disciplined, long-term commitment. The biggest difference between those who succeed and those who fail at any endeavor is their level of commitment. Most people would like to be committed. But in practice, commitment requires an endless series of small painful actions. When a person

One of the hardest things about being a leader—whether you’re the head of a department, an entire business, or even a family—is that you have to make decisions that make people unhappy. That’s why they say “it’s lonely at the top.” An effective leader can tolerate the displeasure of others

Nietzsche’s statement makes it sound like adversity itself makes you stronger. It doesn’t. Inner strength comes only to those who move forward in the face of adversity.

This explains why adversity doesn’t stop even after we move forward; adversity is the only way the universe can increase our inner strength. Everyone understands that, to develop a muscle, you must subject the muscle to resistance—in the form of a heavy weight. Essentially, adversity is the “weight” against which you develop your inner strength

The universe won’t reward you like a trained seal every time you move forward. In fact, the naive belief that it would is simply another version of the Comfort Zone.

“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too … raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.”

The point is that a tool—unlike an attitude adjustment—requires you to do something. Not only does it take work, it’s work you have to do over and over again—every time you get frustrated. A new attitude means nothing unless followed by a change in behavior. The surest way to change behavior is with a tool.

To control behavior you need a specific procedure to use at a specific time to combat a specific problem. That’s what a tool is.

Real change requires you to change your behavior—not just your attitude.