Synopsis

We live in a wonderful era of abundance, high-speed information and hyper-connection, but it also faces us with the challenges of mass-distraction, negative stress and analysis paralysis. In this book you will learn how to leverage the opportunities of the modern world into a lifestyle of laser focus, masterful mindfulness and personal freedom. 

The mind is a tool that can be developed through training, just like any muscle in the body. This book provides a skill-based approach to personal development and habit creation, by means of dedicated practice in the areas of attention management, rapid learning ability, meditation & mindfulness, mastering stress physiology, re-wilding your life, physical movement and nutritional autonomy. All packed into fifty easy-to-use tips, tricks and hacks and ten simple mindset-shifts.

Kasper van der Meulen is an author and lifestyle adventurer. He went from being overweight, burnt out and unhappy, to developing superhuman focus, fitness and personal freedom. He put himself through numerous experiments and challenges. He optimized his lifestyle, conquered the cold, ran ultramarathons on his bare feet, tested countless diets, read a ton of scientific literature and explored as many esoteric practices he could find. With over ten thousand hours of experience in teaching science, self-mastery and innovation, he decided to demystify and methodize these principles in a fun and bitesized manner. As a final test of his focus, he wrote this book within a month, so that he would have to practice everything he preaches.

Outline

The modern world offers numerous distractions and obstacles that can make it difficult for our minds to function optimally. At the same time, it offers us the opportunity – like never before – to take responsibility into our own hands, to control our lifestyle factors, and to train our minds to be healthy and happy and free to choose the life we want. This book does not only offer a practical method and simple means to train your mind to deal with these challenges, but it has also been written and laid out in a way that supports your natural ability to focus:

- The formatting and illustrations are simple and spacious. This allows your brain to give it a richer interpretation; brains are very good at that.

- Each part and each new chapter starts with a relevant quote to spark your interest.

- The first page of each part tells you the approximate word-count and estimated reading time per chapter.

- A page has a maximum 500 to 600 words. A paragraph will be no longer than 300 words.

- Each page will take about two minutes of reading time, based on the average of 250 -300 words per minute.

- There will be hardly any line-breaks or word-breaks that carry over into the next page. You will have consumed the content you started with by the end of the page you started on.

If you know what it takes to finish a page or a chapter, that lowers the mental threshold for starting the page and eases you into the content. It also allows you to distribute your attention and time more consciously over the content. If you know you’re doing a marathon, you’re not going to start at maximum sprint speed. The way that the content is presented will change throughout the book and is meant evolve along with the average reader’s attention span.

Part 1 guides you into a certain train of thought, taking its time to explain some theoretical principles by means of active storytelling and illustrative language.

Part 2 offers fresh insights, playful analogies, and structured diagrams to help you see things differently. The content becomes more condensed and more applicable.

Part 3 contains a step-by step guide into a method of skillful self-development. The content becomes more actionable and is geared towards direct change.

Part 4 consists of compressed blocks of information with immediately applicable tips that only require a minute of reading time for each one.

Though the book has been written with a continuous thread from beginning to end, you are free to switch around between the parts and chapters and find you own path through the book.in which you read. Don’t worry about missing something important, you can always go back and re-read. With 176 pages and 62,000 words, this book will take up about three to five hours of your time, for which I would like to thank you in advance. For your optimal attention and enjoyment, take these five tips into account and notice how they influence your ability to focus:

While reading, try to not react to any distractions.
- Take a small break from reading every fifteen to twenty minutes.
- After each chapter, let your mind wander over what you have just read.
- Read with a pen or marker in hand and highlight what stands out for you.
- Tell someone about what you have read to enhance your understanding.

This book offers insight into how your brain works, how focused attention influences the quality of your life, and how making and breaking habits and consciously changing your mindset. The last chapter provides 50 tips, tricks, and hacks to work on these principles, divided into 7 categories:

- Attention management and productivity.
- Ability to learn and study at a rapid rate.
- Meditation and mindfulness practice.
- Learning about and dealing with stress.
- Re-wilding yourself and unlocking natural abilities.
- Movement and physical fitness.
- Optimizing your nutrition and diet.

Before you start reading, ask yourself which goals you want to achieve, which assets you want to develop, which habits you want to make or break, and especially what you are hoping to get out of this book. This will put you in the mindset of finding the application to your personal situation. If you have any questions, if you learn anything new, if the book inspires you in any way, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me and share your experience. Find me on:

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