Living In Your Top 1% Summary

1-Sentence-Summary: Living In Your Top 1% shows you how to become your best self and live up to your full potential by outlining nine science-backed ways to beat the odds and achieve your goals and dreams.

Read in: 4 minutes

Favorite quote from the author:

Living In Your Top 1% Summary

Audio Summary

Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account*:

Turn your phone screen off and look at your reflection in it right now. Ask yourself how happy you are with your life. Are you satisfied? Do you feel like you’re living up to your full potential?

If you didn’t shy away from the hard truths that you know you need to confront, then you’re on the way to a better life. It is possible to become the hero of your own story and live the life you’ve always dreamed of. All you need is the right tools.

And that’s exactly what you’ll get from Alissa Finerman’s Living in Your Top 1%: Nine Essential Rituals to Achieve Your Ultimate Life Goals. You’ll discover what science has to say about really improving yourself and becoming the person you’ve always wanted to be!

Let’s see how much our lives will change by learning these 3 lessons:

  1. Believe that you can change anything about yourself because it’s true.
  2. You’ll be far happier, and thus more successful, if you give you up your weaknesses to find, work with, and improve your strengths.
  3. Greater happiness also comes from having clear goals and working toward them with little steps.

Ready for your daily dose of motivation to get you up and moving?! Here we go!

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

Download PDF

Lesson 1: You can change, but you’ve got to begin by having the right mindset about it.

Do you remember the last time you failed miserably? Did you get back up and try again? Or was your attitude more one of “I can never change?”

Carol Dweck explores how we react to failure in her life-changing book Mindset. In it, she explains her research about people’s growth or fixed mindset. 

If you have a fixed outlook, then you’ll give up after failure. You think that you cannot change your abilities, mental or physical, no matter how much work you put into them. This way of thinking cripples your chances of becoming your best self.

Those with an attitude of growth, on the other hand, believe that change is possible, no matter how difficult. They get up after falling down, every time. Because of this, they’ll try new things and keep going even when it gets difficult. They’re correct about how personal growth really works, and as a result, they reach their full potential.So how can you beat your dysfunctional thinking and develop a growth mindset? Make it more difficult for yourself to be negative and easier to be positive. 

Get a jar, and each time you are negative, put a dollar into it. Every time you use phrases like “I can’t” or “I’m never going to change,” you’d add money. When the month is over, donate the money to your favorite charity. 

Lesson 2: Find out what your strengths are and do work that utilizes them, it will make you happier which will bring more success.

I used to focus hard on fixing everything that I was really bad at. A lot of the time, I wasn’t very happy because I was ignoring my strengths. But the moment I let go of my weaknesses and had room to work on and with my strengths, everything changed.

I’ve worked more productive hours recently by doing work that I was naturally good at than I had at any point in my previous career that I was just okay at. The reason? I’m 10x happier with what I’m doing now. I actually want to do it, so I don’t have to think about being productive. 

The Gallup Organization conducted research that discovered that focusing on strengths is a requirement to reach full potential. Their study identified that when people that used their strengths daily had six times higher engagement levels at work. They were also three times more likely to say they had an excellent quality of life! 

Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, also conducted research that reinforces the truth that using your strengths regularly makes you happier. 

If you’ve ever seen people that seem to always be happy and performing at their best, this is their “big secret.” I used to be skeptical that I could ever figure it out myself until I discovered my strengths and tried it out in my work.

To find out what you’re good at, try a Google search for quizzes and take a few. Also, ask the people who know you best what they think your strengths are.

Lesson 3: Get really clear on your goals and start working on them by taking tiny steps.

You’ve got to get some goals if you don’t have some already. According to science, people with goals are happier than those who don’t. When you set your sights on your dreams, you have motivation, hope, and confidence that you don’t get otherwise.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, for instance, always had really high ambitions and plans to achieve them. Because of this, he’s been incredibly successful in bodybuilding, acting, politics, and real estate!

You might be sitting there thinking “this sounds great but I have no idea how to stick to my goals.” Well, that’s normal, but what you’re about to learn will make it so you don’t ever have to worry about that again. 

First, check that whatever you’re working toward lines up with your values. This will keep you motivated to stay consistent even if it takes a while. Ask yourself what you value the most, then set your goals around those priorities. 

Then, make sure that your goal and plan to achieve it is SMART-specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. 

Lastly, but most important, is keeping your initial steps toward achieving these dreams small. Make them so small that it seems ridiculous almost. This is the best thing you can do to make achieving your goals inevitable. 

That’s because it helps you stay consistent, which builds confidence. You’ll also avoid getting overwhelmed, further increasing your chances of success!

Living In Your Top 1% Review

I really liked Living In Your Top 1% because it’s super inspiring! I mean, how can you hate a book that mentions both Carol Dweck and Martin Seligman?! These tips are going to really change my life and I’m confident they’ll do the same for yours.

Who would I recommend the Living In Your Top 1% summary to?

The 28-year-old who is tired of living small and wants to reach their full potential, the 64-year-old who wants some inspiration, and anyone that wants some powerful motivation to stick to their goals!

Last Updated on July 23, 2023

Rate this book!
This book has an average rating of 3 based on 3 votes.

Luke Rowley

With over 450 summaries that he contributed to Four Minute Books, first as a part-time writer, then as our full-time Managing Editor until late 2021, Luke is our second-most prolific writer. He's also a professional, licensed engineer, working in the solar industry. Next to his day job, he also runs Goal Engineering, a website dedicated to achieving your goals with a unique, 4-4-4 system. Luke is also a husband, father, 75 Hard finisher, and lover of the outdoors. He lives in Utah with his wife and 3 kids.