1-Sentence-Summary: Be Where Your Feet Are explores the enlightening life lessons that one of America’s top-tier sports personalities has to give, from being present in the moment and living in a meaningful way, to achieving a more fulfilling and successful life.
Read in: 4 minutes
Favorite quote from the author:
Have you ever heard of the opportunity cost? This microeconomic notion states that for every activity we choose to undertake in favor of another, we lose the value and benefits that we’d incur from undertaking that alternative activity. In other words, when we make a choice, we purposely give up on something in the hope to gain more value from the other option.
We see this principle applied in our daily lives. For every minute of work, we lose a minute that we could’ve spent with our friends or family. For every minute spent learning, we lose a minute that we could’ve spent playing something or watching a movie. This goes on and on during the day, and it builds up our life gradually. So how can we make the most of our choices and live a meaningful life?
Be Where Your Feet Are by Scott O’Neil steps in to help us untangle this infinite loop of choices. The book won’t tell you which choices are better for you. Instead, it will help you realize what matters most in your life and how to live in the moment.
Here are my three favorite lessons from the book:
- Live your life assuming people have good intentions at heart.
- Learn to fail productively.
- Learn to be patient and to trust the process.
Lesson 1: Assume the best in people, even when you have reasons not to do that.
When you’re a good person at heart, life gets better. That is because, as the law of attraction states, you get what you give and what you think of. For better or for worse, being a good person and assuming that others are as well will lighten up everyone’s day.
It will help you keep anger and resentment away during the day. And it will let people know that you’re being nice to them and that they should reciprocate kindness and respect towards you. Moreover, assuming doesn’t necessarily imply that something is not true.
For example, someone could cut in line at the coffee shop, or forget to hold the door for you. You could start off with the premise that they’re in a hurry or they had something on their mind. That may have distracted them from what they were doing. The truth is not yours to hold, after all. And the best thing you can do is assume people don’t have bad intentions.
Sometimes it takes a lot of strength to leave judgment aside and see the best in people. This can happen because we got hurt as a result of a similar situation or we’re having a bad day ourselves. We can only hope that in such circumstances, someone will see the best in us and choose to assume we’re not badly intended ourselves.
Lesson 2: Failing productively is the best way to fail.
Whether we like it or not, we are going to encounter many failed attempts in our endeavors. That’s just how life works, and we have no control over that. However, what we do have control over is how we react to those failures. If we change the way we respond to life’s challenges, we can learn to fail productively.
Don’t start with the premise that only defeated people fail. It is in fact those who set goals and have ambitions that fail more often. And that’s simply because they have more occasions to do so. Still, those who choose to take failure as a lesson, instead of a disappointment, or as an opportunity, instead of a setback, are on the winning side.
Why is that? Because as we try and see which methods work for us and which don’t, we leave less space for mistakes in our next attempt. Eventually, we will succeed in breaking a certain barrier and end up achieving what we set our mind to. That is, of course, if we keep on trying and analyze our mistakes on the way.
Keep in mind that failing productively doesn’t mean you have to relish disappointment. Contrary, learn to acknowledge and cope with your feelings, instead of putting them in the back of your mind. If you accept your failure truthfully, you’re going to be less hard on yourself and less frustrated next time you fall through with an activity.
Lesson 3: Trust the process and always be patient.
When we set goals for ourselves and strive to achieve them, it can get frustrating to find out that our attempts end up becoming failures. Sure, the theory says to keep on pushing even when the odds are against us, but how does one do that? How can we overcome failures and become better?
The answer is becoming patient and trusting the process. The road to success is paved with many challenges and obstacles, and only those who can see past them will feel motivated to push through. For this, one needs to learn patience. This implies becoming aware that things can take longer than expected.
Trusting the process refers to believing in your plan and that hard work pays off. Sometimes we don’t see results right away. But one should keep in mind that slow, incremental progress is the foundation of long-lasting success. Putting your trust in this belief can help you overcome difficult times and anticipate the good ones.
An ambitious objective can take longer to fulfill. If your goal is, for example, to fund your own house in five years, that will take more time and face many more challenges than just striving to rent a better-looking apartment. Be frank about the size of your goal and trust that you will achieve it by being patient and pushing through.
Be Where Your Feet Are Review
Be Where Your Feet Are is food for the souls of those who are too busy to live. It teaches its readers that the most important aspect of their life is the very present moment and that they should nurture and appreciate its uniqueness. Anyone reading this book will start living a more meaningful life and connecting more with their inner selves and their surroundings.
Who would I recommend the Be Where Your Feet Are summary to?
Someone looking to turn their life around by improving it, the ambitious person that wants to ‘have it all’, or an entrepreneur looking for ways to get the most out of his routine and business by shifting their mindset.
Last Updated on May 25, 2023
