Skip to content 
Life is Short and So Is This Book
Book Highlights
Title: Life is Short and So is this Book
Author: Peter Atkins
Genre: Self-Help
Pages: 63 Pages
Difficulty Level: Easy
Life is Short and So Is This Book: Book Review
Life is Short and So Is This Book, written by Peter Atkins, is a collection of ideas on how to live your life better. Having the experience of decades running his investment firm along with his stints working for Microsoft and other heavy-weight companies, he distills his life’s fundamentals into this book.
If you ever wanted to pick short books so that you could finish them easily and quickly, this would be a great book to start with. The book is easy to read, and ideas are positive and motivating. There are no topics that take you too deep and force you to think about it ( unless you consciously decide to do so). This keeps the subtle rhythm of the book going, and you stay with some optimism and hope at the end of the book.
Life is Short and So Is This Book includes topics such as how to be better and make our life more meaningful and appreciative.
Join our Mailing list!
Unlike some self-help books, there is no intention by the author to stretch the book unwanted. He intentionally keeps each of his ideas short and precise.
When you read this book, you get a sense of an elder, a close relative giving you life advice, and the tone is very comforting.
The great thing about Life is Short and So Is This Book is the relationship between thoughts and reality. His ideas urge you to step forward into the future- dream about it, but at the same time, he advises you to be realistic and have one step in the present as well.
The author invites you to experiment with your ideas and wishes and live a life with a sense of enthusiasm alongside a feeling of serving your people. He suggests giving back much more and creating a ton of value.
Life is Short and So Is This Book: Book Summary
- Spend time caring for yourself and people around you. Choose good habits that are productive over long term.
- Do not do dumb things. All your efforts and hard work can be destroyed by one single bad decision. Carefully evaluate your options.
- Build network. Your connections can help you achieve more things and that too quickly.
Find Our Book Review Interesting? Check Out More
Life is Short and So Is This Book: Top Quotes
- We’re fools whether we dance or not — so we might as well dance.
- The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein
- “When one door closes, another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
Life is Short and So Is This Book Notes
1. Create Space
Carefully choose the things that needs to be done. You have limited time and endless work. Choose only the high value work and discard others.
Make a list of all the things you want to do and carefully reduce it to find your high value tasks. Say no to tasks not on your lists and possessing the chance to abrupt your routine.
Multitask reduce your brain capacity to perform. Always pick one task at a time and focus on it with complete intensity.
So, to make the most of your life, say no to things that don’t matter, work hard at what you love, and occasionally take time away from your core focus to rest so that your mind can be quiet for great insights to come.
2. Try Not To Worry
Fretting about the past does not do you any good and worrying about the future will not change your present. Live your present to the fullest.
There are some things in life you can’t change (such as your parents, your height, or the personalities of other adults). For the problems you can impact and you want to alter, think about what you want to accomplish, and try to do that in a pragmatic way. You don’t have to change everything overnight. In fact, thinking you can, or should, is likely to lead to failure, or to feeling overwhelmed — and as a result perhaps doing nothing.
3. Don’t Do Really Dumb Things
try to avoid too much debt, drinking too much, staying away from people who are bad influences, eating poorly, and not exercising.
3. Don’t Do Really Dumb Things
try to avoid too much debt, drinking too much, staying away from people who are bad influences, eating poorly, and not exercising.
4. Build Characters and Make Friends
If you live your life authentically, keep your word, admit mistakes, and admit what you don’t know, you’ll find people will trust you more over time, and you’ll become wiser too.
There are four basic principles that have worked according to the author:
- Do what you think is right.
- Don’t follow other people blindly.
- Be honest and keep your word.
- Admit your mistakes.
Join our Mailing list!
5. Care for Yourself and Others
if you want to feel good, be as productive as possible, live longer, reduce stress, be more creative, and be happier then you need to exercise regularly.
Another critical element of taking care of yourself is getting a good amount of sleep on a regular basis.
6. Laugh Often
You can choose to let all the things that go wrong in life depress you. Or, you can accept that things will go wrong, try to laugh, and then look at what you can do. There’s a Japanese proverb that gets right to the point:
We’re fools whether we dance or not — so we might as well dance.
7. Do What You Love
Choosing a high paying job but not liking it does not make sense in the long run. People get disenchanted with their work and the quality of work decreases over time.
Find the things you are passionate about and find a role which suits them
The only way people have the stamina to outwork others, year after year, is when they love what they do. Align your priorities according to your goals and you would find something worth your while.
8. Learn From Experience
Be curious.
Read Widely
Find Mentors
Observe
To learn from your experience and the experience of others it’s important to try to be dispassionate in looking at the world and analyzing it. You need to be willing to try things you think make sense, and then to admit your mistakes, to throw away your beloved theories, and to learn from other people.
9. Have Dreams and Work Towards Them
People don’t tend to achieve things in great leaps forward. Rather, we progress one step at a time, usually with small insights here or there.
Similarly, to make changes in your life, focus on taking small steps in the right direction. Whether you want to change your health, your job, or your relationship, you can’t do it overnight.
Persistent curiosity, combined with sustained focus on reasonable goals, will change your life over time. If you love what you do and work very hard, persevere, and take small steps, you likely will be in a dramatically different place ten years from now.
Suggested Readings
Have Something to Say or Share on this topic?
Head out to our forum and join other readers to learn more.
