Rise Above
Overcome a Victim Mindset, Empower Yourself, and Realize Your Full Potential
About the Book
352 pages
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Brian's take
I’m a VERY big fan of Scott Barry Kaufman, and this book only deepened that admiration. Scott is one of the most cited cognitive psychologists in the world, a professor at Columbia University, and a leading voice on intelligence and human potential, but what strikes me most is his depth of wisdom and humanity. In Rise Above, he takes on sensitive topics like shame, trauma, victimhood, and trigger culture with nuance and scientific rigor, showing us how to shift from toxic passivity and toxic agency to grounded empowerment. Drawing from ACT, Maslow, character strengths research, and his own astonishingly Heroic story, he makes the case that life is hard, uncertainty is inevitable, and no one is coming to save you, and that is precisely where your power begins. Big Ideas we explore include Meet Your Guide, WARNING: You Might Have a Case of Life, The #1 Emotional Skill (Life-Acceptance), Healthy Selfishness, and Find the Light Within (Harness Your Strengths).
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“People are always blaming their circumstances for being what they are.”
The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.
George Bernard Shaw
“We’ve got to stop operating with this idea that life is not supposed to be hard, and if it is hard, something is wrong.”
Scott Barry Kaufman
“Don’t stumble over something behind you.”
Seneca
“As Carl Rogers notes, ‘The curious paradox is that when I accept myself as I am, then I can change.’”
Scott Barry Kaufman
“Interestingly, research shows that people with more emotional granularity—who can differentiate specifically what they’re feeling and label their experiences with more precise language—tend to be less reactive to negative circumstances and have greater psychological resilience.”
Scott Barry Kaufman
“But here’s a little secret that can change your life forever (as it did mine): You can feel something negative—you can feel demotivated or defeated or depressed—and still act in the service of your long-term goals.”
You don’t have to let your emotions govern your actions.
Scott Barry Kaufman
“To orient ourselves in the direction of growth, we must ultimately accept what has been and turn toward the future.”
Not by ignoring our past but by processing it in a meaningful fashion and using it as the seeds to become the person we wish to become, sometimes even changing our own trauma narrative.
Scott Barry Kaufman
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t—you’re right.”
Henry Ford
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events.”
It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.
Robert F. Kennedy
