PROGRESSION

Progression takes you through deep, counterintuitive, intensely actionable lessons from across history.

In Section I, you'll learn how UPSTREAM EFFECTS rule your life. How much control do you have over this current moment? Maybe less than you'd think: the actions you take upstream flow down into the current moment. Change your life by working now to make things flow smoothly into the future.

In Section II, there is a deep exploration of TOUGHNESS. Marshall's definition of mental toughness is illuminative: it’s doing what one ought to do, regardless if you feel like doing it or not. Channel this through Mission Orientation, your core philosophy that you filter everything through, develop your toughness, and integrate with worthy allies and societies to fight through life's adversity into high achievement.

Finally, in Section III, study deeply a set of UNCOMMON VIRTUES to help you thrive. Marshall makes the case that Mere Competence is the foundation of virtue -- and shockingly rare -- and then traverse two thousand years of history and note how masterful friendships and loyal alliances have been built, learn why Marshall is anti-intuition and thinks the modern view of short-term happiness is largely overrated in favor of a deep generational focus. Develop your Counterintuion, Higher-Order Thinking, Aesthetic Sense, and end with an investigation of the truly Great and Sublime.

Marshall's work takes you through elite military commanders and soldiers through history, explores how Europe fell into the throes of fate after the fall of Rome before Machiavelli and Luther set the world on fire, and takes you into modern successes in Toyota's factories, Iowa's courtrooms, and modern special forces units and elite athletes.

Broad, wide-ranging, expansive, challenging -- PROGRESSION can't be unread; the writing is sweeping and informative with deep history; the mental models and actionable points will make you a stronger, tougher, smarter, more pragmatic, and more fiercely successful human.