You are a jigsaw puzzle piece of a certain shape

You are a jigsaw puzzle piece of a certain shape. You could change your shape to fit an existing hole in the world. That was the traditional plan. But there's another way that can often be better for you and for the world: to grow a new puzzle around you.

No one is going to remember you in 100 years

No one is going to remember you in 100 years. So you might as well focus on what’s going to make you happy now, instead of what money might buy you in the future. Be happy while you are living, for you are a long time dead.

Reputations have momentum in both directions

Reputations have momentum in both directions because people want to associate with winners and avoid losers. The more successful you are the more people want to be associated with you – which is great. But that’s equally powerful in reverse.

Universal rules about how to get rich

There are a million ways to get rich, most of which involve exploiting specific niches and one-off opportunities, to say nothing of luck. Universal rules about how to get rich are hard to come by. But losing money, or losing happiness when you have money, or becoming a slave to your money – those stories tend to have common denominators. They are so common you can call them laws.

It’s a paradox to experience

Life is not a problem to be solved. It’s a paradox to experience. You can believe one thing and also believe its opposite.

In the grip of an ideology

If your opinions on one subject can be predicted from your opinions on another, you may be in the grip of an ideology. When you truly think for yourself, your conclusions will not be predictable.

Maybe regret is the best definition of risk

We spend so much time trying to quantify risk when the answer is just figuring out what you will or won’t regret. The purpose of life is to experience things for which you will later experience nostalgia. The opposite of regret.

Do you need to respond to this?

Life gets much less stressful when you realize that URGENT is very rarely that urgent. Pause and ask yourself: Do I really need to respond to this right now? This simple act of pausing will have a positive impact. Fighting back against the patterns and behaviors created by constant connectedness is a worthy pursuit. Fake Urgency pulls you away from Real Importance.

If it’s not a problem, it might be a situation

If it’s not a problem, it might be a situation. A complicated situation has no clear solution, no win-win, and no easy way forward. It’s simply a situation to be dealt with.

You just don't know what is important

When you have a clear mission and you are completely sure what is important to you, most decisions become easy. Once you're fully committed, you don't need rules for how to spend your time. It's obvious which decision to make. It's clear what to prioritize.

Never forced by circumstances

People who consistently get better results organize their lives in such a way that they are in a position to have better options and are never forced by circumstances into a bad decision.

If you are kind to someone

If you are kind to someone, they are kind back. If you go out of your way to help someone, they will help you back. If you make someone look good, they will make you look good. It doesn’t always happen in the moment, but it does happen. Instead of negatively coiling someone else, you positively coil them.

The news doesn’t make us informed

Our obsession with being informed makes it hard to think long-term. We spend hours consuming news because we want to be informed. The problem is, the news doesn’t make us informed – quite the opposite. The more news we consume, the more misinformed we become.

Whether we call it friendship family or romance

Love—whether we call it friendship family or romance—is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view, but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another.

Curiosity is the best guide

Competition can be an effective motivator, but don’t let it choose the problem for you; don’t let yourself get drawn into chasing something just because others are. In fact, don’t let competitors make you do anything much more specific than work harder. Curiosity is the best guide. Your curiosity never lies, and it knows more than you do about what’s worth paying attention to.

Getting it right the first time

Evolution is powerful. It gives us the chance to revise, edit, and do what works while removing what doesn’t. Once we realize that there is almost no chance we’ll get it right the first time, we can embrace the opportunity to sign up for better instead of perfect. Get it wrong the first time and then make it better.

Was it your fault, or was it luck (good or bad)?

It could have been way better. It could have been far worse. It’s easy to imagine that outcomes are inevitable, but they’re not. When we rewrite our narrative of the past, we end up creating a different future. We have more control over that narrative than we give ourselves credit for.

Your reputation

Your reputation is your most important asset. It precedes you before you walk into the room and lingers long after the work is done.

All change requires a change in identity

In life, risks are real but often inflated with thought. All change requires a change in identity. You can't just take advice and expect it to give you the experience required to reach the level of goal you've set for yourself. When was the last time you actually took the advice you asked for? Out of all of the advice you've gotten, how much did you actually listen to? Most advice you get isn't applicable to your current level of goals and understanding.

Personality is an illusion

You are far more multi-faceted than you think, and because of this, you can stay calm in difficult situations. You instantly have an advantage over most when you understand that your ‘personality’ is an illusion. When your personality becomes mouldable, so too are your inputs - and your results improve.

Those who remain calm when others lose their heads

Chilling out means letting go of the perceived seriousness offered by your thoughts. When we buy into our thoughts, we literally become our thoughts because thoughts define our reality. You can end your life or someone else’s in a split second if you don’t nurture emotional control. Those who remain calm when others lose their heads do not allow their thoughts to consume them.

By simply walking away

Some problems, when well solved, lead to making things better. Some problems give us a chance to get back on course. And some problems are opportunities to be generous. But many of the problems that we seek to solve are actually invented, and maybe we could benefit by simply walking away.

No one fools you more than you

It’s tempting to believe that we’re not easy to fool. Not by a magician, a politician, or a banker. Other folks might be easily duped by a spammer or a hustler, but not us. And yet, no one fools you more than you. At some point, our ability to fool ourselves becomes toxic. It blocks our ability to create generous and useful work, and it eats away at our confidence and peace of mind.

When you look in the mirror

When you look in the mirror, do you see what others see, or is it possible you see someone far less (or far more) attractive than others do? Do we assume that our work is so good and so useful that anyone who doesn’t see that is confused or misguided? Perhaps we feel like an impostor, a fraud, or an unseen genius. These are all forms of self-deception. A useful way forward might be to ask, “Is it working?”

We get what we support

If we want to have the option of choosing something that isn’t ordinary course of convenient and cheap, we need to show up for the people who bring it to us. Working with people who want to work with us is a privilege and a delight. We get what we support.

Cultivate relationships for life

Your relationships keep you healthy. Human connection may be the ultimate medicine. Cultivate relationships for life. Be there for people during their times of darkness and they will be there during yours.

Don’t fear sadness

Don’t fear sadness, as it tends to sit right next to love. This is part of the fundamental balance and tension of life. The pain of loss comes in the same package as the joy of love. If you fear the former, you'll never experience the latter.

Embrace Time Well Spent

Make an effort to define what "time well spent" means to you and actively create space for activities that bring joy, such as learning something new or cherishing moments with friends and family.

The boring truth

It's easy to get energized to push when you're working on something sexy and seeing the results and rewards. It's much, much harder to get energized to push when everything is boring and you can't see any return on your investment. In the long run, winners are those who embrace the boring and see it through.

Finding Beauty in Resilience

We may not have control over the adversities we face, but we have the power to decide how we carry their weight. True beauty emerges when one faces significant challenges with a resilient spirit, not by being indifferent but through the strength of character.

The real skill is being able to enjoy today

True success requires savoring the moment. Don't delay gratification for the future; relish your achievements now. Work diligently, especially if you have a vision, but also set aside time for reflection. Balancing ambition with appreciation for today is the key.