Employ your energy elsewhere

If told your efforts will never be sufficient, or that your work is vaguely less-than-ideal, employ your energy elsewhere. Such taunts are only made by those who fear your already obvious talents and are utterly terrified by your infinite capacity to augment them.

Nobody is coming to save you but you

Let die the old ways which do not serve you. Conjure from your electric heart and from your spine of gold the words that may forge a new era. Appoint yourself the maker of new traditions and the speaker of the timeless truth. 

Happy Birthday, Learner.

Sonder more to be less cranky

Sonder: to realize that everybody on Earth is living a life as complicated, intense, and vibrantly unique as your own. It’s that feeling you get when you realize that you’re not IN traffic—you ARE traffic. Visually, that word is an iceberg: with what we see about other people above the waterline, while what’s really happening is submerged below.

Refuse all guilt linked to pleasure

Refuse all guilt linked to pleasure. Enjoy the things you treasure without caring if anybody else thinks they’re trash.

We rationalize staying in the wrong places

No perceived relationship, job, philosophy, or held position is entirely helpful or entirely hurtful. But your scales constantly wobble toward the emotions that are prompted by the reality of your situation. We rationalize staying in the wrong places when we can’t imagine what a better place looks like.

The act of teaching is the most powerful form of learning

When you're trying to learn something new, attempt to teach it to a friend or family member. See what questions they ask and how those questions expose the gaps in your knowledge. Study more to fill in those gaps. The act of teaching is the most powerful form of learning.

We are all participating in creating the mythology of our time

We are all participating in creating the mythology of our time. It is our responsibility to create a future where people, objects, systems  —  anything — can be allowed to thrive not in spite of, but because of imperfections.