If you were to die tomorrow, what one thing (or few things) would you be most disappointed that you weren’t able to complete, change, or achieve? Here is some of my wisdom: I don’t need praise or attention to have value.
- Cultivate twelve people who love you, because they are worth more than 12 million people who like you.
- When you forgive others, they may not notice, but you will heal. Forgiveness is not something we do for others; it is a gift to ourselves.
- If winning becomes too important in a game, change the rules to make it more fun. Changing rules can become the new game.
- The best way to get a correct answer on the internet is to post an obviously wrong answer and wait for someone to correct you.
- Don’t wait for the storm to pass; dance in the rain.
- We tend to overestimate what we can do in a day, and underestimate what we can achieve in a decade. Miraculous things can be accomplished if you give it ten years. A long game will compound small gains to overcome even big mistakes.
- A wise man said, “Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates. At the first gate, ask yourself, “Is it true?” At the second gate ask, “Is it necessary?” At the third gate ask, “Is it kind?”
- To rapidly reveal the true character of a person you just met, move them onto a slow internet connection. Observe.
- Take note if you find yourself wondering “Where is my good knife? Or, where is my good pen?” That means you have bad ones. Get rid of those.
- About 99% of the time, the right time is right now.
- No one is as impressed with your possessions as you are.
- Don’t ever work for someone you dont want to become.
- Don’t keep making the same mistakes; try to make new mistakes.
- If you stop to listen to a musician or street performer for more than a minute, you owe them money.
- Anything you say before the word “but” does not count.
- When you lead, your real job is to create more leaders, not more followers.
- Criticize in private, praise in public!
- Life lessons will be presented to you in the order they are needed. Everything you need to master the lesson is within you. Once you have truly learned a lesson, you will be presented with the next one. If you are alive, that means you still have lessons to learn.
- Productivity is often a distraction. Don’t aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible, rather aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.
- Immediately pay what you owe to vendors, workers, and contractors. They will go out of their way to work with you first next time. Also, always be friendly to vendors, workers, and contractors.
- The biggest lie we tell ourselves is “I don’t need to write this down because I will remember it.”
- Speak confidently as if you are right, but listen carefully as if you are wrong.
- Never ask a woman if she is pregnant. Let her tell you if she is.
- Three things you need: The ability to not give up something till it works, the ability to give up something that does not work, and the trust in other people to help you distinguish between the two.
- You’ll get 10x better results by elevating good behaviour rather than punishing bad behaviour, especially in children, colleagues, and animals.
- Spend as much time crafting the subject line of an email as the message itself because the subject line is often the only thing people read.
- Half the skill of being educated is learning what you can ignore.
- A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others.
- Make stuff that is good for people to have.
- 90% of everything is crap. If you think you don’t like opera, romance novels, TikTok, country music, or vegan food, keep trying to see if you can find the 10% that is not crap. Real love is not.
- Thank the teacher who changed your life.
- You can’t reason someone out of a notion that they didn’t reason themselves into.
- Buy used books. They have the same words as the new ones. Also libraries.
- You can be whatever you want, so be the person who ends meetings early.
- Take the stairs. Always take the stairs.
- When you arrive at your room in a hotel, locate the emergency exits. It only takes a minute.
- The only productive way to answer “what should I do now?” is to first tackle the question of “who should I become?”
- It’s thrilling to be extremely polite to rude strangers.
- Art is whatever you can get away with.
- For the best results with your children, spend only half the money you think you should, but double the time with them.
- Don’t wait in line to eat something famous. It is rarely worth the wait.
- To rapidly reveal the true character of a person you just met, move them to a slow internet connection. Observe.
- Do something strange. Make a habit of your weird.
- Don’t believe everything you think you believe.
- When introduced to someone make eye contact and count to 4. You’ll both remember each other.
- Take note if you find yourself wondering “Where is my good knife? Or, where is my good pen?” That means you have bad ones. Get rid of those.
- When you are stuck, explain your problem to others. Often simply laying out a problem will present a solution. Make “explaining the problem” part of your troubleshooting process.
- Your group can achieve great things way beyond your means simply by showing people that they are appreciated.
- Spend time in nature. Especially with kids.
- You are as big as the things that make you angry.
- Time and space are limited. Remove, give away, throw out things in your life that dont spark joy any longer in order to make room for those that do.
- Focus on directions rather than destinations. Who knows their destiny? But maintain the right direction and you’ll arrive at where you want to go.
- Aim to die broke. Give to your beneficiaries before you die; it’s more fun and useful. Spend it all. Your last check should go to the funeral home and it should bounce.
- You can do something now to live the life you want to live.
- I don’t have to live like everybody else. In fact, I am happier if I don’t.
