Excellent Advice for Living Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier
Learn from those you disagree with or even offend you.
While listening to someone you love keep asking them “Is there more?” until there is no more.
Try stuff instead of making grand plans.
When someone tells you what ticks them off they are telling you what makes them tick.
A major part of travel is to leave stuff behind.
When you are anxious because of your to-do list take comfort in your have-done list.
Treating a person to a meal never fails and is so easy to do.
Movement plus variety equals health.
The advantage of a ridiculously ambitious goal is that it sets the bar very high so even if your effort falls short it may exceed an ordinary success.
We lack rites of passage. Create a memorable family ceremony when your child reaches legal adulthood between eighteen and twenty-one. This moment will become a significant touchstone in their life.
Draw to discover what you see. Write to discover what you think.
Whenever you can’t decide which path to take pick the one that produces change.
If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room. Hang out with, and learn
Don’t be the best. Be the only.
Everyone is shy.
Promptness is a sign of respect.
Expand your mind by thinking with your feet on a walk or with your hand in a notebook. Think outside your brain.
“No” is an acceptable answer even without a reason.
Separate the processes of creating from improving. You can’t write and edit or sculpt and polish or make and analyze at the same time. If you do, the editor stops the creator. While you invent, don’t select. While you sketch, don’t inspect. While you write the first draft, don’t reflect. At the start, the creator mind must be unleashed from judgment.
Forgiveness is accepting the apology you will never get.
When crises strike don’t waste them. No problems, no progress.
How to apologize: quickly, specifically, sincerely. Don’t ruin an apology with an excuse.
A better path for most youth is “master something.” Through mastery of one thing you’ll command a viewpoint to steadily find where your bliss
To build strong children reinforce their sense of belonging to a family by articulating exactly what is distinctive about your family. They should be able to say with pride “Our family does X.”
Outlaw the word “you” during domestic arguments.
The urgent is a tyrant. The important should be your king.
If someone is trying to convince you it’s not a pyramid scheme it’s a pyramid scheme.
Don’t create things to make money; make money so you can create things.
In all things— except love— start with the exit strategy. Prepare for the ending.
When a child asks an endless string of “Why?” questions, the smartest reply is “I don’t know, what do you think?”
When you are young have friends who are older; when you are old have friends who are younger.
You will complete your mission in life when you figure out what your mission in life is. Your purpose is to discover your purpose.
When someone tells you something is wrong, they’re usually right. When they tell you how to fix it they’re usually wrong.
You are only as young as the last time you changed your mind.
Breakthroughs are made by those who lack money. If breakthroughs could be bought, then the rich would buy them. Instead, passion, persistence, belief, and ingenuity are required to invent new things qualities the poor and young often have in abundance. Stay hungry.
You can’t tell what you desperately need it’s probably sleep.
Writing down one thing you are grateful for each day is the cheapest possible therapy ever.
Don’t worry how or where you begin. As long as you keep moving, your success will arrive far from where you start.
You’ll learn a lot more if you ask people “how are you sleeping?” instead of “how are you doing?”
Children totally accept —and crave— family rules. “In our family we have a rule for X”
Bad things can happen fast but almost all good things happen slowly.
If your goal does not have a schedule, it is a dream.
Seek out infinite games because they yield unlimited rewards.
Focus on problems with non-obvious solutions.
Cultivate an allergy to average.
Be frugal in all things except in your passions.
The greatest teacher is called “doing.”
Anything you say before the word “but” does not count.
Speak confidently as if you are right but listen carefully as if you are wrong.
Don’t aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible. Instead aim for better tasks that you never want to stop doing.
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.
Their lucky breaks happened on a detour from their main goal. So embrace detours.
When speaking to an audience pause frequently.
The best way to get a correct answer on the internet is to post an obviously wrong answer
Checking references for a job applicant, their employer may be prohibited from saying anything negative so leave or send a message that says “Get back to me if you highly recommend this applicant as super great.” If they don’t reply, take that as a negative.
When you don’t know how much to pay someone for a particular task ask them, “What would be fair?” and their answer usually is.
The general strategy for real estate is to buy the worst property on the best street.
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?”
The only productive way to answer “What should I do now?” is to first tackle the question of “Who should I become?”
The best investing advice: Average returns, maintained for above-average periods of time will yield extraordinary results. Buy and hold.
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.
When introduced to someone make eye contact and count to four or say to yourself, “I see you.”
Spend ⅓ of your time on exploring and ⅔ on optimizing and deepening.
Best time to negotiate your salary for a new job is the moment after they say they want you and not before.
Don’t purchase extra insurance if you are renting a car with a credit card.
The trick to making wise decisions is to evaluate your choices as if you were looking back 25 years from today. What would your future self think?
When speaking to an audience it’s better to fix your gaze on a few people than to “spray” your gaze across the room.
Volts hurt, but amps kill.
To have a great trip, head toward an interest rather than to a place. Travel to passions rather than destinations.
Fully embrace “What is the worst that can happen?” at each juncture in life.
Trust the 3-star product reviews because they tell both the good and the bad, which is the real state for most things.
When you keep people waiting they begin to think of all your flaws.
Instead of asking your child what they learned today, ask them who they helped today.
The greatest killer of happiness is comparison. If you must compare, compare yourself to you yesterday.
The natural state of all possessions is to need repair and maintenance. What you own will eventually own you. Choose selectively.
Commit to doing no work no business no income one day a week.
When you are stuck, make a long list of everything that cannot possibly work. On that list will be a seed that leads to a solution that will work.
The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished.