May a habit of learning be one that’s perpetually cultivated. Find 36 lessons for life, living, creating, and more, below. As always, take what resonates; leave the rest be.
Your only responsibility in life is to pursue that which makes yours feel uniquely worth living. This is what you live with; this is how you persist.
There may be no better reminder of the boundlessness opportunity for anyone to achieve whatever one has set their mind on than Marcus Aurelius's adage in Book XII of Meditations: “For it is in the nature of all things to change, and transform, and perish, so that others may arise in their turn." There is, or will be, a space carved out for anyone who seeks it, anywhere.
There is no downside to living a life that impresses you. There is no downside to living a life that impresses you.
Keep paying attention to the things that help you feel like you—the interests, the contributions, the rituals. This awareness is the discipline that informs a life well lived.
Any fulfilled life is not without its "good" taxes: tidying up before hosting guests, encountering traffic on the way to that brunch you've been looking forward to, the not-always-preferred environmental aspects of the city in which you choose to dwell. Be so glad in the greater benefits that any related "inconvenience" gets little more than a passing thought.
Support and engage the things and industries you claim to care about. In other words, put your money where your mouth is. Support the cause; see the show. You'll be glad for it.
Be unrelenting in the face of whatever it is that you really want. For, why else are we here?
Well placed focus mitigates [the effects of] perceived disruption. Sustained focus on the end goal eclipses any unwanted "in between."
Let your default assumption be that everything unfolds favorably for you. You'd be hard pressed to find utility in any other perspective.
Let go of principles you've outgrown (read: those no longer in service of the "you" you now intend to be). Assess beliefs on their usefulness, and nothing else.
What never fails: doing, and returning to, the things that make you feel like you. (If this sounds familiar, it's intentional.)
The salve is a life filled with things worth returning to, physically or mentally. You will drift, you will experience periods of disinterest. Curate a life worth returning to.
Sharing an experience amplifies the experience. Find people that you want to share experiences with. (Caveat: In the absence of available others, don't strip yourself of the experience for this reason alone.)
Resist the urge to keep yourself small. Anyone threatened by your multitudes is insecure about their lack of them.
Failure to achieve something can typically be boiled down to not having the right motivation. To sustain your preferred standards, create compelling catalysts (externalized accountability, or otherwise).
Whatever you believe is what’s true, fortunately and unfortunately. In other words, what you're convinced of is what you will see. Decide what you're willing to be convinced of.
Survival requires that we find the utility in any presented path. Consider these acts of preservation as necessary for ensuring you can stick around long enough to remain focused on and experience your preferences.
There are twelve notes in the musical alphabet, hundreds of millions of known recorded songs. Takeaway: You can do a lot with a little.
Ask yourself as often as compelled: What are you giving too much importance to? Recalibrate.
Our power rests in the ability to assert meaning to anything. Take the time to extract the utility in any anxiety, and then move on.
Life is not only about determining what game it is you want to play, but, so too, about who you want to play it with. These might be equal in weight; select [each] accordingly.
The arena sharpens, the arena exposes. Where possible and useful, perfect in public.
The real mistake is in convincing oneself that any trigger has to matter more than it needs to.
Remember that you do things because you believe you need to. The belief creates the need. (Put another way: Everything is optional.)
Remember that people fundamentally want to do a "good job," to be of service, and so on. Let that be your default assumption; adapt from there.
Where we err is in believing that insecurities have to or will hinder anything we seek.
Walk with the confidence of someone who knows they’re extremely loved (whether evident, or otherwise). Notice the difference.
Ask: How much of what may lead me to "feeling bad about myself" is over-identifying with whatever it is that I think others would prefer to see from me?
Do not conflate quality (utility, fitness for purpose, appeal) with difficulty. Quality may require persisting through difficulty, but something being "hard" in and of itself not does not guarantee its usefulness. (Apply nuance accordingly.)
Interactions are smoother when you believe that the other person wants to be around you.
Life is about identifying the experiences you want to have, and having them accordingly. Simple as that.
Go to the gatherings, attend to the events, do the thing, and see how your intentions materialize.
The illusion might be any notion that we’re “better off alone.” What if the mere presence of another does, indeed, as Epictetus expressed, call forth your best (voluntarily and involuntarily)?
People want and respond to clarity. Offer it, beget it.
Work is not strictly about sustenance; it is a structured mechanism for contribution. Don't underestimate the value of selecting work that aligns, by and large, to your specific contribution.
There is no imaginary clock you’re racing against. Use time as a driver, but not as a marker of success in and of itself.
