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. The fact that you “can’t do” something can be embarrassing. But if you are “learning to do” something that is admirable. There are only tiny baby steps between can’t and learning.
Movement plus variety equals health. Never use a credit card for credit. The only kind of credit, or debt that is acceptable is debt to acquire something whose exchange value is extremely likely to increase like a home. The exchange value of most things diminishes or vanishes the moment you purchase them. Don’t be in debt to losers.
A great way to understand yourself is to seriously reflect on everything you find irritating in others. 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.
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. The best way to get to yes in a negotiation is to truly understand what yes means for the other party.
If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room. Hang out with, and learn from people smarter than yourself. Even better, find smart people who will disagree with you. You should demand extraordinary evidence in order to believe extraordinary claims.
Rule of 3 in conversation: To get to the real reason, ask a person to go deeper than what they just said. Then again, and then once more. The third time’s answer is the one closest to the truth. Pros make as many mistakes as amateurs; they’ve just learned how to gracefully recover from their mistakes.
The more you are interested in others the more interesting they’ll find you. To be interesting, be interested. Don’t take it personally when someone turns you down. Assume they are like you: busy, occupied, distracted. Try again later. It’s amazing how often a second try works.
At first, buy the absolute cheapest tools you can find. Upgrade the ones you use a lot. If you wind up using some tool for a job buy the very best you can afford. Shorten your to-do list by asking yourself “What is the worst that will happen if this does not get done? “Eliminate all but the disasters.
“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.
Before you are old attend as many funerals as you can bear and listen. Nobody talks about the departed achievements. The only thing people will remember is what kind of person you were while you were achieving. Anything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the universe. And you can get better at it. It’s the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows.
On vacation go to the most remote place on your itinerary first bypassing the cities and then return to the big city at the end. You’ll maximize the shock of otherness in the remote, and then later you’ll welcome the familiar conveniences of a busy city on the way back. When you get invited to do something in the future ask yourself: Would I do this tomorrow? Not too many promises will pass that immediacy filter.
To earn bliss just for a moment, send someone you don’t know a compliment for something they did. When someone is nasty, hateful, or mean toward you treat their behavior like an affliction or illness they have. That makes it easier to have empathy toward them which can soften the conflict.
Over the long term the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist you don’t have to ignore the multitude of problems we create; you just have to imagine how much our ability to solve problems improves. Don’t let someone else’s urgency become your emergency. In fact, don’t be governed by the urgent of any sort. Focus on the important. The urgent is a tyrant. The important should be your king. Down with the tyranny of the urgent!
Your best response to an insult is “You’re probably right. “Often they are. Assume anyone asking for your account information for any reason is guilty of scamming you unless proven innocent. The way to prove innocence is to call them back, or log in to your account using numbers or a website that you provide not them. Don’t release any identifying information while they are contacting you via phone, message, or email. You must control the channel.
This is the best time ever to make something. None of the greatest, coolest creations 20 years from now have been invented yet. You are not late. To transcend the influence of your heroes copy them shamelessly like a student until you get them out of your system. That is the way of all masters.
When you are stuck, sleep on it. Give your subconscious an assignment while you sleep. You’ll have an answer in the morning. All the greatest prizes in life in wealth, relationships, or knowledge come from the magic of compounding interest by amplifying small steady gains. All you need for abundance is to keep adding 1% more than you subtract on a regular basis.
To combat an adversary become their friend. If you are buying stock, the person selling it thinks it is worth less than you do. If you are selling, they think it is worth more than you do. Each time you are ready to buy or sell stock ask yourself “What do I know that they don’t?”
The four most powerful words in any negotiation should be uttered by you: “Can you do better? “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.
Ask anyone you admire: Their lucky breaks happened on a detour from their main goal. So, embrace detours. Life is not a straight line for anyone. To be rich you don’t need to make more money; you chiefly need to better manage the money already flowing through your hands.