"Your relationships will rarely be healthier than your self-esteem."
------
"If you're stuck on a problem, try solving it at a different level.
If you ask, "What can we do to create a more unified country?" then you end up with vague answers that are difficult to implement. The problem is mostly unmanageable at that level.
But if you ask, "What can I do to create a more unified neighborhood?" then you can likely think of many small things you can do to connect your friends and neighbors.
Zoom in or zoom out. Problems that seem impossible at one level are often quite accessible from a different one."
--------
“You may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value to you than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself; because only through ordering what you know by comparing every truth with every other truth can you take complete possession of your knowledge and get it into your power."
-------
"Every moment there are a million miracles happening around you:
a flower blossoming, a bird tweeting,
a bee humming, a raindrop falling,
a snowflake wafting along
the clear evening air.
There is magic everywhere.
If you learn how to live it,
life is nothing short of a daily miracle."
-----
“The real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.”
------
"When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."
-------
Look back ten years and you can probably identify a few blind spots or mistaken beliefs you held at the time. Now, fast forward ten years from today... what are likely to be your current blind spots? What are you not spending enough time thinking about or perhaps even willfully ignoring?
-----
"Before you discover what you love: fewer commitments, more experiments.
After you discover what you love: fewer experiments, more commitments."
------
"It's hard to save poor early decisions with good late decisions.
It's hard to write a best-selling book if you chose an unpopular topic.
It's hard to build a happy marriage if you married an unhappy person.
It's hard to make money in real estate if you overpaid at the beginning.
Certainly, things can be improved by making good decisions along the way, but the effects of poor early decisions tend to linger."
------
"One filter I use for making decisions: How much can I influence the outcome after the initial choice is made?
When I can do a lot to influence the outcome, I'm less worried about risk. Even if the choice appears risky on the surface, I can likely create a good outcome with effort.
When I can't do much to influence the outcome, I'm more risk averse. Even my best effort won't move the needle. Your ability to influence the outcome after a decision is made is a crucial thing to consider."
-----
"Don't fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail."
----
Computer science professor Randy Pausch—who had recently received a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis—shares some advice two months before his death:
"It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not. I assure you I've done a lot of really stupid things, and none of them bother me. All the mistakes, and all the dopey things, and all the times I was embarrassed — they don't matter. What matters is that I can kind of look back and say: Pretty much any time I got the chance to do something cool I tried to grab for it — and that's where my solace comes from."
-----
"Being good at what you do is partially about competence, but not exclusively.
Two other things that matter:
Reliability. You do what you say you're going to do—on time and as expected.
Enthusiasm. You're excited to be here and eager to work on this problem.
Skills matter, but in many cases it's your reliability or attitude that separates you from the pack."
--------
"Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living within that way of life."
-----
"The ability to do hard things is perhaps the most useful ability you can foster in yourself or your children. And proof that you are someone who can do them is one of the most useful assets you can have on your life resume.
Our self-image is composed of historical evidence of our abilities. The more hard things you push yourself to do, the more competent you will see yourself to be.
If you can run marathons or throw double your body weight over your head, the sleep deprivation from a newborn is only a mild irritant. If you can excel at organic chemistry or econometrics, onboarding for a new finance job will be a breeze.
But if we avoid hard things, anything mildly challenging will seem insurmountable. We’ll see ourselves as incapable of learning new skills, taking on new careers, and escaping bad situations.
The proof you can do hard things is one of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself."
---------
In which direction are your habits currently steering your life?
------
"Excitement is a better motivator than discipline. The people who appear to have an exceptional work ethic or remarkable discipline are often those with a genuine curiosity or interest in that area. The person who smiles is more likely to keep working than the person gritting their teeth."
-------
"Writing is one of the only ways to outlive yourself. People still read books from hundreds or even thousands of years ago. The author's physical life ended long ago, but their mental life remains alive and meaningful even today."
----
"The question is not: will today be a good day?
Every day is a good day.
The question is: how much good will you get out of today?"
--------
"A talent grows by being used, and withers if it is not used. Closing the gap between expectation and reality can be painful, but it has to be done sooner or later. The fact is that millions of young people would like to write, but what they dream of is the published book, often skipping over the months and years of very hard work necessary to achieve that end..."
--------
"As we live our lives, we find ourselves confronted with a brute fact about how little we can know about our futures—just when it is most important to us that we do know. For many big life choices, we only learn what we need to know after we've done it, and we change ourselves in the process of doing it. I'll argue that, in the end, the best response to this situation is to choose based on whether we want to discover who we'll become."
-----
What small step can you take today that will put you on the path toward something wonderful?
