Some years ago after being inspired by Derek Sivers talking about his “directives” on the Tim Ferriss Show (one of my favorite podcast episodes), I started keeping track of my own. His book Anything You Want is a short, fantastic read. Recently, Tim also shared a post written by Kevin Kelly in a similar vein called 68 bits of seriously good advice (great article). So I decided to post mine, a list of things to remember and things I’ve come to learn. Guidance and wisdom for how I hope to live my life. By sharing, I hope it inspires you to create your own.
- Be genuine, be honest, be humble
- Strong opinions loosely held
- Offer perspectives not answers
- Take calculated risks
- Embrace change
- Take action
- Live unconventionally
- Find your own way
- Be curious
- Never stop learning
- There is always something that can be learned from someone else
- When learning, ask why, when doing, ask why not
- Learn from the past, be mindful of the future, remain in the present
- Decide how you want to spend your time, not necessarily what you want to do with your life
- You see life through the lense of your experiences
- Do what makes you happy. Do what you find meaningful. Seek purpose.
- Appreciate everything
- Give first, receive second
- Listen carefully
- Breath deeply, think deeply, move often
- Have purpose
- Be mindful, pay attention
- How you do anything is how you do everything. Small, innocuous things matter.
- Slow down
- Never stop playing
- Ask questions
- Challenge assumptions, challenge the status quo
- When you get comfortable or good at something its time to change or move on
- Live without regret
- Nothing is absolute
- Prioritize and focus, you’ll achieve much more as a result
- The foundation for how we behave on a daily basis comes down to conditioning, habits, and routines
- Be ok with failure, learn from your mistakes
- Get off the couch and do something, you never know what experience you might have; this is what life is
- Do your thing
- Form is key
- It’s never as bad as you think it will be
- Don’t just tell, show
- Don’t judge, listen with an open mind
- Trust only those who have been there and done it
- Everything is an adventure
- Be interesting, be interested
- Words and teaching help you know what to look for, experience and practice help you find and understand it
- Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do right now
- Know thyself (yourself)
- Do the math
- When experiencing pain or discomfort, go into nature. Pain often stems from doing things humans weren’t meant to do and thus can be resolved by doing things we are normally adept to do.
- Correctly identifying the problem makes clear the best solution
- Use the past to learn, use the future to plan, guide, & direct, use the present to enjoy & act
- Knowledge is nothing with application (action)
- Knowledge can illuminate one’s capabilities and potential, but it can also reveal one’s constraints in limitations. Only balancing the two provides the courage to try and to practically succeed.
- Always have a backup plan
- Live the middle of your life like the bookends – carefree, fearless, not giving a f*** about what anyone else thinks
- Don’t pay for or outsource what you can do yourself, but if you can’t or aren’t doing it, consider getting help
- Know when to be a leader and when to be a follower and be great at both
- Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
- The experience rarely matches the mind’s conception. Dread or worry is rarely ever as bad as what actually happens. Conversely, expectations can be exceeded. So just do it! What’s the worst that can happen?
- Leave things as you found them…or better
- Being cheap will cost you. Don’t be cheap. Do be frugal. Value over cost.
- You get what you put up with, you get what you think you deserve
- Action is evoked from emotion not logic. Evoke emotion through stories and human connection.
- Live simply, live fully
- Dream big, question convention, be fearless, act pragmatically
- We are influenced by our parents and upbringing, but not forever bound by those experiences. They are malleable, not fixed.
- Always look to see what’s around the bend
- Don’t be afraid to start again at the beginning
- A man’s work (actions, deeds) transcends the man
- Plan for the future, but don’t compromise the present
- See the world as it is, not as you expect it should be. Model yourself to emulate how you want it to be.
- The best question is why, the second best question is why not
- Only great questions beget great answers
- Easy to use doesn’t mean easy to build
- In work and even in life, consider and differentiate between what you want to do vs. what you want to be responsible for. This illuminates the path between management and individual contributor.
- Value being wise over being smart, being happy over being successful
- Things are rarely black and white, there’s always a gray area; seek context before judgement
- There’s a lesson to be learned in every experience if you pay attention.
- Always read the fine print
- Seek to understand all perspectives
- Know when to be direct, know when to be indirect; sometimes subtlety is required to achieve the desired outcome
- No experience is wasted
- Everyone moves at their own pace
- Mold yourself into a person you’re excited to talk about and share with others
- Dwelling in the past doesn’t resolve the present nor does it help you move towards the future
- Everything’s relative, everything requires perspective
- Decide who and how you want to be, not just what you want to be
- Everyone is replaceable
- Build on your strengths, mitigate your weaknesses
- Be comfortable being uncomfortable
- Never make a significant decision without sleeping on it
- Don’t do things out of obligation or that you don’t want to do, unless it’s supporting a friend or loved one
- Pain leads to pleasure; gives way to pleasure; sometimes
- Don’t spend money on things you can do yourself. Do spend money on things that make your life better or if your time is better spent elsewhere.
- Craft the life you want, don’t let life or others craft it for you
- Those who have life experience are harder to fool
- Life experience and exposure to other places, people, and culture breeds compassion
- Bookend your day; the beginning and end are yours to control
- Whatever happens, I’m confident that I’ll figure it out
- Be great at asking great questions
- First learn principles, then learn tools and tactics
- Most problems can be solved only once you reframe or otherwise look at things in a different way
- The best ideas come when you’re not thinking about them
- Embrace boredom, cultivate thought; after all, a single thought has the power to change your life and can even change the world
- It’s not the words themselves, but the context and intent behind them that matters most
- Be a badass without being an asshole.
- Think of your thoughts as what you believe today, knowing full well that over time, information, your beliefs, and the world around you will change; this creates the possibility that tomorrow’s thoughts could be very different
- Go after your potential not somebody else’s; life’s quest is to reach your own potential
- Let your curiosity lead you
- Just because there’s room for improvement doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing it badly
- Amuse yourself everyday
- Everyone wants to speak, but no one wants to think about what they have to say
- In life, be a participant not a spectator
- If not now, when?
- Take credit for your own achievements, give credit to those who supported you, be grateful for your circumstances that helped get you to where you are
- Be frugal, not cheap; pay for value not price
- You are your habits
- Value character over accomplishments
- The greatest form of intelligence is simplifying complex topics
- The most impressive form of creativity is making the most of what you got
- You can’t entirely pick your experiences, you have to just live them
- Live life as an experiment
- It takes longer when you rush
- Being able to learn new things is better than trying to know everything