- Never put your family, friends, or significant other low on your priority list.
- Life is not a dress rehearsal-this is probably it. Make it count.
- How to succeed: pick the right thing to do (this is critical and usually ignored), focus, believe in yourself (especially when others tell you it’s not going to work).
- On work: it’s difficult to do a great job on work you don’t care about. And it’s hard to be totally happy/fulfilled in life if you don’t like what you do for your work.
- On money: Whether or not money can buy happiness, it can buy freedom, and that’s a big deal.
- Talk to people more. Read more long content and fewer tweets. Watch less TV. Spend less time on the Internet.
- Don’t waste time.
- Don’t let yourself get pushed around.
- Have clear goals for yourself every day, every year, and every decade.
- However, as valuable as planning is, if a great opportunity comes along you should take it. Don’t be afraid to do something slightly reckless.
- Go out of your way to be around smart, interesting, ambitious people. Work for them, hire them.
- Minimize your own cognitive load from distracting things that don’t really matter.
- Keep your personal burn rate low. This alone will give you a lot of opportunities in life.
- Summers are the best.
- Don’t worry so much. Things in life are rarely as risky as they seem.
- Ask for what you want.
- If you think you’re going to regret not doing something, you should probably do it.
- Exercise. Eat well.
- Go out of your way to help people. Few things in life are as satisfying.
- Youth is a really great thing. Don’t waste it.
- Tell your parents you love them more often.
- This too shall pass.
- Learn voraciously.
- Do new things often. This seems to be really important.
- Remember how intensely you loved your boyfriend/girlfriend when you were a teenager? Love him/her that intensely now.
- Don’t screw people and don’t burn bridges.
- Forgive people.
- Don’t chase status. Status without substance doesn’t work for long and is unfulfilling.
- Most things are ok in moderation. Almost nothing is ok in extreme amounts.
- Existential angst is part of life. It is particularly noticeable around major life events.
- Be grateful and keep problems in perspective. Don’t complain too much.
- Be a doer, not a talker.
- Given enough time, it is possible to adjust to almost anything, good or bad.
- Think for a few seconds before you act. Think for a few minutes if you’re angry.
- Don’t judge other people too quickly. Be empathetic.
- The days are long but the decades are short.
3 min read
the days are long
but the decades are short