24 things I need to remind myself of all the time
Play the long game
A lot of metrics we pay attention are often “lagging indicators” i.e. they bear fruit long after the effort put in. Examples are abound and I encourage you all to delve into success stories that resonate with you. I am 99.9% certain you will find a tale of playing the long game in some shape or form.
See also the scene from Moneyball and repeat the mantra ‘It’s a process’
Get up and move around
Avoid mess but accept it will happen
By mess I mean the possibility of complications in life, they will be thrown at you and you have to handle them but that’s no reason to actively court them.
Goal setting is for discovery, not outcome (at the start)
When embarking on new endeavors goals will serve the purpose of making you aware of the ‘unknown unknowns’.
Pay for good quality news
Pick a few sources you trust and are interested in and pay for those as opposed to being hit with a barrage of content from all the corners of the internet.
Embrace not being good at hobbies
Have fewer opinions for the sake of having opinions
Go for aimless walks whenever possible
See also ‘Lindy Walks’.
Books don’t have to be read cover to cover (more true for non fiction)
Anti role models are more beneficial than role models
It is easier to structure behavior around what you don’t want to do as opposed to emulating someone.
Before having a serious conversation or making a big decision, make sure you are well rested and fed
See point 6 of the following:
Caution is not a risk neutral choice
There is a cost to inaction too.
Knowing how to google search effectively will save you tonnes of time
Invest in a few pairs of vibrant cultured socks
My personal favorite are the block colored socks from Uniqlo.
A 90% full stomach is infinitely better than a 110% full stomach.
It is almost certainly never malice
A lot of hurtful human behavior can be interpreted as malice but often the true motivations are never so simple.
Try and spend as much time barefoot as possible
A problem worthy of attack proves it’s worth by fighting back
Going back to the long game point, feats of accomplishment are rarely a linear path.
See also the story of solving Fermat’s Last Theorem.
Tell your homies you love them
Don’t fight the pangs of boredom, play them out for as long as you can
Tolstoy called boredom a desire for desires, if you are flooding your brain with stimulation how do you know what you desire?
If you find an everyday clothing item you like (t-shirt, jeans, shorts etc) buy two of them
Stretch at the start of each day and each night
On a day to day level if the decision is between action and inaction always pick action
Simplicity and complexity are two sides of the same coin. Embrace them both and know when you need one over the other
The mental toolkit I deploy when navigating contours of life is the following:
when bogged down in the details see if zooming out and simplifying can add some perspective.
When thinking about something high level, drill down a bit further and see what is going on under the hood.