One of the fundamental choices you face in every encounter is the choice to approach or avoid.
If you aren’t working on your goals, you aren’t working. You’re just wasting time.
It’s been said that the first hour is the rudder of the day. I’ve found this to be very true in my own life. If I’m lazy or haphazard in my actions during the first hour after I wake up, I tend to have a fairly lazy and unfocused day.
It’s important to note that you don’t have to earn money from all of your interests. If you just dive in and pursue what you enjoy, you may be surprised to find out which interests help you generate income and which don’t.
If you experience chronic difficulties in a particular area of your life, there’s a strong chance that the root of the problem is a failure to accept reality as it is.
You must give before you can get.
Our brains are fairly powerful, but our conscious minds are still extremely limited in their ability to hold onto multiple simultaneous thoughts.
Planning allows you to mentally create a model of your future.
It’s funny that when people reach a certain age, such as after graduating college, they assume it’s time to go out and get a job. But like many things the masses do, just because everyone does it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
People often overestimate what they can reasonably achieve in a year. But they vastly underestimate what they can achieve in 5 years.
I think the best friendships are those that can stand the test of time, where the friendship is based more on who you are than on what you do or what you have.
Side effect of overemphasizing the importance of personal security in your life is that it can cause you to live reactively.
One of my core beliefs is that belief itself is a choice that can be made of our own free will.
I believe we can proactively choose to believe whatever we want instead of merely letting our beliefs coalesce as reactions to events.
I want my life to have had more value than just acquiring stuff and living comfortably. I may die rich, or I may die broke. But I won’t die with my music still in me.
The only thing stopping you is fear, and the only thing that will get you past it is courage. What you do with your life isn’t up to your parents, your boss, or your spouse. It’s up to you and you alone.
In reading the biographies of very successful men and women, one theme frequently surfaces: such people have a strong bias for action. Those who achieve high levels of success in some areas of life tend to take a LOT more action than those who settle for average or below average results.
Any relationships that would reject you for being true to yourself are – by definition – abusive relationships. You’ll be much better off when you let them go.
I learned that accepting others and accepting myself are two sides of the same coin; you can’t love and accept yourself without doing the same for others.
Saying no isn’t easy, but it’s a required skill if you wish to have any degree of focus in your life. If you say yes too often, you’ll likely fall into the common trap of saying yes to the good while simultaneously saying no to the best.