Blog Post

* When You Have No Idea What Happens Next: “How do you think about a world where fundamental assumptions about the future are so fragile?”

* Sugar Ray Leonard Interview: Resilience: “Most people look at boxing or any contact sport and say, “Wow, I couldn’t do that,” because they don’t possess the thing inside of us that makes us go through pain. It takes something to activate that. That’s what separates fighters from other people.”

* Winning the First Battle in the Lifelong War of Art: “A true story from the writing trenches by Steven Pressfield.”

* Learning To Let Go: “This should not be an extremely painful process. Learning to let go of things is mainly about questioning the actual value of your stuff and letting go of unnecessary things.”

* Why We Worry: “Coming to grips with our lack of control can be frightening. But focusing on the present is extremely powerful.”

* How to Get Out of a Rut in About 20 Minutes: “It doesn’t solve your problems, but dissolves any sense of being bogged down by unexamined concerns, precisely because you have just examined your concerns.”

* Why We Focus on Trivial Things: “Why is having a clear purpose so critical? Because you use it as the lens to filter all other decisions.”

* History is Only Interesting Because Nothing is Inevitable: “Nothing that’s happened had to happen, or must happen again. That’s why historians aren’t prophets.”

* Scarcity (from the archives): “Time is scarce. There isn’t enough of it by half. There’s so much I want to do, I have to do. It’s a good problem to have but it’s still a problem.”

* You And Your Mind Garden: “The garden metaphor is particularly apt: taking care of your mind involves cultivating your curiosity (the seeds), growing your knowledge (the trees), and producing new thoughts (the fruits).”

* How We See the World Shapes How We React to It: “Our psychological state, our mindsets, and the environment around us all influence whether we will find our lives filling or not.”

* For The Full Life Experience Put Down All Devices And Walk: “‘Walking with a purpose’ is usually regarded as a positive thing. But the art of walking is not about purpose or aim. The art of walking is all about this purposeless purpose.”

* Why Steve Jobs Stole His Ideas “Innovative ideas have to come from somewhere. No matter how unique or unprecedented a work seems, dig a little deeper and you will always find that the creator stood on someone else’s shoulders.”

* How to Take a Break from Your Mind: “A small amount of imagination-induced pain goes a long way, however. We don’t need to suffer as much as we do.”

* Non-Ideal Productivity: “It’s not a productivity failure to have only 24 hours in the day, and more uses for your time than can ever possibly fulfilled. Instead, productivity failures come from the mismanagement of existing resources: time, energy, motivation.”

* The Polymath Advantage: “Range over mastery — people who embrace diverse skills, experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive.”

* Preparing for the Unknown: “We’re often advised to excel at one thing. But as the future gets harder to predict, preserving optionality allows us to pivot when the road ahead crumbles.”

* How Rituals and Focus Can Turn Isolation Into a Time for Growth: “The response to COVID-19 suggests one answer: care for yourself and others. So take a breath and take the time to change the daily rituals that make up life. Throw yourself into them as if your life were at stake, which it is.”

* Two Things We Know With High Confidence: “Unknowns exceed knowns even in the best of times. Today, that’s increased exponentially.”

* Time Alone (chosen or not) Can Be A Chance To Hit The Reset Button: “In a culture fueled by fast-paced lifestyles and convenient technologies, we are easily pulled by our devices and our obsession with productivity. When we are alone, we find ourselves working, and when we have a free moment, we want to catch up with what other people are doing by picking up our phones.”

* Take The Long View: “If you’re too close to see the edges of a problem, you lose the sense that there’s anything outside of it, before it, or after it.”

* What You Truly Value: “Our devotion to our values gets tested in the face of a true crisis. But it’s also an opportunity to reconnect, recommit, and sometimes, bake some bread.”

* Self-education: How To Leverage The End of Credentialism: “The average lifespan of a technical skill is roughly 18 months. The world is moving fast. Anything you learn today may become obsolete tomorrow.”

* Kiwi Virtues in a Time of Trouble: “Nothing fancy. Nothing heroic. Just do our part and be there for our mates in trouble.”

* 7 Ways You Sabotage Yourself on the Path to Reaching Your Goals: “Sometimes, you really are your own worst enemy.”

* For The Full Life Experience, Put Down All Devices And Walk: “‘Walking with a purpose’ is usually regarded as a positive thing, taken as a sign that people are focused, with eyes on an end-goal or prize. But the art of walking is not about purpose or aim. The art of walking is all about this purposeless purpose.”

* A Complete Guide To Actually Getting Somewhere With Meditation: “Think of this post as a guide to finally “getting” meditation – to reaching that unmistakable place where you know what you’re doing, and your whole life is better for it.”

* George Carlin on Finding Your True Self (4 minute video): “I didn’t know myself because I was blinded by my dreams.”

* Emotional Agility: How to Build Resilience in Times of Crisis: “While people say that with crisis comes opportunity, the truth is, with crisis also comes uncertainty. Hustle porn and denying how challenging these times are is counterproductive.”

* Using Models to Stay Calm in Charged Situations: “When polarizing topics are discussed in meetings, passions can run high and cloud our judgment. Learn how mental models can help you see clearly from this real-life scenario.”

* Coping with Fatigue, Fear, and Panic During a Crisis: “We are dealing with two contagions — the virus itself and the emotions it generates. Negative emotions are every bit as contagious as the virus, and they’re also toxic.”