Originally published on Substack here.
I turned 27 on Sunday. Here are 27 thoughts and reminders. These are things I’ve collected over the years and none of them are original. I even stole the idea to do this from Jackson Dahl.
- Major life decisions should fit the context of your life.
- You can really do anything if you’re willing to accept the consequences.
- Change is like gravity in that it can take a lot of effort to get out of the orbit of your current habits.
- I’ve realized most of my previous goals had all been an attempt to run away from what’s right in front of me.
- Do what’s right in front of you.
- Focus on how you can make an impact on others with the resources you have.
- Some hard things are worth doing. Being consistent in how you show up for other people is one of those things.
- Not all hard things are worth doing for the sake of doing hard work. Take strategic shortcuts.
- Read books. (I think of this in the same way Michael Pollan says “Eat food.”)
- You can experience conflicting emotions at the same time. For example, you can feel grief due to lost opportunities and gratitude for what you have.1
- Make it easy for other people to talk to you.
- Learn peoples’ names and use them.
- More people could benefit from living their life like a bodhisattva.
- Outsource all of the things your brain isn’t meant to do to technology – use a digital calendar, a task management app, and a budgeting app.
- Be careful to outsource your thinking. Writing is thinking, and using AI to write robs you of that. (But sometimes you don’t want to think, and that’s okay.)
- Create strict rules around your smartphone usage and stick to them.
- Be intentional about how you spend your time – ideally you’d spend your time connecting with others, doing meaningful work, maintenance tasks, or resting to ensure you can be at your best.
- Hanlon’s razor, but the compassionate version: don’t assume bad intentions when it could be due to limitations or a lack of understanding.
- Prioritize sleep. An extra hour of work at night is never worth it.
- If you’re consistently working on improving a third of your days will feel good, a third will feel okay, and a third will royally suck.
- Very few people would like to admit it, but we have so little control. If you truly focus on what you can control, your focus becomes very narrow.
- “Less is more” is true when it comes to responsibilities. Quality of your work matters more than quantity.
- Love isn’t a feeling. You have to continuously choose to love through action.
- There is value in thinking of your work in the same way a professional athlete does. Sleep, nutrition, preparation, and performance. It’s okay to truly care about your work and aim for excellence, no matter what you do.
- Everyone is doing their best. And everyone could do better.
- You can choose what to believe. Beliefs should serve you in the same way that goals are meant to motivate you to take action.
- Focus on the few things that give you the greatest returns. (Read roughly 20% of The 80/20 Principle to get the idea.)