Aim High: Failure Is Better Than Low Ambition
“Don't fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.” — Bruce Lee
Define One Daily Priority to Crush Overwhelm
If you don’t prioritize, everything seems urgent and important. If you define the single most important task for each day, almost nothing seems urgent or important. Oftentimes, it’s just a matter of letting little bad things happen (return a phone...
Make “No” Your Default to Protect Focus
“What I've learned over the years is that I basically have to make 'no' my default answer.” — Cal Newport
Quit Alcohol, Gain Energy and Simplify Life
“Easily the lowest energy in/biggest impact out simplification of my life has been to drop alcohol by the side of the road like a sack of stinky, dead cats.” — Craig Mod (@craigmod) Listen to this special episode on how...
Great Opportunities Emerge when the World Seems Bleak
A 2008 e-mail I received from a mentor: "While many are wringing their hands, I recall the 1970s when we were suffering from an oil shock causing long lines at gas stations, rationing, and 55 MPH speed limits on federal highways,...
Predictions Reveal Desires, Not Just Data
“When you make a prediction about where the US economy's going, where AI is going, whatever it might be, it's less about what you truly think is going to happen given the evidence and more about what you want to...
Stop Apologizing for Your Time, Own Your Priorities
“The moment you begin apologizing for how you manage your time, you are essentially apologizing for your priorities, which means apologizing for your life.” — Maria Popova (@themarginalian) Listen to this special episode on how to simplify your life in...
Unhappiness: Self‑Indulgence That Rejects Outside Perspective
“The unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer him up, because that means he has to stop dwelling on himself and start paying attention to the universe. Unhappiness is the ultimate form of self-indulgence.” — Tom Robbins
Know Yourself First, Then Seek Understanding
“It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves.” — Simone Weil
Discipline vs Compulsion: Jim Collins Redefines Self‑Control
“I always thought of myself as an incredibly disciplined person. I finally came to the conclusion I’m really not very disciplined. I am somewhat, but if you just can’t stop yourself, that’s not discipline. It’s compulsion.” — Jim Collins Listen to my...
Write Your Why Three Times to Defuse Anxiety
Whenever upset or anxious, ask “why” at least three times and put the answers down on paper. Describing these doubts in writing reduces their impact twofold. First, it’s often the ambiguous nature of self-doubt that hurts most. Defining and exploring...
Discover Your Hidden Potential, No Method Required
“The range of things that you’re encoded to potentially do is incredibly vast, and all you have to do is find one of them. And the way you find that can be really random. It doesn’t matter how it happens....
Three Simple Decisions to Transform Your 2026 Life
NEW podcast episode is up! How to Simplify Your Life in 2026 — New Tips from Maria Popova, Morgan Housel, Cal Newport, Craig Mod, and Debbie Millman Many of us feel like we’re drowning in invisible complexity. So I wanted...
Minimalism Builds Confidence to Risk with Barely Anything
“One of the many life skills that you want to learn at a fairly young age is the skill of being an ultra-thrifty, minimal kind of little wisp that’s traveling through time . . . in the sense of learning...
Impact Size ≠ Company Size, Says Jim Collins
“Never confuse scale of impact with scale of enterprise.” — Jim Collins Listen to my interview with Jim Collins: https://t.co/bxtOL5yAn4