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Seemingly Unrelated [things] That Are In Fact Really Related, That's The Stuff I Like To Talk About. Like Dancing, Language Learning, Swimming, Three-pointers.

-Tim Ferriss

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Seemingly Unrelated [things] That

Tim Ferriss

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Seemingly Unrelated [things] That Are In Fact Really Related, That's The Stuff I Like To Talk About. Like Dancing, Language Learning, Swimming, Three-pointers.

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More From Tim Ferriss

If It's Important To You And You Want To Do It 'eventually', Just Do It And Correct Course Along The Way.

There Are A Lot Of Things That Can Be Learned From The Darker Corners Of Athletics. You Have Doctors Who View Bodybuilders As Cavalier Amateurs Of Science. And Then You Have The Bodybuilders Who View The Doctors As Too Conservative To Do Anything Interesting. So I've Tried To Become The Middleman For Putting Some Of Those Pieces Together.

Believe It Or Not, It Is Not Only Possible To Accomplish More By Doing Less, It Is Mandatory. Enter The World Of Elimination.

The Blind Quest For Cash Is A Fool's Errand.

For Most People, Life Would Be Boring Without Meaningful Work.

I'm Not A Fan Of Idleness, Except In Small Doses.

The Way That You Become World-class Is... By Asking Good Questions.

I Do Not Equate Productivity To Happiness. For Most People, Happiness In Life Is A Massive Amount Of Achievement Plus A Massive Amount Of Appreciation. And You Need Both Of Those Things.

Work Is An Activity That Is Financially-driven Or One That You'd Like To Do Less Of.

I'm Not Averse To Making A Lot Of Money. But Where Does That End? I Hang Out With People With Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars. Is That The Standard By Which I Should Measure Myself? Where Does That Take You If You're In My Business? I Think It Takes You To Pretty Dark, Corrupt Places.

People Will Choose Unhappiness Over Uncertainty.

The Best Results I Have Had In My Life; The Most Enjoyable Times, Have All Come From Asking The Simple Question: 'what Is The Worst That Could Happen?'

Don't Suffer Fools Or You'll Become One.

A Person's Success In Life Can Usually Be Measured By The Number Of Uncomfortable Conversations He Or She Is Willing To Have.

You Can Lose Money And Make It Back, You Can't Do That With Time.

The Best Way To Counter-attack A Hater Is To Make It Blatantly Obvious That Their Attack Has Had No Impact On You.

To Do The Impossible, You Need To Ignore The Popular.

The Commonsense Rules Of The "real World" Are A Fragile Collection Of Socially Reinforced Illusions.

What We Fear Doing Most Is Usually What We Most Need To Do.

Excitement Is The More Practical Synonym For Happiness, And It Is Precisely What You Should Strive To Chase. It Is The Cure-all. When People Suggest You Follow Your "passion" Or Your "bliss," I Propose That They Are, In Fact, Referring To The Same Singular Concept: Excitement. This Brings Us Full Circle. The Question You Should Be Asking Isn't, "what Do I Want?" Or "what Are My Goals?" But "what Would Excite Me?"

The Fishing Is Best Where The Fewest Go And The Collective Insecurity Of The World Makes It Easy For People To Hit Home Runs While Everyone Is Aiming For Base Hits.

I Have Plenty Of Money To Do What I Want To Do, And I Have The Relationships.

Think Big And Don't Listen To People Who Tell You It Can't Be Done. Life's Too Short To Think Small.

The Golden Years Become Lower-middle-class Life Revisited. That's A Bittersweet Ending.

People Really Do Think They Have To Choose Between High Stress And High Reward Jobs, And Low Stress And Low Reward Jobs.

Emphasize Strengths, Don't Fix Weaknesses.

$1,000,000 In The Bank Isn't The Fantasy. The Fantasy Is The Lifestyle Of Complete Freedom It Supposedly Allows.

To Have An Uncommon Lifestyle, You Need To Develop The Uncommon Habit Of Making Decisions, Both For Yourself And For Others.

When You Try To Do Something Big Its Hard To Fail Completely.

At Least Three Time Per Day At Scheduled Times, He Had To Ask Himself The Following Question: Am I Being Productive Or Just Active? Charney Captured The Essence Of This With Less-abstract Wording: Am I Inventing Things To Do To Avoid The Important? He Eliminated All Of The Activities He Used As Crutches And Began To Focus On Demonstrating Results Instead Of Showing Dedication. Dedication Is Often Just Meaningless Work In Disguise. Be Ruthless And Cut The Fat.

You And Your Friends Could Plan The Trip Of A Lifetime In 6-18 Months To Visit The Completed School, Teeming With Dozens Or Hundreds Of Students Who Greet You With Smiles And Thank You Letters. You'll Know It's Your School Because Your Names Will Be On The Door.

Role Models Who Push Us To Exceed Our Limits, Physical Training That Removes Our Spare Tires, And Risks That Expand Our Sphere Of Comfortable Action Are All Examples Of Eustress—stress That Is Healthful And The Stimulus For Growth.

Doing Something Unimportant Well Does Not Make It Important.

It's Lonely At The Top. Ninety-nine Percent Of People In The World Are Convinced They Are Incapable Of Achieving Great Things, So They Aim For The Mediocre. The Level Of Competition Is Thus Fiercest For "realistic" Goals, Paradoxically Making Them The Most Time-consuming And Energy Consuming. It Is Easier To Raise $10,000,000 Than It Is $1,000,000. It Is Easier To Pick Up The One Perfect 10 In The Bar Than The Five 8s.

There Is An Infinite Selection Of Things That I Could Test In Life, So I Generally Will Look For A Critical Mass Of Word That Comes Back To Me. At This Point I Have Hundreds Of Friends Who Are The Best At What They Do, Arguably Number One In The Country Or In The World. I Will Oftentimes Just Kind Of Throw A Volley Out To People, Ask Them What They're Obsessing On Or What They Find Interesting That's On The Fringe. If The Same Answer Comes Back A Few Times, I'm Like, "okay."

It's Not Enough To Have The Right Answers. You Have To Have The Right Questions.

Slow Down And Remember This: Most Things Make No Difference. Being Busy Is A Form Of Mental Laziness-lazy Thinking And Indiscriminate Action.

Dreamlining Is So Named Because It Applies Timelines To What Most Would Consider Dreams.

There Are Certain Things I Will Automate, But When It Comes To Quality Control, I Want To Keep A Very Close Eye.

Poisonous People Do Not Deserve Your Time. To Think Otherwise Is Masochistic.

The Key To Having More Time Is Doing Less, And There Are Two Paths To Get There, Both Of Which Should Be Used Together: (1) Define A Short To-do List And (2) Define A Not-to-do List.

It Is Far More Lucrative And Fun To Leverage Your Strengths Instead Of Attempting To Fix All The Chinks In Your Armor. The Choice Is Between Multiplication Of Results Using Strenths Or Incremental Improvement Fixing Weaknesses That Will, At Best, Become Mediocre. Focus On Better Use Of Your Best Weapons Instead Of Constant Repair.

Sometimes You Need To Go On A Low-information Diet.

Being Efficient Without Regard To Effectiveness Is The Default Mode Of The Universe.

For All Their Bitching About What’s Holding Them Back, Most People Have A Lot Of Trouble Coming Up With The Defined Dreams They’re Being Held From.

The Decent Method You Follow Is Better Than The Perfect Method You Quit.

Just Because Something Has Been A Lot Of Work Or Consumed A Lot Of Time Doesn't Make It Productive Or Worthwhile.

Three Ingredients Of Luxury Lifestyle Design Are Time, Income, And Mobility.

Do Not Overestimate The Competition And Underestimate Yourself. You Are Better Than You Think.

Self Confidence

Remember—boredom Is The Enemy, Not Some Abstract "failure.

For All Of The Most Important Things, The Timing Always Sucks. Waiting For A Good Time To Quit Your Job? The Stars Will Never Align And The Traffic Lights Of Life Will Never All Be Green At The Same Time. The Universe Doesn't Conspire Against You, But It Doesn't Go Out Of Its Way To Line Up The Pins Either. Conditions Are Never Perfect. "someday" Is A Disease That Will Take Your Dreams To The Grave With You. Pro And Con Lists Are Just As Bad. If It's Important To You And You Want To Do It "eventually," Just Do It And Correct Course Along The Way.

By Using Money As The Scapegoat And Work As Our All-consuming Routine, We Are Able To Conveniently Disallow Ourselves To Do Otherwise: 'john, I'd Love To Talk About The Gaping Void I Feel In My Life, The Hopelessness That Hits Me Like A Punch In The Eye Every Time I Start My Computer In The Morning, But I Have So Much Work To Do! I've Got At Least Three Hours Of Unimportant Email To Reply To Before Calling Prospects Who Said 'no' Yesterday. Gotta Run!

That's Precisely The Question Everyone Should Be Asking-why The Hell Not? - Why Not You, Why Not Now.

I Think Time Management As A Label Encourages People To View Each 24-hour Period As A Slot In Which They Should Pack As Much As Possible.

I Value Self-discipline, But Creating Systems That Make It Next To Impossible To Misbehave Is More Reliable Than Self-control.

The Goal Is Not To Simply Eliminate The Bad, Which Does Nothing More Than Leave You With A Vacuum, But To Pursue And Experience The Best In The World.

I Think Willpower Is Very Valuable.

There Are Two Types Of Mistakes: Mistakes Of Ambition And Mistakes Of Sloth.

Life Is Too Short To Be Small.

Are You Better Off Than You Were One Year Ago, One Month Ago, Or One Week Ago? If Not, Things Will Not Improve By Themselves.

Slowing Down Doesn't Mean Accomplishing Less; It Means Cutting Out Counterproductive Distractions And The Perception Of Being Rushed.

I Really Feel Like Knife Skills - Not Just In The Kitchen, But In Life - Are Really Critical.

The Question You Should Be Asking Isn't, "what Do I Want?" Or "what Are My Goals?" But "what Would Excite Me?

The First Thing I Would Do For Anyone Who's Trying To Lose Body Fat, For Instance, Would Be To Remove Foods From The House That He Or She Would Consume During Lapses Of Self-control.

A Friend Of Mine, Derek Simmons, Who's Been On The Podcast, Said, "if More Information Were The Answer, We'd All Be Billionaires With Perfect Dads." It Comes Down To Motivation And Incentives. If It Isn't A Punishment Or A Reward, Then It's Just Talk.

I Encourage Active Skepticism - When People Are Being Skeptical Because They're Trying To Identify The Best Course Of Action. They're Trying To Identify The Next Step For Themselves Or Other People.

A Recession Is Very Bad For Publicly Traded Companies, But It's The Best Time For Startups. When You Have Massive Layoffs, There's More Competition For Available Jobs, Which Means That An Entrepreneur Can Hire Freelancers At A Lower Cost.

Most Inputs Are Useless And Time Is Wasted In Proportion To The Amount That Is Available.

Online I See People Committing 'social Media Suicide' All The Time By One Of Two Ways. Firstly By Responding To All Criticism, Meaning You're Never Going To Find Time To Complete Important Milestones Of Your Own, And By Responding To Things That Don't Warrant A Response. This Lends More Credibility By Driving Traffic.

I Think About Willpower Almost Never. I Realize For Myself, Trying To Be More Disciplined Is Pretty Nebulous And It's Often A Slippery Target. For Me, I've Just Thought About Incentives.

Most People Are Good At A Handful Of Things And Utterly Miserable At Most.

Changing The World Doesn't Require Much Money. Again, Think In Terms Of Empowerment And Not Charity. How Much Were Gandhi's Teachers Paid? How Much Did It Cost To Give Dr. Martin Luther King The Books That Catalyzed His Mind And Actions?

If You Look At The Purported Dangers Of Salt Or Fat, There Is No Consensus Of Support In Scientific Literature. So I Would Ask First: 'is It Possible To Have An Informed Government That Actually Follows The Science?' From What I've Seen, It's Not Likely.

Focus On Being Productive Instead Of Busy.

Productive Work

Happiness Can Be Bought With A Bottle Of Wine And Has Become Ambiguous Through Overuse.

Bottles Of Wine

Uncertainty And The Prospect Of Failure Can Be Very Scary Noises In The Shadows. Most People Will Choose Unhappiness Over Uncertainty.

Which 20% Of Sources Are Causing 80% Of My Problems And Unhappiness? Which 20% Of Sources Are Resulting In 80% Of My Desired Outcomes And Happiness?

In All Cases Where Doubt Crops Up, Ask Yourself, "if I Had A Gun To My Head And Had To Do It, How Would I Do It?" It's Not As Hard As You Think.

Language Learning Deserves Special Mention. It Is, Bar None, The Best Thing You Can Do To Hone Clear Thinking.

Requiring A Lot Of Time Does Not Make A Task Important.

Happiness Has A Very Short Half-life.

Personally, I Now Aim For One Month Of Overseas Relocation Or High-intensity Learning (tango, Fighting, Whatever) For Every Two Months Of Work Projects.

The Most Important Actions Are Never Comfortable.

It's Amazing How Someone's Iq Seems To Double As Soon As You Give Them Responsibility And Indicate That You Trust Them.

Avoid Results-by Volume Approach, Instead Focus On Few Critically Important But Uncomfortable Actions.

The Way We Measure Productivity Is Flawed. People Checking Their Blackberry Over Dinner Is Not The Measure Of Productivity.

Money Is Multiplied In Practical Value Depending On The Number Of W's You Control In Your Life: What You Do, When You Do It, Where You Do It, And With Whom You Do It.

4 Hour Work Week

One Of The Bigger Misconceptions Of Learning Is That Many Skills Take A Lifetime To Get World-class At, Or 10,000 Hours To Become World-class At.

Tomorrow Becomes Never. No Matter How Small The Task, Take The First Step Now!

I Have Scary Eyes. I Look Like The Guy In 'american History X,' Yes. I Remember Coming Home From School And Asking My Mum If I Could Get An Eye Transplant, And Of Course She Declined.

Simplicity Requires Ruthlessness.

I Work Hard, But In Spurts.

What You Do Is Infinitely More Important Than How You Do It.

4 Hour Work Week

People Feel Personally Slighted If You Don't Respond To Them In 30 Seconds And Treat Email As Instant Messenger.

Just A Few Words On Time Management: Forget All About It.

There Is A Direct Correlation Between Am Increased Sphere Of Comfort And Getting What You Want.

Getting What You Want

If You Take A Strong Stance And Have A Clear Opinion Or Statement On Any Subject Online, You're Going To Polarize People. And Without That Polarity, There's No Discussion. Discussion Is What I Want, Which Means That I'm Fine With The Consequences.

What's The Worst That Could Happen?

Short, Sweet, And To The Point. Clear Writing, And Therefore Clear Commands, Comes From Clear Thinking. Think Simple.

Resveratrol Is Fascinating Stuff. One Of The Best Sources Of Information About It Is The Immortality Institute. They Have A Forum Where Some People Are In The 500 Club, As They Call It. They've Been Taking 500 Milligrams For Years. It's A Really Great Source Of Data.

I Gauge Success In Years, Not Weeks. The Weekend Box-office Approach To Book Launches Is Short Sighted And Encourages Crappy Books.

Information Is Useless If It Is Not Applied To Something Important Or If You Will Forget It Before You Have A Chance To Apply It.

Exercise Is Overrated.

Creating Demand Is Hard. Filling Demand Is Easier. Don't Create A Product, Then Seek Someone To Sell It To. Find A Market - Define Your Customers - Then Find Or Develop A Product For Them.

There Are No Statues Erected To Critics.

Being Called A Huckster And A Charlatan Started Several Years Ago, So That's Something I'm Accustomed To. In Most Cases, It Doesn't Bother Me.

I Always Point People To The Article '1,000 True Fans' By Kevin Kelly. If You Choose Your Thousand Ideal Customers Or Readers Properly And Find The Single Author Blog That Targets That Audience, You Never Have To Do Any More Marketing. You're Done. That Is A Lesson That Very Few Product Developers And Marketers Have Learned, And It's Unfortunate.

Converting Your Own Passions Into A Job Is The Fastest Method For Eliminating Any Passion You Once Had.

The Truth Is That Since The First Book, I Have Wanted To Emulate Benjamin Franklin And Put Together A Healthy, Wealthy And Wise Trilogy And So Healthy Was 'the 4-hour Body,' Wealthy Was 'the 4-hour Workweek' And Then Wise Is 'the 4-hour Chef.'

At Its Core, I Don't View Facebook As A Social Network. I Think It Could Become The Driver's License Of The Internet. And Beyond That, It Can Become The Pipes And The Plumbing Upon What Most Of The Internet Is Built. I Think It's Very Well Positioned.

There Are Two Components That Are Fundamental To Enjoy Life And Feel Good About Yourself: Continual Learning And Service.

I'm Not A Big Believer In Long-term Planning And Far-off Goals. In Fact, I Generally Set 3-month And 6-month Dreamlines. The Variables Change Too Much And In-the-future Distance Becomes An Excuse For Postponing Action.

The Best Entrepreneurs I've Ever Met Are All Good Communicators. It's Perhaps One Of The Very Few Unifying Factors.

Money Doesn't Change You; It Reveals Who You Are When You No Longer Have To Be Nice.

What We Fear Doing Most Is Usually What We Most Need To Do. As I Have Heard Said, A Person's Success In Life Can Usually Be Measured By The Number Of Uncomfortable Conversations He Or She Is Willing To Have. Resolve To Do One Thing Every Day That You Fear. I Got Into This Habit By Attempting To Contact Celebrities And Famous Businesspeople For Advice.

You Don't Have To Travel, But I Find Extended Travel To Be A Helpful Tool For Reexamining Yourself And The Constraints You've Artificially Placed On Your Life. It's Easy To Believe Everything Has To Be Done One Way If You're Always In One Place Around The Same People.

Personal Branding Is About Managing Your Name - Even If You Don't Own A Business - In A World Of Misinformation, Disinformation, And Semi-permanent Google Records. Going On A Date? Chances Are That Your "blind" Date Has Googled Your Name. Going To A Job Interview? Ditto.

It Is Predicated On The Assumption That You Dislike What You Are Doing During The Most Physically Capable Years Of Your Life. This Is A Nonstarter—nothing Can Justify That Sacrifice.

If Everyone Is Defining A Problem Or Solving It One Way And The Results Are Subpar, This Is The Time To Ask, What If I Did The Opposite? Don't Follow A Model That Doesn't Work. If The Recipe Sucks, It Doesn't Matter How Good A Cook You Are.

If We Define Risk As 'the Likelihood Of An Irreversible Negative Outcome,' Inaction Is The Greatest Risk Of All.

The Downstream Effects Are Unknown. Do Your Best And Hope For The Best. If You're Improving The World-however You Define That-consider Your Job Well Done.

Everything That Works In Sales Has Been Done Already. Just Keep Track Of The Crap That You Buy, Or The Awesome Stuff That You Buy, And Decide What Was The Trigger, And Then Just Sell To People Like You. It's Really That Easy - And That's What I Do.

People Are Smarter Than You Think. Give Them A Chance To Prove Themselves.

Do Not Expect Work To Fill A Void That Non-work Relationships And Activities Should Work Is Not All Of Life. Your Co-workers Shouldn't Be Your Only Friends. Schedule Life And Defend It Just As You Would An Important Business Meeting. Never Tell Yourself "i'll Just Get It Done This Weekend."

Lacking An External Focus, The Mind Turns Inward On Itself And Creates Problems To Solve, Even If The Problems Are Undefined Or Unimportant. If You Find A Focus, An Ambitious Goal That Seems Impossible And Forces You To Grow, These Doubts Disappear.

Fun Things Happen When You Earn Dollars, Live On Pesos, And Compensate In Rupees.

Awareness, Even At A Subconscious Level, Beats Fancy Checklists Without It, Track Or You Will Fail.

By Working Only When You Are Most Effective, Life Is Both More Productive And More Enjoyable. It's The Perfect Example Of Having Your Cake And Eating It, Too.

People Who Avoid All Criticism Fail. It's Destructive Criticism We Need To Avoid, Not Criticism In All Forms.

I Still Feel There Are Much Smarter Self-promoters Out There Than Me. I Am Very Methodical About My Messaging, And I Know How To Gain Attention Very Quickly.

Luxury Is Feeling Unrushed. It Is Designing A Life That Allows You To Do What You Want With High Leverage, With Many Options, All While Feeling Unrushed.

Just As Modern Man Consumes Both Too Many Calories And Calories Of No Nutritional Value, Information Workers Eat Data Both In Excess And From The Wrong Sources.

If You See Distraction Externally, You End Up Creating An Internally Distracted State.

Everyone Is Going To Binge On A Diet, For Instance, So Plan For It, Schedule It, And Contain The Damage.

Someday Is A Dis-ease That Will Take Your Dreams To The Grave With You.

People Don't Want To Be Millionaires - They Want To Experience What They Believe Only Millions Can Buy.

The Problem With New Year's Resolutions - And Resolutions To 'get In Better Shape' In General, Which Are Very Amorphous - Is That People Try To Adopt Too Many Behavioral Changes At Once. It Doesn't Work. I Don't Care If You're A World-class Ceo - You'll Quit.

The Fishing Is Best Where The Fewest Go. There Is Just Less Competition For Bigger Goals.

There Are Tons Of Things In Your Home And Life That You Don't Use, Need, Or Even Particularly Want. They Just Came Into Your Life As Impulsive Flotsam And Jetsam And Never Found A Good Exit. Whether You're Aware Of It Or Not, This Clutter Creates Indecision And Distractions.

Luxury, To Me, Is Not Owning A Lot Of Stuff. Luxury, To Me, Is Feeling Unrushed.

If You Don't Have Time, The Truth Is, You Don't Have Priorities. Think Harder; Don't Work Harder.

Unbeknownst To Most Fun-loving Bipeds, Not All Stress Is Bad. Indeed, The New Rich Don't Aim To Eliminate All Stress. Not In The Least.

In Excess, Most Endeavors And Possessions Take On The Characteristics Of Their Opposite.

Characteristics

The Bottom Line Is That You Only Have The Rights You Fight For.

It's Very Easy To Confuse Confident Motion With Being Productive - And They're Not The Same Thing. Productive To Me Means Measurable Outcomes That Apply To My Most Important To-dos That Positively Affect My Life. That's It.

Being Busy Is A Form Of Laziness - Lazy Thinking And Indiscriminate Action. Being Busy Is Most Often Used As A Guise For Avoiding The Few Critically Important But Uncomfortable Actions.

Writing Is Thought Crystalized On A Piece Of Paper, Which Can Then Be Reviewed.

Most People Are Fast To Stop You Before You Get Started But Hesitate To Get In The Way If You're Moving.

The Manifesto Of The Dealmaker Is Simple: Reality Is Negotiable.

Seemingly Unrelated [things] That Are In Fact Really Related, That's The Stuff I Like To Talk About. Like Dancing, Language Learning, Swimming, Three-pointers.

Focus On Impact, Not Approval. If You Believe You Can Change The World, Which I Hope You Do, Do What You Believe Is Right And Expect Resistance And Expect Attackers. Keep Calm And Carry On!

I'm Prepared To Do Battle For A Dream That Is Worth Dreaming.

If You Are Insecure, Guess What? The Rest Of The World Is, Too.

Self Confidence

What I Don't Like Is Snark For Snark's Sake. If You Are Going To Make Fun Of Me, At Least Be Witty While Doing It.

Nothing Can Match The Wonderment That Comes From Staring Up Into The Star-filled Canopy Above And Realizing That You Are A Part Of That Creation.

Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning. Instead, Complete Your Most Important Task Before 11:00 A.m. To Avoid Using Lunch Or Reading Email As A Postponement Excuse.

As Far As Income Goes, There Are Three Currencies In The World; Most People Ignore Two. The Three Currencies Are Time, Income And Mobility, In Descending Order Of Importance. Most People Focus Exclusively On Income.

Being Selective-doing Less-is The Path Of The Productive. Focus On The Important Few And Ignore The Rest.

Many A False Step Was Made By Standing Still.

Reality Is Negotiable.

Learn To Be Difficult When It Counts

Companies That Start By Redesigning The Economics Of An Industry Often Finish By Redesigning The Whole Industry-and Owning It.

But You Are The Average Of The Five People You Associate With Most, So Do Not Underestimate The Effects Of Your Pessimistic, Unambitious, Or Disorganized Friends. If Someone Isn't Making You Stronger, They're Making You Weaker.

But If It's Tolerable Mediocrity, And You're Like, 'well, You Know It Could Be Worse. At Least I'm Getting Paid.' Then You Wind Up In A Job That Is Slowly Killing Your Soul And You're Allowing That To Happen. Comfort Can Be A Very, Very Dangerous Thing.

The Only Rules And Limits Are Those We Set For Ourselves

I'll Repeat Something You Might Consider Tattooing On Your Forehead: What We Fear Doing Most Is Usually What We Most Need To Do.

The Least-crowded Channel For Meeting High Profile Bloggers Is In Person. Email Is The Most Difficult, The Most Crowded... I'm A Top 1,000 Blogger, Not A Top 100 Blogger, And I Get Hundreds Of Pitches By Email Every Week. Most Of Them I Don't Even See Because My Assistant Declines Them.

Sports Just Happen To Be Excellent For Avoiding Foreign-language Stage Fright And Developing Lasting Friendships While Still Sounding Like Tarzan.

Relative Income Uses Two Variables: The Dollar And Time, Usually Hours.

After Decades Of Hauling Telescopes Around In The Back Of Vans And Going Up To High Altitude Locations And So Forth, I Did Finally Build An Observatory, Here On Sonoma Mountain.

You Think You're Fatigued, Therefore You Can't Exercise. In Fact, You Choose Not To Move, Therefore You Feel Fatigued.

People Are Fond Of Using The Its Not What You Know, Its Who You Know Adage As An Excuse For Inaction, As If All Successful People Are Born With Powerful Friends. Nonsense.

People Frequently Fail When They Try To Do Everything At Once. They Approach A Massive Project And Quickly Get Discouraged. Taking Small, But High-value Steps Takes Less Time, And You Learn More In The Long Run.

The Start Of The Day Is Often The Best Time To Get Things Done. This Is Somewhat Related To Willpower.

The Best Way To Improve Mental Performance, Is To Improve Physical Performance

Compile Your To-do List For Tomorrow No Later Than This Evening.

Perfection Is An Impossible Destination

A Goal Without Real Consequences Is Wishful Thinking. Good Follow-through Doesn't Depend On The Right Intentions. It Depends On The Right Incentives.

Rather Than Spend My Life On Data Entry And Typing, I Also Take Photos On My Iphone Of Business Cards, Wine Labels, Menus, Or Anything I Want To Have Searchable On-the-run.

I Take Notes Like Some People Take Drugs.

One Can Steal Ideas, But No One Can Steal Execution Or Passion.

Black And White

Learn The Art Of The Pitch And Of Messaging.

For Uncommon Solutions, You Have To Look In Uncommon Places.

I Discourage Passive Skepticism, Which Is The Armchair Variety Where People Sit Back And Criticize Without Ever Subjecting Their Theories Or Themselves To Real Field Testing.

Doing The Unrealistic Is Easier Than Doing The Realistic.

It Isn't Enough To Think Outside The Box. Thinking Is Passive. Get Used To Acting Outside The Box.

What Do You Want?' Is Too Imprecise To Produce A Meaningful And Actionable Answer.

If You Don't Have Time, You Don't Have Priorities.

If You Let Pride Stop You, You Will Hate Life

This Is Not My Phrase, But If You're Stuck In The Past, Then You're Depressed. If You're Stuck In The Future, Then You're Anxious.

Massive Elimination Is The Most Important Step And The Most Neglected Step For Entrepreneurs.

I Open Each Class With An Explanation Of The Singular Importance Of Being A "dealmaker." The Manifesto Of The Dealmaker Is Simple: Reality Is Negotiable.

If Someone's Criticism Is Completely Unfounded On Data, Then I Don't Want To Hear It. It Doesn't Hold Up To Scrutiny.

Slow Down And Remember This: Most Things Make No Difference.

If You Spend Your Time, Worth $20-25 Per Hour, Doing Something That Someone Else Will Do For $10 Per Hour, It's Simply A Poor Use Of Resources.

When You Elevate The Heels More So Than You Elevate The Sole Of The Foot, You Trigger A Cascade Of Compensations In The Knees And Hips That Cause Tight Hip Flexors, And Then Those Hip Flexors Cause Lower-back Pain.

Get Good At Being A Troublemaker And Saying Sorry When You Really Screw Up

I Was An All-american In Wrestling In High School, Was National Champion In Chinese Kickboxing In 1999 And Have Spent A Lot Of Time Around Professional Athletes, Which Includes My Eight-plus Years As Ceo Of A Sports Nutrition Company.

I Do My Best Writing Between 10 P.m. And 5 A.m.. Almost Every Friend I Have Who Is A Consistently Productive Writer, Does Their Best Writing Between 10 P.m. And 8 A.m. My Quota Is Two Crappy Pages Per Day. I Keep It Really Low So I'm Not So Intimidated That I Never Get Started. I Will Do The Gathering Of Interviews And Research Throughout The Day. I'll Get All My Notes And Materials Together And Then I'll Do The Synthesis Between 10 P.m. To Bed, Which Is Usually 4 Or 5 A.m.

I'm Often Asked How I Define "success." It's An Overused Term, But I Fundamentally View This Elusive Beast As A Combination Of Two Things - Achievement And Appreciation. One Isn't Enough: Achievement Without Appreciation Makes You Ambitious But Miserable. Appreciation Without Achievement Makes You Unambitious But Happy.

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