3 IDEAS FROM ME
I.
“Before you ask for readers, write the article you wish you could read.
Before you ask for the sale, create the product you wish you had.
Before you need support, be the supportive friend. Before you need love, be the loving partner.
Always give value before you ask for value.”
II.
“Each day is a new battle to say yes to what matters and say no to what doesn’t. Focus is a practice.”
III.
“What can you do with 5 good minutes?
5 good minutes of:
-pushups is a solid workout
-sprints will leave you winded
-conversation can rekindle a relationship
-reading can finish an insightful article
-meditation can reset your mood
You don’t need more time—just a little focused action.”
(Hat tip to Max Shank. A conversation with him inspired this thought.)
2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS
I.
Merle Shain, a Canadian journalist and author, on helping others:
“Loving someone means helping them to be more themselves, which can be different from being what you’d like them to be, although often they turn out the same.”
Source: Some Men are More Perfect Than Others
II.
Bill Watterson, the cartoonist and creator of Calvin and Hobbes, on the difference between ambition and happiness:
“…having an enviable career is one thing, and being a happy person is another. Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth. You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them. To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.”
Source: Some Thoughts on the Real World from One Who Glimpsed it and Fled
1 QUESTION FOR YOU
What is one thing I am looking forward to today?
Until next week,
James Clear
Author of the million-copy bestseller, Atomic Habits
Creator of The Habits Academy and the Habit Journal
