10 reminders to self

Dangerous is the person who knows what they want and what they’re willing to sacrifice to get it.

I hate the phrase “how you do anything is how you do everything” because it’s just not true.

Whether I make my bed or not has no influence on the precision and attention to detail I have for my books.

Most decisions don’t matter. Some decisions matter a lot. It’s a power law.

If you give your full attention to everything, you give it to nothing.

"Trust life's timing."
"You can't rush greatness."
"Everything happens for a reason."

People love saying these phrases because it reframes inaction as patience, and patience sounds virtuous.

But there’s a difference between patience and passivity.

> Patience is trusting that results take time while doing everything in your power to accelerate them.

> Passivity is doing nothing and calling it faith.

You can be patient as long as you're doing everything you can to speed up the process. The moment you stop pushing and start waiting, you've crossed the line from one to the other.

Podcaster Ben Wilson on reflecting on your mortality:

"I actually don't think live like you are dying is very helpful advice. Live like you are living. Live like you got your whole life in front of you, and just be your strongest, healthiest, and best self.

Everything that I have told you is just more and more confirmed to me. Try to take over the world.

Try to accomplish everything that you can in this life. Use your strength to its greatest ends that you can.

Everyone dies. Rich people, wealthy people. Julius Caesar's dead. Alexander the Great is dead. Achilles is dead. My grandpa is dead.

It's not that romantic. I'm not that special because I'm dying. It's actually one of the most common, unremarkable facts of life,

I have a family that I love very much. I have four wonderful children and a tremendously supportive wife.

I have found my vocation in life, my calling. I have loved being a podcaster and speaking to all of you and sharing what I have learned. And so I would just say, don't let death catch you unprepared."

Side note: Ben has played an instrumental role in my journey. I would listen to his podcast How To Take Over The World while on walks or at the gym. He has stage 4 cancer. What he’s facing is horrible. If you get a chance, watch the full video.

Sam Parr on being enthusiastic & chalant:

“People are drawn to those who passionately point to their goals and say ‘this is where I'm going. I'm going with or without you. But I sure would love if you came along.’“

10 reminders to self:

What you work on >>> How hard you work
- Pick the right problem to solve, in a growing market, with little competition.
- The opportunity cost of working on a mediocre thing has never been higher.
- It’s hard to outwork someone working on a more leveraged thing.
Focus, focus, focus
- If you commit to nothing, you’ll be distracted by everything.
- Stop looking left and right at what everyone else is doing. Why does it matter? You’re not battling against the competition, you’re fighting against irrelevance.
- Sacrifice is the cost of commitment. The beauty? We get to choose what we sacrifice.
One thing at a time, all in due time
- Don’t try to tackle it all at once.
- If this is your life’s work, why do you want to rush past it?
- You can be impatient with action and patient with the results.
Nothing will ever be completely perfect
- The grass looks greener on the other side because it’s full of shit.
- There’s a wisdom in accepting the imperfection of where you’re at.
- I’m not yet where I want to be, but I sure have come a long way from where I once was.
The greatest form of success is spending your time the way you want
- Evaluate the lifestyle required to achieve the goals you want to achieve
- Evaluate the lifestyle required to make this opportunity a success
Remember what you set out to achieve
- How can you distinguish between an opportunity and a distraction if you don’t know what you’re aiming toward?
- I’m here to cross the swamp, not fight all the alligators.
The goal is to win, not look like you’re winning
- If success looks good to the world but feels bad to yourself, is it really success?
- If you don’t spend enough time getting know yourself, you’ll end up absorbing everyone else’s definition of you.
Do hard, good things
- The amount of confidence you gain when you say you’re going to do something and then you do it is insane.
- Knowing you can outthink, outwork, outlift, outrun, and outearn everyone in the room is a special type of feeling.
Small egos rarely achieve big things
- Ego is not about thinking you’re better than anyone else, it’s about believing that you’re more capable than you initially thought.
- The ceiling of your potential is determined by the size of uncertainty you're willing to tolerate. Your tolerance for uncertainty is largely determined by your ego.
- People who believe they deserve success, tend to get success. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your standards.
- Never settle, never settle, never settle.
Winners win. Nuff said.

Until next week,

Jay “We Need to Be Reminded More Than We Need to Be Taught” Yang

Author of You Can Just Do Things

Ps. Pre-orders for my 2nd book will be available this Wednesday (July 22nd)!! I’m so excited. Let the games begin 😁

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