Philosophy

None of this is advice. It is what I have found works for me, mostly the long way around, and I will probably think some of it is wrong in a few years. That does not bother me. If a line or two is useful to you, take it and leave the rest.

• The setup matters more than the effort. For a long time I thought I just needed to try harder. I did not. Instead of fighting a craving head on, I make it hard to reach, and I arrange the rest so the good thing is the easy thing. The setup holds on the days I do not.

• Be present, it is the whole thing. I try to be where I am. I ask three questions: do I like what I am doing right now, will I regret it later, is this what I actually want. If the answer is no, I change it then, not someday.

• What I do is who I am, not what I think. Thoughts come and go like notifications I do not have to open. What I act on is the part that counts. When I act without overthinking, I rarely regret it. When I perform for some audience in my head, I always do.

• Good enough at many things beats the best at one. I do not pour everything into a single thing anymore. The parts of a life compound into each other: sleep into work, health into mood, money into calm. Going all in on one and letting the rest drown is a mistake I have already paid for.

• Train for life, not for a photo. I keep my body able so it never says no to something I want to do. The look is a byproduct. I am building for the next twenty years, not the next twelve weeks.

• Money buys time, not status. What I want from money is the freedom to choose my days, not things to show people. I try not to pick up new wants. Not wanting something is close enough to having it, and a lot cheaper.

• A light mind is worth more than a full one. When something stops earning its place I let it go, even if I am good at it. I would rather drop a thing and stop thinking about it than carry it half done in the back of my head.

• Read. A few good books a year change how I think more than anything else. They slow my days down and hand me back some clarity. When I stop, I feel it, the way the body feels a month off.

• Do the real thing. I would rather drive a slow real lap than a perfect virtual one, and make something rather than watch someone make it. The real version is harder, and it is the only one that stays with me.

• The people close to you are the real currency. Almost everything I am proud of building matters less than a short list of people I trust. I am still learning this, and still bad at the part where you actually reach out.

• Trust slow. The good things showed up as byproducts of doing the work, never as the thing I chased. So I do the work and let the results find me. That is hard, and mostly right.

I will update this as I get less wrong.