41 Pieces of Advice I gave myself last year
(5 Min Read) Things I learned last year
I recently turned 41 years old. The advice you are about to read is the advice I have practiced on myself in last year. Previous version on this was 39 pieces of advice I gave myself.
Be ambitious.
Dream big. Dreaming big takes practice.
If you have to get anything done, we need to focus on it. To make significant progress, focusing on a single goal means while saying "NO" to all the other goals is essential and this is where 99% people fail. (How to Focus)
Communication and listening can solve 99% of people's conflicts. Listening (not hearing) is the easy to master when we focus on the other person.
The 80/20 Pareto principle says focus on 20% that brings 80% of the value. The overlooked is to identify the right 20% to focus on. Focus on the wrong 20% and you are doomed. Pareto principle is an exercise in focussing.
Goal setting is the key.
Entrepreneurship is 95% ability to take risks and 5% preparation. Most people who want to start a company or a business will struggle with ability to risk.
Be on a constant lookout for mentors and coaches. Having them doesn't guarantee success, but it dramatically increases the chances of success. (Find a mentor and a coach)
Going back to school to learn new stuff is always a good idea.
The fastest way to make progress is to take regular breaks. Breaks help air out thoughts in your brain. Shorter time interval needs shorter breaks, and longer time needs longer breaks. Slow Productivity by Cal Newport is an excellent book on this topic.
Taking more actions requires making more decisions. Making decisions is problematic as the risk associated with wrong decisions is often parallelizing. We can reduce the risk of making the wrong decisions by buying insurance for those decisions. The easiest way to do it is to put to checks 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days after the decision is made. And when the 30, 60, and 90 days mark arrives, ask yourself, "Knowing what I know now, would I have made the same decision?". If the answer is no, revert the decision immediately as the cost of reverting it is lowest immediately after the decision and continues to increase the longer we wait to revert it.
Calendar is the most important, most under utilized and unappreciated productivity tool. Add all the tasks to the calendar and do them when they appear. See your productivity skyrocket. Note that it's best to plan the entire week at the beginning of the week i.e. Monday mornings for most people.
Consistency is the key.
Think big, act small, and act now.
For healthy living and lose weight: Increase Fiber & Protein, Lower Carb, Sugar &
Time must be explicitly managed like money.
You can always change your plan if you have one.
Not all goals in life are worth pursuing. As life evolves, our previously set goals must be revisited.
The easiest way to keep things organized is to put them in alphabetical order. Weather its tools, wardrobe, books, or apps on smart phone.
People perceives other people preparation as luck. Best way to get lucky is to prepare. Luck is when opportunity meets preparation. Opportunity is something that we don't control, but preparation is something that we do.
Life is all about encountering brick walls and finding a way to continuing the journey beyond the wall. We can go through it, scale it, dig under it, or continue moving to the sideways until the wall ends or you find a gate. But we must get on the other side.
Stop complaining but vent out the concerns. We can do that by writing.
Work harder as hard work has compounding effects.
Find things that have compounding effects like writing, reading, learning different things, public speaking, giving great presentations, and telling stories. They will double up in value every several years.
Reduce to doing things that are highly leveraged ie only you can do it and it's easy for you.
Think both with your mind and hands, such as when writing or building things.
We know that practice makes perfect. But actually, it's consistent practice makes perfect. If the number of days you are practicing a skill is less than the number of days you dont practice that skill, then you are doing it incorrectly.
Learn a musical instrument. Music touches parts of the brain and emotions that other skills dont.
Make fast decisions. Learn from them to make better decisions.
Stop caring what the world thinks about your idea, business, job, process, life, etc. The world will celebrate when you fail and/or succeed.
The only way to make progress is to make progress. So, do it.
The higher you go in corporate, the more you realize that no one knows what happening. Everyone is trying to figure out things based on new information they discover every day.
Having materialistic goals is perfectly fine if they motivate you. We don't need anyone's permission to materialistic and ambitious goals. In case you were waiting for permission, you have mine (from a random stranger on the Internet).
All of us have the capacity to do many things but doesn’t mean we should. Its better to focus on doing few things and do them well.
Do things that energize you, and stop doing things that de-energize you.
Every business is a people business. Build soft skills to work with people.
Building a consistent good night sleep habit takes only 1 week of sleeping with your phone/tablet outside the room.
Kids learn more from what you do than what you say.
How we say matters as much as what we say. Pay attention to the tone. Be humble, honest, clear, and consistent when communicating.
We can have multiple identities in life. We can be an employer, founder, athlete, musician, or whatever. It's Life is too short to have one identity.
Live like a king or a queen that you are. You deserve it. This doesn't mean spending all the money and treating others as peasants. I only mean that they have the mindset of a king or queen.