Maxims I would like to live by
I like some cliches. Here’s a list of the ones I’ve heard that I like:
- Live now. Plan for the future, but be here now. Don’t defer life or happiness.
- Pursue your passion(s). Don’t worry about the consequences of doing so.
- Take the hardest, most-risky, and/or most-feared path. “Realistic” goals are often the ones with the most–and the fiercest–competition.
- The most important choices you make are: where you live, what you do, and who you do it with. Choose wisely, and don’t compromise.
- If you aren’t failing some of the time, you aren’t being ambitious enough.
- In particular: If you aren’t getting rejected some of the time, you aren’t asking enough.
- Be honest and open with yourself and others to the highest degree possible.
- Don’t accept a “decent” or a “pretty good” life when an “excellent” life is possible. Do not get stuck at a local maximum.
- Be aware of the ways you limit yourself and seek to eliminate them.
- In particular: Confidence and positive thinking beget positive action and success. Do not allow low confidence or negative thinking to limit you.
- Make a point of facing fears rather than running from them. In many cases we fear most what would benefit us most.
- Focus greater energy on developing strengths than on patching over weaknesses.
- Combine your talents in a unique or rare way. Your talents together form a skillset much rarer than any of them individually.
- Have strong opinions but hold them weakly. Allow your opinions to change quickly and readily when appropriate; do not be needlessly stubborn.