It’s easy to spend all of your time focusing on the next thing: 

The next job. 

The next project. 

The next vacation. 

And while you’re waiting for the next thing, you might also be tempted to withhold any sense of relief until then with once-then logic: 

...

Psychobiology researcher Samuele Marcora defines endurance as “the struggle to continue against a mounting desire to stop”.

Most things worth doing are going to test your endurance, which is to say that there are going to be days where you will want to stop. 

Maybe you have specific reasons, maybe...

Having good taste is about being able to tell the difference between good and bad work.

Being able to tell if a song will be a hit or not is good taste. 

Being able to tell if a book is a Pulitzer candidate or not is good taste. 

Starting...

If you’re new to running and try to run a marathon, it’s unlikely that you will have the stamina and strength to complete it. 

Better to make sure you can run a mile (or less) first. 

If you’re trying to develop new software, it’s unlikely that integrating a...

It’s easy to think of effort in terms of its immediate implications: 

Oh that’s going to take me a day. 

I can do that in 5 minutes. 

That’ll take months. 

But that’s not’s really the best way to gauge effort. 

Consider this example: 

If...

Not every day is going to be a home run. 

Not every project is going to proceed effortlessly. 

Not every encounter with your family, friends, and colleagues will be delightful. 

When bad days happen, when challenges arise, when contentious interactions occur, it’s easy to default to being frustrated...

Sometimes things go well; sometimes they don’t (welcome to being human). 

Some days you will make great progress on your projects; other days you will run into one frustrating roadblock after another. 

Some days you will be bursting with joy & energy; other days you will feel exhausted. 

...

Very few things, short of a building literally being on fire, require your immediate attention.

Despite this, it can be easy to fall into the trap of false urgency — seeing every e-mail, every meeting, every item on your task list as a matter of life and death. 

When you...

Try new things.

Visit a city you’ve never been to.

Take a different route to work. 

Learn a new language. 

Switch careers.

Not because you necessarily have to. We rarely have to try new things. 

But because you can. 

Because you’re curious.

Because you’re capable of changing...

Murphy’s law is a popular adage that states that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

It’s important to minimize risk, but even the lowest-risk options are susceptible to failure. 

When things go according to plan, celebrate. 

When things don’t go according to plan, learn. 

Don’t fall...