Stop optimizing your life.
Become excellent at something. Then, teach it to at least two kids. You can learn the whole world through becoming great at one thing.
There is nowhere you are freer than in your own thoughts. Do not censor yourself in the privacy of your own mind. Allow yourself to think the unthinkable—neither shy away nor dwell too long.
If something makes no sense, think about it harder until it does.
When you are asked something, think until your second thought arrives, then speak.
The process of learning who you are is unsettling and unpleasant. Do it anyway. Know yourself. Nobody else will want to until you do.
Cultivate patience. Work on rhetoric—every language is beautiful.
Slow down. Quality is always better than quantity.
Predict negatively. That way, you will either be right (pleasant) or surprised by a better outcome (also pleasant). Either way, make an effort to appreciate the present.
Any interaction that begins by raising your blood pressure and ends with opening your wallet is manipulation. Do not be confused by a trusted source.
Daniel K Lyons
[email protected]
Socorro, NM, USA