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- 32 learnings from 32 years
32 learnings from 32 years
aka reminders for my future self
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Today’s read time: 3 min
This past weekend marked 32 laps around the sun for me so, naturally, I reflected on and established 32 important learnings from life. Really, they’re more like reminders for my future self.
Speaking of laps around the sun, #33 would be yes, you need 30+ of SPF.
I’m curious which one(s) strike a chord for you.
1. It almost always depends
2. Stop rushing toward the future
3. Not a single aspect of life is static
4. These, right now, are the good old days
5. We overrate what we can easily measure
6. Accepting external praise is a slippery slope
7. To pretend strangers are friends makes it so
8. "Once things calm down…" = a grand illusion
9. Doing nothing is as tricky as doing everything
10. We're allergic to feeling as if we're being sold to
11. Life's only certainty is that it's entirely uncertain
12. Every physical illness is also a psychological one
13. It's almost always ignorance, almost never malice
14. Most of our explanations are actually justifications
15. Advice all cancels out; ignore most, including this one
16. Addiction is considerably closer than you'd like to admit
17. Continue to see the beauty you've gotten used to seeing
18. Though impossible, try to see the world as another sees it
19. Nobody "makes" us feel anything; all conflict is self-conflict
20. Laughter is the glue of the human spirit; that and dogs playing
21. On the other side of being willing to look foolish is transformation
22. Our mind is the projector, not the movie; it's the stage, not the play
23. Gratitude is in the absence, too; of disasters not faced, for example
24. The greatest source of anxiety is trying to be anything other than me
25. What's more dismal than thinking about death is not thinking about it
26. Ask, "who funded this study?" and "what results were they hoping for?"
27. Nobody has a clue; those who are most sure are often the most clueless
28. Be aware of (misaligned) incentives; realize what constitutes a "good job"
29. Our deepest wounds are our deepest sources of compassion & connection
30. When it comes to work and business, people take themselves too seriously
31. Our thoughts in anticipation of a scary thing are scarier than the scary thing
32. Each generation is delusional about some things; time and knowledge will tell which ones
With deep appreciation,
Phil
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