101 Rules to Live By – Random Things I Think About to Try to Always Move Forward!

I scribble a lot of notes to myself. Every once in a while I collect them and dump them into a post.

Some have made their way into my Daily Inspiration, and I’m pretty certain that many on this list will have already made it into one, or will one day soon.

1. If you aren’t scared of your competition, you should be.
2. If you don’t know what comes next, learn more
3. If a committee is killing your creativity, kill the committee
4. If you seek the status quo, stop
5. Everyone has a different breaking point – make yours stronger
6. If no one can remember the last time you did anything cool, you’ve got a bigger problem than you think
7. If your success is based on what you did yesterday rather than what you will do tomorrow, redefine your idea of success
8. Insanity is when you want something different but you are averse to undertaking the change
9. It’s the unknown and unforeseen that will get you every time
10. If you aren’t thinking fast enough, speed will get you
11. It’s not what you know, it’s what you don’t know that matters
12. Right now, it’s pretty certain that someone out there is messing up your business model – and you aren’t even aware of them.
13. Clinging to your past is probably the worst thing you can do right now
14. Stop trying old solutions to new problems
15. Just because it’s not happening right now doesn’t mean that it never will
16. Don’t presume your business model will survive the next 5 years
17. Find the thing that scares you the most. Conquer it
18. Don’t feel bad about the mistakes you’ve made – view some of them as a pathway to success
19. Stop saying it can’t be done – just do it already!
20. Recognize that mistakes are a natural part of the process of success
21. Master the skill of mistake-based learning.
22. Stop focusing on regret for what you haven’t done and look forward with enthusiasm to what you could still do
23. Don’t presume every dumb idea is a stupid idea – some of them are probably brilliant
24. Stop making excuses, make actions
25. Kill your aggressive indecision
26. Create a culture in which it is okay to make mistakes, and unacceptable not to learn from them.
27. Don’t hide from problems – learn from them
28. Seek out interesting things – waste time with them
29. Don’t allow yourself to go from feast to famine with knowledge
30. Never think you’ve got too much information – drown yourself in ideas
31. Use aggressive fear of change as a basic personal motivation
32. Don’t take on too many activities, take on too many ideas
33. Turn your lack of courage into enthusiasm
34. Never say “we tried that, it didn’t work”
35. Avoid fad-ism
36. Stop trying to find the right way – just find a way
37. Don’t let uncertainty cloud your vision
38. Don’t be first. Be better.
39. Stop seeking an easy way out. There isn’t one.
40. Put in the work.
41. Spend every day tuning your roadmap for how you plan to live your life.
42. Don’t always presume you are right – avoid being obstinate
43. Consider that ignorance is a call for action,
44. Don’t be selfish – be magnanimous
45. Stop being surprised at surprises
46. Try new things – regularly
47. Avoid angry people
48. Quit quitting
49. Make the best of the worst moments
50. Enhance your gratitude every moment you can
51. Regularly nurture your optimism – its fertilizer for your soul
52. Take more time to enjoy what you enjoy
53. Work hard to avoid the trap of boredom
54. Cultivate your compassion
55. Remind yourself you don’t need to love every waking moment – it’s ok to get down
56. Lighten your mood – avoid the heavy
57. Don’t regret the things you haven’t done – anticipate what you have yet to do
58. Move on from bad things faster
59. Keep in mind that committees are where great ideas go to die
60. Act faster to achieve more
61. Remind yourself it could be worse
62. Remember it’s ok to feel down sometimes – but work hard to chase the ‘up’
63. Resist the energy that lies within your anger
64. Don’t punish people for your mistakes
65. Be patient with difficult people
66. Pause 10 seconds before you send an angry tweet
67. Never argue with false facts
68. Remember that any particular day can suddenly turn out to be incredibly complicated and hard
69. Don’t try to fight the future – because the future always wins
70. Accept that change happens
71. Keep in mind that stupid is not a strategy
72. Regularly interrupt your complacency
73. Act on your dreams
74. Pursue bigger goals
75. Ignore those who tell you your idea won’t succeed
76. Avoid those who will try to destroy your optimism
77. Remember that your imagination is your most powerful asset
78. Find what you love, and build your life around it
79. Remember that innovation is for everyone, not the mission of a privileged few
80. Indulge your creativity
81. Waste more time learning things completely unrelated to who you are
82. Play more
83. Fret less
84. Avoid the dangerous drug of denial
85. Admit when you are wrong
86. Motivate others with your enthusiasm
87. Remember there is always a chance for a hole in one
88. Don’t let angry people bring you down
89. Give back
90. Share your gratitude
91. Be open – solicit feedback
92. Master the art of learning, not hiding, from constructive criticism
93. Never presume that something is finished
94. Restart that thing that you abandoned
95. Channel frustration into more focused action
96. Find more heroes
97. Build your ideas, don’t just think about them
98. Do better
99. Do more
100. Do it often
101. Do it now