Letters To My Son

“The stonecutter pounds the rock again and again and again and again. Nothing happens for the first 100 blows. Then the stone cracks. Was it the 101st strike or all the preceding? Work hard. Pound the rock.” - Carol Dweck

“Consider what the trainers of boys do. Has a boy fallen? ‘Rise’, they say, and wrestle again until you become strong.’ You should also do something like this. For you can be confident that nothing is more trainable than the human soul.” - Epictetus

“Imagine what would happen if, every morning before driving to work you took a scoop of gravel and threw it into the cars crankcase. What would happen? That fine engine would soon be a mess, unable to do what you want it to do. Same with our brains.

“Gratitude has one of the strongest links to mental health and satisfaction with life of any personal trait - more so than even optimism, hope, or compassion. Grateful people experience higher levels of positive emotions such as joy, enthusiasm, love, happiness, and optimism, and gratitude as a discipline protects us from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, greed, and bitterness.”

“As Edison tells us, genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. We are seduced into believing the myth of genius being a flash of insight with the outcome easily falling into the hands of its creator. But that’s not how it works.”

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. - Calvin Coolidge

“Your purpose is fuel for your internal engine. It’s what gives you direction and keeps you moving forward. The more purpose you inject into your life, the brighter your internal spark will burn, the longer you will live, and the more productive you will be while you’re alive.”

“We can either try to tape it up and glue it back together and remain forever fragile in the process or we can recognize that we can never go back to where it was but we can choose to use those beautiful pieces to make something new.”

Anti-depressants aren’t getting to the source of the problem and putting out the fire. They are, in a sense, poorly constructed Band-Aids over cuts that won’t heal.

“If you can’t conceive of things that don’t exist, you can’t create anything new. If you can’t dream up worlds that might be, then you are limited to the worlds other people describe.” - Robert S. Root-Bernstein and Michele M. Root-Bernstein, Sparks of Genius

We stand in wonder at the process taking place and give the plant the care it needs at each stage of its development. The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential.

“Successful people adhere to a ‘no exceptions rule’ when it comes to their daily disciplines. Once you make a 100% commitment to some thing, there are no exceptions. It’s a done deal. Non-negotiable. Case closed! Over and out.”

Don’t obsess about the outcomes; get passionate about the process. Quit obsessing about whether or not you’re going to get the outcome you want. That’s a great way to diminish your confidence. Get FIRED UP about what you’re going to DO in pursuit of your big dreams. That’s a great way to build your confidence.

There is something about the trust we develop in ourselves that comes from the repetition of the mundane that makes us anti-fragile. If you want to change your life and maybe the world start off by making your bed! Let’s get to work.

“Create your authentic voice by focusing on three key things: Articulating our identity of who we are. Creating a vision of where we’re headed. Mapping out our path of mastery on how we’ll get there.” - Todd Henry, Louder Than Words

We have an extremely finite amount of time to do everything we will ever do. Every wasted day is gone forever. Everyone you know will be dead someday and even the greatest among us will see their legacy fade to nothingness, and even if it were to remain for all time, what difference would it be to you? You’ll be dead.

“Every moment of our waking life we face choices whose cumulative effect on us is just as great, if not greater, than the effect of the big decisions.”

Who are you? What gives you great joy? What are you good at? Where do those intersect? And Act. Your vocation is the place where your great joy meets the worlds great need. What can you do now to start serving more and learning more about who you are and how you’ll best give your gifts to the world?

“Taking control of your body language is not just about posing in a powerful way. It’s also about the fact that we pose in a powerless way much more often than we think - and we need to change that. - Amy Cuddy, Presence

Your family, your friends, everyone you know and who know you, generations to come will read about you from this definitive record of your life. A record that cannot ever be edited, modified, changed, or corrected. Now it’s your turn.

What do you do every day is going to compound over time and lead to results. Be someone that sets small goals and gets impressive results instead of having really big goals and gets no results. Don’t be a dreamer. Be a goal crusher.

“If your game is 90% mental, what percentage of your time and money have you spent learning mental skills? The answer you’ll hear most often is 5 to 10%. Now that just doesn’t make sense. The thing that is most important is the thing that we tend to ignore.”

“We take action then we feel confident. Not the other way around. If we only do things when we feel confident, we’re not going to do a whole lot with our lives.” This episode especially dedicated to Dr. Russ Harris and his wonderful book, The Confidence Gap.

“Identify in your day where should your 86,400 seconds go so that you can make sure you’re playing offense?”

“You are arranging with lies and fortune’s control, and abandoning with lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”