To manage negative emotions like doubt, fear, frustration, or loneliness, redirect your attention either to the task at hand or to others, as focusing on yourself can be counterproductive.
Prioritize connecting with others in all situations, as this is a fundamental lesson for personal and professional success and a way to find yourself.
Make an effort to create fun and delight for others in any situation, as this fosters positive interactions and can transform serious encounters into engaging games.
Approach each moment and every encounter with the expectation of magic or miracles, fostering a positive and open mindset for unfolding possibilities.
Do not try to escape the pain of human existence; instead, embrace and accept it, as there is freedom to be found in this acceptance.
Avoid actively searching for happiness, love, or success, as these are byproducts that often catch you by surprise when you are fully engaged in your life.
The secret to happiness is to be fully engaged in your life, as happiness is a byproduct that arises from deep involvement rather than direct pursuit.
Instead of focusing on yourself to ‘find yourself,’ direct your attention and service towards others, as true self-discovery occurs in the midst of relationships and contribution.
Counter the prevalent negative global conversation by creating and offering positive visions for the world, for yourself, or for specific groups, and then enrolling others in that vision.
For parents, model what it means to struggle with something and persist without giving up, as children need to see this behavior to learn resilience and the value of hard work.
Understand that learning is inherently hard; expecting difficulty prevents you from thinking the problem is with you when you encounter challenges, instead attributing it to the material.
If you are not getting the results you want, change what you are doing rather than simply doing more of the same, adopting a detached and experimental approach.
When unsure how to change what you’re doing, try taking a step in the opposite direction to see if it yields different, more effective results.
Improve your thinking by relentlessly asking questions, allowing each answer to suggest further questions, fostering a continuous chain of inquiry.
Cultivate the ability to listen to your unconscious mind, as great insights and truths often come spontaneously and unbidden, surprising you with their revelation.
Actively look for anomalies and things that surprise you, as these indicate that your current model of the world is incorrect and present valuable learning opportunities.
When someone dismisses a situation by saying ‘it doesn’t make any sense’ (e.g., a price keeps going lower despite logical reasons), it indicates their model is flawed, signaling a potential opportunity to act on the counter-intuitive trend.
Before engaging in investing, clearly define and understand your unique edge, as the market is a gladiatorial pit where professionals are constantly seeking to profit from those without a clear advantage.
Create a repeatable and articulable investing process that can be formalized and objectively tested, allowing for continuous improvement and adaptation.
For successful investing, anticipate the anticipation of other market participants by observing how different groups of investors express their views of the future and determining which group is probabilistically correct.
When stock traders and bond traders disagree on the economy’s direction, follow the bond traders, as they are typically right and early 99 out of 100 times.
For insights into the direction of interest rates, observe metal traders’ actions (e.g., copper divided by gold), as their simple, tangible, and long-term view has been consistently accurate for decades.
On difficult test questions, ask yourself what ‘Joe Bloggs’ (the average test-taker) would do, and then choose the opposite answer, as hard questions are designed to lead to plausible but incorrect choices.
In any situation, shift your focus from ‘what do I need to do’ to ‘who do I need to be,’ emphasizing identity and presence over mere action.
Approach job interviews by asking, ‘How can I create fun and delight for this person right now?’ to transform the interaction into an engaging game, increasing your chances of being hired.
Practice a biological rhythm of attention: when alone, ‘inhale’ by focusing on your world of ideas; when in the world, ’exhale’ by focusing solely on others.
In competitive contests or tests designed to make you fail, aim to fail at the highest possible level, as this mindset encourages pushing boundaries and achieving peak performance.