Never base your self-worth as a human being on the results of your achievements, as outcomes are often uncontrollable and the satisfaction derived from them is temporary. Instead, focus on loving the process of what you do and connecting it to a higher purpose.
Recognize that your emotional, physical, and mental states are happening ‘by you,’ making you the creator of your own experience rather than a victim of external circumstances. This empowers you to take 100% responsibility for your well-being and responses.
Regularly reflect on what you would drop or regret not doing if you only had a limited time (e.g., five years) to live. This mental exercise helps clarify your purpose and encourages you to prioritize activities that bring joy and align with your core values daily.
Ensure your aspirations (your reason for existence), ambitions (your achievements), and day-to-day activities are in harmony. The degree to which these three elements are aligned significantly contributes to having a great and fulfilling life.
Understand the deep-seated, universal drivers that compel human behavior, such as improving social status, mating success, or health, by asking what people would give half their net worth for. This insight allows you to effectively ‘press the motivation button’ in people, whether in business or personal interactions.
Actively look for truths that are not immediately apparent but become clear and logical once revealed, as these are the smallest units of actionable truth. Operating in the currency of such insights is a hallmark of successful individuals and businesses.
Start each day by briefly imagining that everything you value in life is gone. This ancient Stoic technique resets your reference points, combats hedonic adaptation, and fosters a deeper appreciation for the good things you currently possess.
Deliberately introduce 20-30 small acts of suppressing impulsive behaviors throughout your day, such as delaying picking up your phone. This reinforces generic neural circuits for impulse control, which translates to better self-discipline in various aspects of life.
Generally, making a decision faster is better, especially in rapidly evolving environments. When faced with a major decision, determine what your choice would be if you had to decide immediately, then identify only the critical information or conversations that might genuinely alter that decision before proceeding.
Engage in practices that mimic perceived adversity, such as skipping meals, eating less protein, or experiencing hot and cold temperatures. These actions activate sirtuin genes, which are epigenetic regulators that slow down the aging clock and improve the body’s defense against damage.
Dedicate time to write down three to five things you are grateful for, as this simple act can significantly improve your well-being in as little as two weeks. Regularly counting your blessings enhances positive emotions and life satisfaction.
Focus on your own happiness and well-being first, as children naturally catch their parents’ emotions through emotional contagion. By embodying calmness, gratitude, and a better emotional state, you implicitly transmit these positive traits and strategies to your kids.
Ensure that all relevant parties, including employees, suppliers, customers, and investors, are represented and have their voices heard in leadership and decision-making processes. This comprehensive inclusion leads to more robust strategies, plans, and objective accomplishment.
Establish a clear, meaningful, and purposeful vision for your organization, supported by a comprehensive strategy and a relentless implementation plan. This approach ensures all participants are aligned and dedicated to achieving shared objectives.
Test the clarity of your ideas by trying to explain them without jargon, as if you were telling a friend over dinner. If an idea cannot be distilled into a simple, transmissible message, it will struggle to spread and incur high customer acquisition costs.
Actively work to reduce stress and anxiety in your life, as these states can almost guarantee a bad night of sleep. Addressing mental well-being is crucial for improving sleep quality and overall health.
Create and consistently follow a pre-bedtime routine, similar to what children have, to help your mind and body transition from wakefulness to sleep. This could include a bath, meditation, light stretching, or listening to a sleep story.
Incorporate fasting periods of at least 14 hours into your routine to gain health benefits such as better metabolic stability, lower blood sugar levels, and improved cholesterol. A common approach is the 16:8 method, skipping one meal a day.
When faced with distractions or past mistakes, let go of what you cannot control and concentrate solely on the present task or ’the shot in front of you.’ This approach helps maintain focus and prevents rumination from hindering performance.
Release the burden of wishing others were different or blaming them for your unhappiness. Forgiving others for being themselves and yourself for wishing they were otherwise prevents self-inflicted misery and allows you to move forward.
Recognize and disengage from the roles of Victim (disempowered), Villain (blaming), and Hero (seeking temporary relief) in your relationships and problem-solving. These roles perpetuate reactive patterns and prevent addressing core issues.
Cultivate self-approval and security from within yourself rather than seeking it externally. Relying on external validation leads to suffering and a constant need to control others’ perceptions of you.
Start your day by immediately engaging in action, such as making your bed, without rumination or overthinking. This sets your nervous system into an action-oriented ‘go’ mode, building momentum for the rest of your day.
Design plans that are straightforward and easy to understand, as simplicity allows for widespread adoption without distortion throughout an organization. Err on the side of being overly simple for better scalability and application.
Strive to learn new concepts in a way that allows you to clearly explain them to others as a tool or principle. This deepens your understanding and enhances your ability to apply and share knowledge effectively.
When developing or pitching a product, look beyond its functional utility to understand the deeper emotional motivations that drive people to use or buy it. Successful founders know both the functional and emotional benefits of their offerings.
Resist the urge to build a product with too many features from the outset when consumers are only looking for a core solution. Instead, focus on a clear ‘foot in the door’ strategy by offering a simple, essential product first, then expanding its capabilities.
Realistically assess whether your target users (e.g., parents, CFOs, kids) would genuinely pay for your product or service. Many ideas fail because founders overestimate the perceived value and willingness to pay.
Distill complex wisdom or ideas into their fundamental, indivisible components (first principles). This creates powerful building blocks for understanding and innovation, especially in business.
Refrain from consuming caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine, especially before bed, as these substances are stimulants and clear disruptors that will guarantee a bad night of sleep.
Determine your natural morningness or eveningness (chronotype) using a questionnaire like MEQ, and try to align your bedtime with your body’s innate urge to sleep. Mismatching your bedtime with your chronotype can lead to difficulty falling asleep.
If you experience a bad night of sleep, avoid compensatory behaviors like sleeping in later, going to bed earlier, napping during the day, or increasing caffeine intake. Sticking to your regular schedule prevents further disruption of your sleep cycle.
Instead of counting sheep, which can prolong sleep onset, take yourself on a mental journey by visualizing a familiar walk, hike, or activity. This technique distracts your mind from ruminating thoughts and helps you fall asleep faster.
Eliminate visible clock faces from your bedroom to prevent anxiety and rumination if you wake up during the night. Knowing the time does not help you sleep; it only makes matters worse.
Incorporate healthy foods typical of a Mediterranean diet, such as olive oil and red wine, into your eating habits. These foods contain chemicals that activate sirtuins, improving health and potentially slowing the aging process.
Prioritize when you eat over what you eat by consuming all your daily food within a short, consistent window (e.g., one hour). Animal studies show this can dramatically extend lifespan and improve health, even if total calories remain similar.
Develop a deep appreciation for the everyday, simple aspects of life. This perspective shift, often gained after challenging experiences, enhances overall happiness and contentment.
Learn to categorize life’s challenges into ‘big deals’ (major, impactful events) and ’little deals’ (minor inconveniences). This reframing helps reduce anxiety over small issues by putting them into a broader perspective.
Consciously grant yourself permission to fully engage in work when desired and to disengage when personal time is needed, especially in flexible work environments. This fosters a healthier balance and prevents burnout.
End your day with a brief reflection by asking yourself: ‘What am I blocking? What am I advancing? How did I make people feel?’ Answering these questions provides clarity and allows you to transition intentionally into personal time.
Actively seek opportunities to enhance your social connections, as empirical psychology shows a direct link between strong social bonds and increased happiness.
Regularly engage in acts of kindness for others, as contributing positively to others’ lives is a proven way to boost your own happiness.
Prioritize and actively work on improving your health habits, such as getting better sleep and more exercise. These foundational practices significantly contribute to overall well-being and happiness.
Write a detailed thank-you note to someone you’ve always wanted to thank but haven’t. This act can significantly improve your well-being immediately and for over a month.
Consciously shift your perspective to appreciate your current situation, especially during challenging times. Remind yourself that many others would gladly trade their problems for yours, leading to a broader and more positive outlook.
Introduce evidence-based happiness strategies and skills to children at a young age. This proactive approach helps them build a foundation for long-term well-being.
Refrain from ’lawnmower’ or ‘steamroller’ parenting, where you preemptively remove all obstacles for your children. Allowing kids to fail and solve problems themselves is crucial for developing competence, resilience, and reducing anxiety.
Be mindful of your own emotional state, as children are highly susceptible to emotional contagion. By embodying calm and confidence, you help your children feel more secure and less anxious about challenges.
Prioritize appreciating, thanking, and including all individuals involved in a project or organization. Recognizing their talent and humanity fosters a culture of ’love by design’ and motivates participation.
Ensure that your organization operates with clear performance goals and a single, unified plan. This eliminates confusion and ensures everyone is working towards the same objectives, unlike companies with multiple, conflicting plans.
Base conclusions and decisions on concrete facts and data, not just opinions. This approach enables collective problem-solving and helps the team effectively address issues and turn ‘reds to yellows to greens.’
Regularly communicate the true status of the situation, including both opportunities and issues, with all stakeholders. This transparency builds respect and allows everyone to understand areas needing special attention.
Recognize that creative and innovative processes will inevitably encounter issues, and trust the established process for working together to resolve them. This mindset helps teams navigate challenges without getting discouraged.
Actively foster an environment where participants can enjoy the journey and each other while working towards shared goals. This promotes a positive and engaging culture.
Establish and enforce zero tolerance for violations of the agreed-upon operating processes and expected behaviors. This ensures commitment, seriousness, and accountability across the team.
Instead of repeatedly seeking temporary relief for problems, take the time to identify and address the underlying core issues. This prevents recycling patterns of reactivity and leads to lasting solutions.
When faced with a situation, consciously pause to become more aware of what is happening rather than reacting compulsively. This allows for reasoned responses and avoids perpetuating drama.
Challenge your ego’s need to always be right, as this often serves as a defense mechanism to protect underlying vulnerability and fear. Embracing ‘I don’t know’ opens the door to growth and connection.
When you have a set plan, such as a gym routine, resist the impulse to spontaneously change it. Enforcing regimented adherence to your plan strengthens self-discipline and prevents defaulting to less effective actions.
Schedule and commit to 90-minute periods of focused work, resisting the temptation to get up or switch contexts even when attention drifts. This trains tunnel vision and improves concentration.
Periodically undertake a low-cost, uncomfortable challenge, such as sitting in an awkward position for an hour, to deliberately build up your ’no-go’ circuits. This enhances mental toughness and the ability to suppress unwanted actions.
Make it a ritual to consider what your decision would be if you had to make it immediately, without further information. This trains you to overcome the discomfort of quick decisions and identify truly essential data.
Before making a decision, assess whether it is a ‘one-way door’ (irreversible and catastrophic) or a ’two-way door’ (recoverable). This helps determine the appropriate level of certainty and evidence required.
Where possible, approach decisions with an experimental mindset, testing aspects of the decision or trying it out on a smaller scale. This reduces risk and provides valuable learning before full commitment.
Be aware of common cognitive biases like sunk cost bias and blind spots, and actively work to mitigate their influence on your decision-making. This improves the quality and objectivity of your choices.
When evaluating someone’s understanding of an idea, ask them to explain it in a different language or at a different level of detail. Those who truly grasp the concept can adapt their explanation effortlessly.
When developing a product or business, envision from the beginning how it could grow into a very large entity. This forward-thinking approach helps avoid getting stuck in a limited scope.
A specific intermittent fasting protocol involves fasting for 16 hours and eating within an 8-hour window, often by skipping one meal like breakfast or a late dinner. This is a popular and effective way to achieve fasting benefits.
Explore longer fasts of 3-7 days a few times a year to trigger autophagy, a beneficial cellular recycling process. However, ensure adequate nutrition and consult professionals, as this is an extreme measure.
If you’re struggling with sleep, avoid spending excessive time in bed while awake, as this can paradoxically worsen sleep. Your brain may begin to associate the bed with wakefulness rather than rest.