Life Lesson

There’s more than the loss of quality or care or widgets that others have to now deal with because of your short cut.

There’s also the time and energy spent searching for the short cut: Precious resources that could have been put toward making the work better instead of looking for a short cut.

Not to mention, a short cut is short. You may, from time to time, find one that helps – but it only ever helps in the short term (it’s in the name for a reason).

Stay Positive & Don’t Bother Looking, There’s No Long Cuts Out There

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Putting junk food in a space you don’t see it will reduce the amount of junk food you eat.

Removing a contact from your phone will limit the chance of you reaching out to them.

Turning off your computer’s notifications will eliminate you getting distracted as much.

If there are things weighing you down, it’s worth figuring out how to remove them or at least hide them from view.

Of course, this works the other way around, too.

Putting a mantra on your bathroom mirror makes it more likely you’ll have a positive attitude throughout the day.

Having a booklet open with a pen right there makes it more likely you’ll actually write.

And so on.

Stay Positive & Notice What’s There? What Doesn’t Need To Be?

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A thoughtfully written email can make a difference.

So can handwritten letters. And eleven minute and ten second songs (thanks, Metallica).

And a carefully built custom motorcycle.

The sad part is that these meaningful creations take time and taking time doesn’t scale – There’s not enough time to do all those things for too many people.

But the happy part is that if you’re happy keeping it small, then keep it small.

Not everything that matters has to scale for the masses.

Stay Positive & Go Ahead, Take Your Time

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What if – now hear me out – we made a list of all the things we want to do, but don’t often do.

Things like read or write or create or experiment or start.

And what if we made a list of all the things we do currently.

Things like watch TV or look in the fridge for food every hour or surf Imgur.

And what if we connected the two so that every time we went to watch TV, we actually chose to write more of our novel? Or when we look in the fridge for food, we read 15 pages of a book instead?

Habits don’t change with a flip of the switch. It’s far easier to integrate a new habit into our life by swapping it out with a habit that doesn’t help us as much as we’d like it to.

That way we’re not trying to create more space or more work for ourselves; we’re investing as much as we were before, but in a new direction.

Stay Positive & It Starts With Your Lists

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Note takers are by far more productive and retain information better.

Those who write down three things they are grateful for each day are more positive throughout it.

You’re more likely to become an expert in a field when you write regular reviews about the product or service you’re interested in.

One will always love more strongly when cards are written and sent to the significant other.

The best hobbiest of any hobby is one that writes everything down about the hobby.

Those who grocery shop are more likely to end up home with everything they needed if they had written it down in the first place (quite ironically, even if they forgot the list at a home).

Writing it down does magic.

Stay Positive & Time To Be A Magician If You’re Not Already

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You won’t always hear feedback from a customer that the product mix you put together was just what they were looking for.

You won’t always hear from colleagues how grateful they are to have you on their team.

You won’t always hear compliments, reassurance, words of support and encouragement. (And you definitely won’t always hear it when you need it most.)

But that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Nor does it mean you can’t double down and reassure yourself.

Confirm the work you’re doing is target-centric. Collaborate in a way that – if you were others – you would miss you if you were gone. Tell yourself that you’ve got the power to push through and that you’re a rock star.

Suppose you can always hear it if you choose to.

Stay Positive & Ears Open

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Good or bad timing; there’s really no such thing.

The kind of timing isn’t something that just is or isn’t.

The type of timing is something we assign, attribute, and pin.

There’s no universal checklist for what qualifies as bad timing, nor good timing.

No example list.

Because the type of timing is a choice.

If you want to see something as bad timing, you can.

Same for good timing.

Stay Positive & It’s Always A Choice; The Story We Choose To Tell Ourselves

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