3-2-1: On creating meaning, the remarkable odds of your existence, and life instructions

The poet and Pulitzer Prize winner Mary Oliver with some suggestions for your one precious life:

“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

The author and generally hilarious human, Bill Bryson, on the remarkable odds of your existence:

“Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life's quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment i... See more

“You can create a lot of meaning in your own life by helping someone else do something that is meaningful to them.”

“If you...

1) develop a bias for moving fast

2) consistently ask, “What’s the real goal here and is there a better way to accomplish it?”

... you can accomplish a lot in one life.”

“Aim to be great in 10 years.

Build health habits today that lead to a great body in 10 years.

Build social habits today that lead to great relationships in 10 years.

Build learning habits today that lead to great knowledge in 10 years.

Long-term thinking is a secret weapon.”