Writing

"Finding your way in life is like unlocking the combination of a safe. You have to go forwards and backwards. Life is not a direct march from A to B. The twists and turns are progress, not regression. What feels like a setback in the moment is later revealed to have been part of the path all along. Each move was necessary to get to your end goal."

Haruki Murakami on how our challenges shape us:

"And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about."

Sourc... See more

"Creativity is the focused combination of unlikely things. Your mind locks onto a certain element and then searches widely for something unexpected that fits with it. What can scuba diving teach you about agriculture? What can trees teach you about public speaking? There is always some connective tissue between disciplines. If you wish to be more... See more

By contrast, “deep freewriting” describes a practice in which you set a timer, then commit to writing without stopping or deleting until it goes off, while staying mentally present with the process. Importantly, that needn’t mean writing fast, and could even mean writing very slowly – just as it’s possible to run very slowly yet still be running,... See more

"In many cases, what you hope to learn by reading books or listening to podcasts can only be learned by attempting what you fear. Some knowledge is only revealed through action."

The biggest regret millionaires hold?

Sacrificing their non-negotiables for success.

Humans are 6x more loss-averse than reward-driven.

Don't only think about your goals.

Also, create "anti-goals" for what you don't want.

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something—a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things—that you’d thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it’s as if a hand has come out and taken yours.”

I’ve found this a remarkably useful practice in the early stages of drafting, because it reverses the usual order of things. Instead of holding back from writing until you know what you want to say – which leads to a vicious circle of stopping, deleting, and rewriting everything a hundred times – the commitment to keeping moving means you just... See more