67 short pieces of advice you didnât ask for
1. Ignore 1-star and 5-star reviews of books, hotels and products. The 3-star reviews will answer all your questions.
2. When youâre a host, use that experience to learn how to be a better guest, and vice-versa.
3. If you want to be fit, become someone who doesnât skip or reschedule workouts. Skipping workouts is always the beginning of the end.
4. Learn keyboard shortcuts. If you donât know what CTRL + Z does, your life is definitely harder than it has to be.
5. Become a strangerâs secret ally, even for a few minutes. Your perception of strangers in general will change.
6. Get over the myth that philosophy is boring â it has a history of changing lives. Itâs only as boring as the person talking about it.
7. If youâre about to put down a boring a non-fiction book, skim the rest of it before you move on. Read the bits that still appeal to you.
8. Ask yourself if youâve become a relationship freeloader. Initiate the plans about half the time.
9. Notice how much you talk in your head, and experiment with listening to your surroundings instead. You canât do both at the same time.
10. Reach out to people you know are shy. Itâs hard for them to get involved in social things without somebody making a point of including them.
11. Learn the difference between something that makes you feel bad, and something thatâs wrong. A thing can feel bad and be right, and it can feel good and be wrong.
12. If you need to stop for any reason in a public place, move off to the side first.
13. Before you share an interesting âfactâ on Facebook, take thirty seconds to Google it first, to see if youâre spreading made-up bullshit.
14. Clean things up right away, unless your messes tend to improve with age.
15. Consciously plan your life, or others will do it for you.
16. Be suspicious when someone uses the words âJusticeâ and âDeserveâ a lot. Be suspicious when you use them yourself.
17. Get rid of stuff you donât use. Unused and unappreciated things make us feel bad.
18. Expect people to get offended sometimes when you try to tell them what to do. Even if you think itâs good advice :)
19. Once in a while, imagine what it would be like if you really did lose all your data and had only your current backups.
20. Spend as long as it takes â five or ten years even â to move towards a line of work that feels well-suited to you.
21. Rediscover board games. Theyâre still tons of fun.
22. Try making small, humble presents instead of buying big ones, and see how different it feels for both you and the recipient.
23. To eat fewer calories, eat a lot slower than normal and see what changes.
24. Watch experts perform their chosen art whenever you get a chance. Thereâs something really grounding about it.
25. Avoid arguing about politics, except for entertainment value. By the time itâs an argument, nobodyâs listening.
26. Ledger all your income, purchases and expenses, at least for a whole month. You canât help but discover wasteful spending. Itâs like giving yourself a raise.
27. When someone disagrees with you, try to understand what needs and fears are behind their stance. Yours probably arenât much different.
28. When driving, pretend the other drivers are all friends and relatives. It makes the driving experience friendlier, and often hilarious.
29. Donât act while youâre still angry. Anger makes the wrong things seem right, and remorse lasts way longer than anger.
30. Understand that whatâs dangerous and whatâs illegal are always going to be different, and need to be. It doesnât always make sense to criminalize something just because it can be harmful.
31. Donât be late. Everyone hates waiting for late people.
32. Read Richard Carlsonâs classic Donât Sweat the Small Stuff. Â Or read it again if itâs been a while. Fifteen years after I first read it, I canât think of a more helpful book.
33. Be aware of the complex, systemic nature of the worldâs biggest problems, and our habit of framing them as simple ones with clear villains and victims.
34. When youâre with a loved one, pretend momentarily that theyâre actually gone from your life, and that youâre just remembering this ordinary moment with them.
35. Make of point of sitting and chatting with at least one local whenever you travel. It will transform your view of the place. [Itâs easy to meet a local resident for coffee using couchsurfing.org]
36. Experiment with meditation. It gives you tools to mitigate nearly every thing human beings complain about â fear, boredom, loss, envy, pain, sadness, confusion, and doubt â yet remains unpopular in the West.
37. Give classical music another shot every few years.
38. Read a bit about some of the âismsâ you normally dismiss â socialism, capitalism, conservatism, feminism, anarchism. There are probably more good ideas there than you thought.
39. Be wary of declaring yourself a â_____istâ though. Making an identity out of your beliefs is bound to make you less objective.
40. Picture yourself at your own funeral. Imagine what they are thinking.
41. Donate clothes that you donât feel good wearing.
42. Practice opening up to minor discomfort when it happens â really letting yourself feel it instead of resisting it. Everything becomes easier to handle.
43. Listen to Dolly Partonâs âJoleneâ slowed down to 33 rpm, at least once in your life.
44. Donât make jokes about peopleâs names or bodies, even if you think they would laugh.
45. Make a point of enjoying the walk across the parking lot.
46. Understand the concept of âprivilege,â but donât use it as a slur. Use your privilege for good.
47. Donât limit your compassion to people who donât cause any harm (because there are none.)
48. Be aware of the intoxicating effect of bad moods. A bad mood usually means things are better than they look.
49. Once in a while, imagine that this moment is the very first moment of your life, and then build a future from there.
50. Go to your cityâs low-key ethnic restaurants instead of flashy chain establishments â not to âhelp out the little guyâ but because theyâre better and cheaper.
51. Avoid being the least sober person in the room, unless youâre the only person in the room.
52. Go to New York, at least once.
53. Consider keeping a bucket list that you take seriously. They stave off complacency.
54. Remember that youâre essentially no different from prehistoric humans, except that you have tools and advantages they would find ridiculous.
55. If life ever feels like itâs too loud and busy, go hang out at the library.
56. Never hide from truths about your financial position. If youâre afraid to know your bank balance, you have a problem bigger than money problems.
57. If you think dancing isnât for you, try it again sometime.
58. When youâre about to buy something, think about what feeling youâre actually after. Ultimately we only want things because of how they promise to make us feel.
59. Floss every day. You can fool yourself but you canât fool your dentist, or your teeth.
60. Be extra kind to people while they are at work, especially servers, clerks, and tech support staff.
61. Whenever youâre being contradicted, try not to get caught up in being defensive. Youâre either right, or you get to learn something new today.
62. At least consider taking religionâs five central no-noâs seriously: donât steal, donât lie, donât kill, donât harm people with your reproductive urges, and donât drink so much that you forget the other four.
63. Own at least one plant. Theyâll never judge you, but theyâll let you know if youâre being careless.
64. Try not to let a week go by without having lunch or coffee with a friend.
65. Do 30-day experiments for fun and sport â try out a new way of doing something for a while. Even if theyâre train wrecks you always learn something about yourself.
66. Appeal to your friends for their expertise. You get good advice, they feel valued.
67. Write people letters. Everyone loves getting letters.
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