40 for 40

July 8, 2019

Today is my 40th birthday and I've never felt more like Allison in the photo above.

Jokes aside, this year was a tough one, both personally and professionally. I won’t go into details, but we’re all fighting a private battle that no one knows about, right? I know I am, and I bet you are too. I see you :hugs:

This isn’t another one of those “Life Lessons” posts, it’s just a list of things that I’ve learned and have kept reminding myself about in the past year. Go ahead and make fun of it, I don’t care. They’re just public notes to myself.

It feels like our lives are made up of a countless number of weeks. But they are fully countable, as this calendar shows.
On that note... if you feel like you wasted time, you probably have. Make note when you have this feeling so you can stop wasting this non-renewable resource of yours.
If you’re going to watch television, plan for it. Record programs. Watch them on your time, not on the time of the networks.
“Read later” is my favorite thing on the Internet.
Assigning blame is a waste of time.
Unpopular opinion: There’s nothing wrong with decaf coffee. Too much caffeine isn’t good for you. Stop acting like having three espressos is a badge of honor or something.
If you are following a path that has no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
Say the minimal required to get the point across.
Leave it better than you found it.
There is no such thing as a boring project, only boring executions.
You are what you actually do, not what you intend to do.
What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.
The past doesn’t exist — don’t get stuck in it.
Just because something is important to you doesn't mean that it's important to someone else.
Being constantly angry is exhausting. Stop taking offense at every little thing.
It never goes exactly how you planned, even when it turns out well.
The things that go wrong often make the best memories.
It’s 2019. You really need to be using a password manager.
What separates the good people from the really good people isn’t what they know; it’s how they think.
The cheapest and most expensive models are usually both bad deals.
Children are remarkably honest and creative creatures until we teach them not to be.
If you never doubt your beliefs, then you’re wrong a lot.
Everyone is fighting a private battle that you don't know about.
Humans cannot destroy the planet, but we can destroy its capacity to keep us alive. And we are.
Almost every cliché contains a truth so profound that people have been compelled to repeat it until it makes us roll our eyes. But the wisdom is still in there.
There is no point in finishing a book or movie you aren’t enjoying.
Wishing things were different is a great way to torture yourself.
Avoid expiring information (easily digestible news that won’t be relevant next month).
God did not create the entire universe for the sake of one subgroup of one species on one planet in one solar system in one galaxy.
Career progress is not how many people you manage, it is how much of an impact you make.
When we find ourselves in a conflict, it’s a good idea to pause and acknowledge the values and goals we share with your “opposition.” We’re almost always on the same side.
Writing forces us to understand what we believe.
It’s perfectly okay to say “I don’t know” or “I don’t have an opinion on that” to those who are desperate to engage in some bad faith discourse on the wild headline of the day.
If we really want something, be stubborn on the vision but flexible on the details.
Most debates can be solved with the Sliding Scale of Giving a Fuck.
Values aren’t valuable until they force us to make the hard choices.
In another life, I would start a chain of small hotels that cater to families where every room is a two-bedroom suite and the communal space is a playground in the middle of a beer garden.
The world needs the wisdom of Herman's Head now more than ever.
The Bible is a cool book with some wonderful passages but it also has ghost sex, giants, super babies, and demons. We shouldn’t base laws on it. We don’t make laws based on Game of Thrones, My Little Pony, or Legend of Zelda, do we?
Never let a good crisis go to waste. The only way to win is to learn faster than everyone else.

✌️