30 Insights for a Life of Acute Brilliance

1. The great call on our lives is to do our part to make other lives better.
2. Get enough rest. It's a key factor in high performance + longevity.
3. Focus on how far you've come versus how far you still have to go.
4. Make the time to thank those who have encouraged you along the way.
5. Remind yourself relentlessly that mastery comes from going to your edges rather than clinging to what's known.
6. Do more things that make you happy.
7. Practice removing complaint from your vocabulary (bonus tip: complaint is often frozen anger).
8. See your work as your craft. And devote yourself to knowing more about what you do than anyone who has ever done what you do.
9. Remember that creativity + peak productivity are seasonal: there's a time to plant and a time to harvest.
10. Be kind to strangers. You just might save a life this way.
11. Regularly rewrite how you will have wished you will have lived on the last day of your life in your journal. This heightens your focus on doing what counts. And trains your brain to get it done.
12. Read for an hour a day. This ritual opens up frontiers that will make you a better producer, a deeper thinker and a richer human.
13. Walk into the situations that terrify you. This is how bravery grows. And the finest way I know of to take your power back.
14. Know that internal power, cultivated via years of inner work (reading + visualizing + contemplating + affirming + journaling + discussing + meditating + going to conferences etc.) is exponentially more valuable (and fulfilling) than external power (titles/status/cash)...a strong character always beats a large bank account...and decency lasts longer than fame.
15. When you stumble, just say "I am sorry".
16. When you hurt, just feel the hurt.
17. When you love, just trust in it fully.
18. When you dream, know it's the wisest part of you suggesting the next level available to you. Take the hint.
19. Remind yourself that health is wealth. And should you lose yours, nothing will be more important than getting it back.
20. Protect your mindset. Negative stimuli have never been so everywhere. So please: Less news and more beauty. Less gossip and more art. Less grumbling and more gratitude.
21. Learn from the past but don't wallow in it.
22. Remember that your income will never exceed your self-identity. And that your outer results mirror your inner story.
23. When you fall, get back up. When you win, decide how you'll make it even better.
24. Work hard on being more present. Presence is rare these days--and a phenomenal gift to give those who intersect your days.
25. Laugh at yourself. Life's too short to take yourself too seriously.
26. Trust that blaming others is excusing yourself.
27. Know that success lies around a brilliant execution on the fundamentals.
28. Having a grand vision is cool. Being amazing at getting it done is far hipper.
29. Be good at living your own life + values versus great at living everyone else's.
30. Don't miss the so-called ordinary pleasures every day brings to the wise soul who notices them...the singing birds or the beautiful coffee or the inspirational poem or the laughing child or the clean water or breezes winding through the lush trees...witnessing these forges a life gorgeously lived...

... via Robin Sharma