Here are a few of the most important lessons I learned this year. But first, something from someone we lost this year:
I think it’s a huge mistake not to absorb elementary, worldly wisdom if you’re capable of doing it because it makes you better able to serve others, it makes you better able to serve yourself, and it makes life more fun…
—Charlie Munger
My 10 Lessons Learned From 2023
Be Unproductive
Focus on what 80-year-old you will care about.
Don’t worry about doing it all, you can’t.
Do more frivolous activities. You don’t always have to be productive.Good Things Take A Long Time
We overestimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in ten years.
Love helps you be consistent and keep going when it gets hard - at work and home.
The life you want in ten years starts today.Be A Medieval Stonemason
They were masters of their craft.
Show up, lay the next right brick.
You may never get credit, but the community will be better.
Do the next right thing again and again.Don’t Compete
Your competition is yourself.
Stop worrying about what everyone else has or does.
People don’t think about you as much as you think.Clean Your Lens
When you have the urge to complain, pause and reflect.
There’s likely more good in your life than you realize.
Complaining rarely makes it better, usually worse.Normalize No
Time is a non-renewable resource.
If you deprive yourself of time, you will suffer.
It's okay to say no and prioritize yourself.Fear Usually Points Where To Go
Fear of losing resources or status holds you back.
Most of what you fear is not real.Looking Foolish Is A Superpower
Everyone looks foolish on day one.
Choose progress over protecting ego.Focus On You, Not I
Most people focus on themselves, not on others.
By shifting your focus outward, you will notice things others don't.
This will give you an advantage over almost everyone else.
It also allows you to give people what we all want - to be seen and heard.Pay Attention To Overlaps
People come and go.
Enjoy them, learn from them, help them, and love them - today.
One day, they will be gone.
Bonus
Rucksack
We're all carrying a rucksack filled with us.
It's filled with our histories, stories, strengths, and struggles.
The things that help us make a path.
Sometimes, those things are helpful.
Sometimes, they hurt us.
Put your rucksack down occasionally and decide to take out or add.
What's true? What's helpful? What do we need more of?
We must never forget that we're also not walking down the path alone.
We walk this path with our humans.
You can cross-load into their rucksacks.
Together, we carry what we need to make our path - together. We're not alone.
I’ll leave you with this from Anna Quindlen’s 1999 Mount Holyoke Commencement Speech,
“Set aside what your friends expect, what your parents demand, what your acquaintances require. Set aside the messages this culture sends, through its advertising, its entertainment, its disdain and its disapproval, about how you should behave. Set aside the old traditional notion of female as nurturer and male as leader; set aside, too, the new traditional notions of female as superwoman and male as oppressor. Begin with that most terrifying of all things, a clean slate. Then look, every day, at the choices you are making, and when you ask yourself why you are making them, find this answer: for me, for me. Because they are who and what I am, and mean to be.”
2024 - it's a clean slate. Remember, you're not walking down that path alone. We're all together. I hope this year brings you joy, peace, and progress. Most importantly, I hope it's filled with love. Love for yourself—love for everyone around you.
Hug your humans. Take care out there. Bye.
Take care,
10 Lessons I Learned This Year