Tim Ferriss
For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn't conspire against you, but it doesn't go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. "Someday" is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it's important to you and you want to do it "eventually," just do it and correct course along the way.Collection: Inspirational
Being selective-doing less-is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.Collection: Inspiring
I'll repeat something you might consider tattooing on your forehead: What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.Collection: Inspirational
Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference.Collection: Life
Which 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems and unhappiness? Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcomes and happiness?Collection: Happiness
Sometimes you need to go on a low-information diet.Collection: Organization
Slowing down doesn't mean accomplishing less; it means cutting out counterproductive distractions and the perception of being rushed.Collection: Motivational
Uncertainty and the prospect of failure can be very scary noises in the shadows. Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.Collection: Inspirational
Ninety-nine percent of people believe they can't do great things, so they aim for mediocrity.Collection: Believe
Poisonous people do not deserve your time. To think otherwise is masochistic.Collection: Thinking
There are tons of things in your home and life that you don't use, need, or even particularly want. They just came into your life as impulsive flotsam and jetsam and never found a good exit. Whether you're aware of it or not, this clutter creates indecision and distractions.Collection: Home
For uncommon solutions, you have to look in uncommon places.Collection: Looks
Learn to ask, "If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?"Collection: Work
In all cases where doubt crops up, ask yourself, "If I had a gun to my head and had to do it, how would I do it?" It's not as hard as you think.Collection: Gun
Creating demand is hard. Filling demand is easier. Don't create a product, then seek someone to sell it to. Find a market - define your customers - then find or develop a product for them.Collection: Creating
Emphasize strengths, don't fix weaknesses.Collection: Work
At least three time per day at scheduled times, he had to ask himself the following question: Am I being productive or just active? Charney captured the essence of this with less-abstract wording: Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important? He eliminated all of the activities he used as crutches and began to focus on demonstrating results instead of showing dedication. Dedication is often just meaningless work in disguise. Be ruthless and cut the fat.Collection: Inspirational
Most people are fast to stop you before you get started but hesitate to get in the way if you're moving.Collection: Inspirational
To have an uncommon lifestyle, you need to develop the uncommon habit of making decisions, both for yourself and for others.Collection: Decision
Reality is negotiable.Collection: Life
But if it's tolerable mediocrity, and you're like, 'Well, you know it could be worse. At least I'm getting paid.' Then you wind up in a job that is slowly killing your soul and you're allowing that to happen. Comfort can be a very, very dangerous thing.Collection: Jobs
Believe it or not, it is not only possible to accomplish more by doing less, it is mandatory. Enter the world of elimination.Collection: Believe
Learn to be difficult when it countsCollection: Inspirational
Learn to be difficult when it counts. In school as in life, having a reputation for being assertive will help you receive preferential treatment without having to beg or fight for it every time.Collection: Inspirational
The best results I have had in my life; the most enjoyable times, have all come from asking the simple question: 'What is the worst that could happen?'Collection: Simple
Different is better when it is more effective or more fun.Collection: Fun
Most inputs are useless and time is wasted in proportion to the amount that is available.Collection: Work
If we define risk as 'the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome,' inaction is the greatest risk of all.Collection: Risk
Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear.Collection: Fear
Nothing can match the wonderment that comes from staring up into the star-filled canopy above and realizing that you are a part of that creation.Collection: Stars
It is predicated on the assumption that you dislike what you are doing during the most physically capable years of your life. This is a nonstarter—nothing can justify that sacrifice.Collection: Inspirational
Compile your to-do list for tomorrow no later than this evening.Collection: Work
A goal without real consequences is wishful thinking. Good follow-through doesn't depend on the right intentions. It depends on the right incentives.Collection: Real
Just as modern man consumes both too many calories and calories of no nutritional value, information workers eat data both in excess and from the wrong sources.Collection: Men
What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. As I have heard said, a person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have. Resolve to do one thing every day that you fear. I got into this habit by attempting to contact celebrities and famous businesspeople for advice.Collection: Numbers
There are two types of mistakes: mistakes of ambition and mistakes of sloth.Collection: Mistake
Someday is a dis-ease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.Collection: Dream
A friend of mine, Derek Simmons, who's been on the podcast, said, "If more information were the answer, we'd all be billionaires with perfect dads." It comes down to motivation and incentives. If it isn't a punishment or a reward, then it's just talk.Collection: Dad
If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too.Collection: Self Esteem
The universe doesn't conspire against you, but it doesn't go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect.Collection: Perfect
Happiness can be bought with a bottle of wine and has become ambiguous through overuse.Collection: Wine
I think willpower is very valuable.Collection: Thinking
Life is too short to be small.Collection: Inspirational
I think about willpower almost never. I realize for myself, trying to be more disciplined is pretty nebulous and it's often a slippery target. For me, I've just thought about incentives.Collection: Thinking
Get good at being a troublemaker and saying sorry when you really screw upCollection: Sorry
Be bold and don't worry about what people think. They don't do it that often anyway.Collection: Thinking
If everyone is defining a problem or solving it one way and the results are subpar, this is the time to ask, What if I did the opposite? Don't follow a model that doesn't work. If the recipe sucks, it doesn't matter how good a cook you are.Collection: Opposites
You and your friends could plan the trip of a lifetime in 6-18 months to visit the completed school, teeming with dozens or hundreds of students who greet you with smiles and thank you letters. You'll know it's your school because your names will be on the door.Collection: School
People feel personally slighted if you don't respond to them in 30 seconds and treat email as instant messenger.Collection: People