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My Best of August

  1.  You are richer than 93 percent of people. Not in money, but in time. Over 108 billion people have lived throughout history. 93 percent of them are dead. You have what every king and queen, every pharaoh and ruler, every CEO and celebrity of the past would give all their wealth and power for: Today.
  2. You can attract luck simply by telling people what you are working on.
  3. To love someone long-term is to attend a thousand funerals of the people they used to be. The people they're too exhausted to be any longer. The people they don't recognize inside themselves anymore. The people they grew out of, the people they never ended up growing into. We so badly want the people we love to get their spark back when it burns out; to become speedily found when they are lost. But it is not our job to hold anyone accountable to the people they used to be. It is our job to travel with them between each version and to honor what emerges along the way.
  4. Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
  5. The reason most people never change is because they’re too attached to who they’ve always been. Change requires death: The death of old stories, old habits, old comforts, old beliefs. Reinvention starts with release.
  6. " No matter how many times you do something, there will come a day when you do it for the last time." -  Sam Harris: There will be a last time your kids want you to read them a bedtime story. A last time you’ll go for a long walk with your sibling. A last time you’ll hug your parents. A last time your friend will call you for support. All of the things we take for granted today are things we’ll wish we could go back and do. There’s a last time for all of it. You won’t know when it’s the last time. But you can live like it is.
  7. The grass is greener where you water it.  There’s an old saying that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. It’s true. If you stare outward, you’ll always convince yourself that everyone else has it better. 
  8. The Japanese philosophy of Oubaitori offers a powerful counter: Your journey and growth are unique to you. Comparison is futile. Your path is yours alone. Tend your garden. Sow your seeds. Water your grass.

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