What I wish I knew when I graduated—37 rules for living an excellent life in a crazy world:

1. The best way to stay sane is to find people and activities you love and give them your all.

2. Challenge yourself. Do hard things. It’s how you grow. It makes you feel alive.

3. Move your body every day. Eat your vegetables. (When you forget, simply begin again.)

4. You don’t find your passion and then get good at something; you get good at something and then find yourself passionate about it.

5. Don’t worship status. Lots of famous people are totally unhinged. Know your values, the things you stand for, and live in alignment with them. Do this and it’s easier to fall asleep at night.

6. Become known for your consistency. Some days are better than others. Show up. Give what you’ve got. Rinse and repeat.

7. It’s almost always better to be kind than clever.

8. Surround yourself with the right people. (This may be most important of all.)

9. Do what you can to respond, not react: You can’t always control what happens to you but you can control what you do about it.

10. Set aside time to focus deeply on work that is important to you. Remove distractions. Periods of deep-focus work are a simple but truly profound key to a good life.

11. Confidence comes from evidence. If you want to be confident about something, put in the reps and give yourself the evidence.

12. Just. Get. Started. You’re never fully ready. Nobody is. Lower the bar to ready enough, step in the arena, and learn as you go.

13. Do not worry about being the best. Focus on being the best at getting better.

14. Better is more than just objective results and points on the scoreboard. It also means becoming stronger, kinder, and wiser.

15. It is impossible to be happy all the time. Focus on living a meaningful and textured life. The irony is you’ll be happier as a result.

16. Everyone faces anxiety, fear, and doubt. Try not to let it shrink your life. Courage means taking these emotions along for the ride and doing it anyway.

17. Start where you are. Not where you want to be. Not where you think you should be. Not where other people think you could be. But where you are.

18. Life is hard and nobody is coming to save you, which is why you need to practice self-discipline; it’s also why you need to practice self-kindness.

19. Having fun is the greatest competitive advantage there is.

20. Strength without flexibility is rigidity. Flexibility without strength is instability. You need both.

21. There is no such thing as an overnight breakthrough. You’ve got to play the long game. The bigger the goal, the smaller the steps.

22. Sleep when you’re tired.

23. Motivation is overrated. You don’t need to feel good to get going, you need to get going to give yourself a chance to feel good.

24. Doing the hard thing today often makes tomorrow just a bit easier.

25. Think about money, lifestyle, and challenge.
It’s almost impossible to have all three, but most good jobs can give you two. Choose wisely.

26. Don’t stress if you aren’t “balanced.” It’s impossible to do all the things. Part of being a mature adult is making tradeoffs. It’s okay to have different seasons of life for emphasizing different activities.

27. What other people think of you does not matter nearly as much as what you think of yourself.

28. The pursuit of greatness isn’t only about where you end up. It’s also about the person you become along the way.

29. People who say that money doesn’t matter are full of it. People who obsess over money are miserable. Money is a thing. But it’s not the only thing.

30. Don’t compare your actual life to someone else’s fiction. Most of what you see online is not real.

31. Curiosity is an antidote to fear and boredom. Never stop learning. Find mentors. Read books. Be interested in things.

32. The best relationships and pursuits make you forget about yourself.

33. Nobody escapes life unscathed. Everybody faces periods of pain, hurt, and feeling lost. Don’t be scared to ask for help. We all need it from time to time.

34. Keep the main things the main things. It’s true in craft and it’s true in life. Define your priorities. Pursue them relentlessly.

35. Being nonchalant is lame. Same with being too cool to care. Risk something. Give a damn.

36. You are going to fall off the path. Everyone does. When this happens, do what you can to learn from it and get back on. Do this over and over again.

37. Life is long. You never know what’s going to happen next. Keep going.

This is a key insight in my book. I call it the 48 hour rule: After a big victory or a tough loss, give yourself 48 hours to celebrate the win or grieve the defeat, but then get back to doing the work itself. Excellence lives in the process: bit.ly/4uCzeQ7

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