The Advice
65 Pieces of The Best Advice I've Received.
Before I start, yes I'm pulling you in with an image of a dog. That’s exactly what I’m doing. And it worked, didn’t it?
Throughout our lives, we receive advice from a wide array of sources. Some from people we know personally, and some from those we don’t. Some from the books we read, the podcasts we listen to, and the websites we visit on the internet.
Certain pieces of advice are better than others. There’s no denying misinformation on the internet is on the rise. Many corners of the World Wide Web can leave us less informed or more misdirected than when we began our pursuit of knowledge. In a crowded world of opinions, voices, and noise, how can we find the information that will truly change our lives?
Today I’m going to detail the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received. A small enough amount that hopefully I don’t add to the chaos of modern-day information availability, but enough that you might discover a few pieces of advice you can implement into your life. Over time, I’ll expand on each of these points with a written piece of its own that will all be linked here. For now, it’s here to remind me to try to utilise these pieces of advice at any possible opportunity.
1) Express Gratitude, Always. Be thankful for at least one thing every day, no matter how small it may seem.
The Gratitude
I don’t think many of us are ungrateful for what we have. It’s just in the midst of busy lives and schedules, we forget to pause for a moment and live purely in that moment, appreciating every little thing around us.
2) Don’t Compare Yourself To Others. It’s futile. Everyone has a different path in life that’s already decided.
The Multiverse
How can imagining infinite versions of ourselves in different universes help us to make better decisions? I know, wormholes, meeting versions of ourselves in different universes, breaking time paradoxes, and Marvel films. A huge following and amount of intrigue surround these concepts, at our current level of human knowledge, they’re unrealistic and deem…
3) Ask A Lot of Yourself, But Little of Others.
4) Give Others Two Chances, But Never Three.
5) Anger and Complaining Affects You More Than Whomever or Whatever You’re Angry At. Don’t get angry over anything that can be explained by ignorance or stupidity.
6) Seek Discomfort. Look Deeper Into Your Anxiety, and Hence Accept Change is Inevitable.
The Cognitive Dissonance
In the age of information, were constantly pushed and pulled between two sides of every story. There's more disagreement than ever before through social media, and it’s fuelled by those who love the sound of their own voice. It's especially fuelled by those who prefer talking rather than listening. When we’re surrounded by all this noise, it can be diff…
The Rebirth
Introduction Like a butterfly reborn from a cocoon, once we make a change in life, how can we be reborn from it? Upon making some changes, we can become more in touch with ourselves. Make a positive change, and you’ll see this aligns with your values. It can bring new situations, fresh perspectives, and a renewed sense of purpose.
7) Be Present.
The Waiting Room
For those eager-eyed amongst you on Substack Notes, you may already have noticed me discussing this topic this week. Don’t worry, I’ve got more ramblings to scratch out of my brain and down onto paper. For those who didn’t see what I discussed earlier this week on notes, you should check the platform out! Not only for me but also for the brilliant Subst…
The Place
It’s hard to convince yourself that the place you’re in right now is the one you’re meant to be in. We live in imaginary futures that will never be, and idealised pasts that never were. A bittersweet taste envelops our every sense when we’re dragged back to reality. Why aren’t I in my imagined future? Why didn’t I do this differently in the past, then may…
8) Find Inner Stillness. This is a state of complete calm while everything moves around you. Have a quiet mind. Observe nothing and be present. This can be achieved through meditation, exercise, a cold plunge, and many other ways. Find your version of stillness.
9)Understand That Mistakes Are A Positive Thing, Not a Negative Thing.
The Hunter Gatherer Had A Midlife Crisis
A hunter-gatherer had a midlife crisis at 15, since average life expectancy was 30.
10) Pursue Your Purpose If You’re Lucky Enough To Even Slightly Know What It Is. If you ever reach your purpose, the bar isn’t high enough.
The Purpose
Meaning occurs when looking backwards. Purpose means aspiring and looking forwards. I reflect in my journal weekly, but how can use meaning to find purpose?Thanks for reading Something Greater! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
11) When Faced With Too Many Choices, Narrow It Down To Two and Flip a Coin. If You Can’t Narrow It Down To Two, Don’t Choose Any Yet.
12) Collaboration Helps Ease Our Individual Flaws. First, we need to understand our own weaknesses. Then find people who don’t have these weaknesses and collaborate. Reduce the impact of our individual flaws through collaboration.
13) Listen More Than You Talk.
14) Try To Be Understanding Of Others.
The Labels
People will label you because it helps them explain the imaginary borders of the world that have been ingrained into their heads from birth. It helps them explain things they don’t understand. And things we don’t understand scare us. This says is much about the labeller, and little about the target being labelled.
15) Be Neurodivergent. Be Different.
16) For Our Own Understanding and So Others Understand Us, Use The Feynman Technique.
17) Compounding.
The Compounding
Compounding refers to combining or accumulating additional returns as a function of what you put in. This could be effort or capital in an investment, among other things. The long-term aim of any compounding is exponential growth. Most importantly this takes accumulated work over a prolonged period of time. We construct a base layer upon which, through t…
18) Consequences and Hence Preparation. Consider worst-case scenarios. Always have exits.
The Law Of Unintended Consequences
Say you have a problem. You know what to do to solve that problem, but you hesitate. Why would you possibly not want to solve the problem plaguing you the most in life? The Law of Unintended Consequences describes the ripple effects felt when one problem is solved. We live, work, and play in interconnected systems. Pull on one string, and previously exis…
19) Consider What You Truly Control. When You Realise we control so little, learn to care less.
The System
I’m lucky to have a lot of time to sit and think. About people, creativity, emotions, love. Whatever it may be, I’ve got rather good at allowing myself to be bored, and not seeking distractions and instant gratification. It’s like the story in Will Smith’s autobiography of him going to a quiet house with no connection to the outside world, even technolo…
20) Smile, Sing, Dance. Even if you’re by yourself.
The Music
Ever find yourself in a shoddy mood? I guarantee there is a piece of music out there that could turn that around. Music can take us anywhere. A flashback to a memory, or a place completely constructed within our imagination. It can help us empathise with the creator and think and feel things we’ve never experienced ourselves. It’s shared amongst millions…
21) The World Is Complicated, So Live Simply.
22) Have Few Wants.
The Stuff
Minimalism Minimalism is a concept I discovered in 2022. The things we accumulate in this life, we can't take with us. We leave just as we entered. With nothing. The things we accumulate in between should add value to our lives. They should have their own purpose. And they should bring us happiness. They should not be a burden.
23) Create A Deeper Understanding By Seeking Alternative Viewpoints. This is also called the Steel-Manning Mental Model.
24) Take One Day Off A Week (If You’re Able). Have no expectations of yourself or where your day will head. Do what you’re naturally pulled towards. See where you end up.
25) 80/20 Rule. What 80% of outcomes occur from 20% of your effort?
26) Play The Long Game. When choosing between instant gratification and delayed gratification, choose delayed gratification. It allows compounding to do its work.
The Overworking
I’ve always wanted to get ahead with my writing. To have a post prepared days in advance, sat ready and waiting to pounce towards your inboxes. It sounds much more preferable to whatever this chaotic sprint writing approach I’ve got going on. I’ll write a piece, rush, and write too much, then have little energy to review, edit, and ensure I’m telling a …
27) Don’t Fall Into The Trap of Extrapolation. We believe things will stay the same. That the trend will continue. Be aware that it may not.
28) Fear Setting. Set your fears. What actions could you take to reduce the likelihood of these situations occurring?
29) To Really Understand a Person, Look At What They Do, Not What They Say.
30) Go First. Smile first. Say hello first. Ask someone out first.
31) Limits. In every aspect of life, where’s the ceiling? How can you smash through it and take your hobbies, passions, and career to levels nobody thought possible?
The Limits
Can there exist limits to something we don’t truly understand? We’re just slightly more developed primates than our cousins. We have adopted structures, systems, habits, cognition, and consciousness. Our frameworks are based solely on what we know at the time and arise from plenty of trial and error. There exists known knowledge and unknown knowledge. Ou…
The Circular Path
The Limits of Consciousness Epistemic beliefs (an individual’s belief about knowledge) lead to the argument that human cognition could limit what we can understand. We cannot even begin to grasp the magnitude of the universe, as we exist in our individual thought palaces, with our own minds the elected king. But the Earth is the collective of all our tho…
32) Acknowledge Guilt. Explore why you feel this.
33) We Are What We Spend Our Days Doing. Cultivate your habits to create the future life you want for yourself.
The Reverse Bucket List
Many of us have a bucket list. Maybe you want to climb Everest, run a marathon, or grow your own vegetable garden. Perhaps you want to paint a room in your house, learn to play guitar, or start a blog!Thanks for reading Something Greater! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
The Types of Work
Types of Professional Work Sahil Bloom in his recent podcast episode for The Curiosity Chronicle, explained the four times of professional work. I have slightly tweaked his framework for my own use, but you can find his original post here. 1. Admin – E.g. Meetings, Calls, Presentations, Emails
34) Know What You Find Important In Life. Also known as your values.
The Values
The topic of values is discussed in Love People, Use Things by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus of the Minimalists. This book details how minimalism can be used to help us assess our relationship with our values, and if we are even aware of what they are. The book Essentialism also covers values.
35) Create Principles. Principles can detail things that you care about, or they can help to run your life. They can help you maintain aspects of your life you wish to maintain, or even adopt for the first time. Read your principles every morning.
The Principles
As discussed last week, our principles are our foundational values. They are the truisms that show how you live your life. Without them, we are unhappy. But principles don’t just have to be about you. Principles can explain how the world works. For example, if something in the world occurs in cycles, the details of that can be a principle. Whenever you f…
36) Limit Your Downside, Maximise Your Upside. If you’re faced with a problem, invert it. Don’t ask, how can I be a good investor, ask what would make a bad investor, and avoid this.
The Inversion
Note: I use LaTeX code in this piece. The code won’t fit on the page on the mobile app. Read through your email or desktop to access the piece. The LaTeX code feature is still in beta mode, but I wanted to do some mathematics and it presents it in the best way.
37) Love Is Given, Not Received.
The Love We Deserve
We accept the love we think we deserve. Does this aid in us remaining in damaging relationships longer than we should, or does it empower us to embark on the journey into the potential unknown, alone? Being alone is hard. The rise of situationships doesn’t surprise me. People are more protective of their time but still deserve and want love. And hence em…
38) Health, Love, and Your Mission, In That Order.
39) Mentors. When working, surround yourself with more successful people. Always be the least intelligent in the room.
The Least Intelligent In The Room
I attend geopolitics talks at the University of Cambridge. I feel discomfort beforehand, surrounded by people far more intelligent than I am. But one of my policies to push myself and grow is to seek out discomfort and so I push myself to attend. And I enjoy them, obviously.
The Room Where It Happens
When I had this idea for a post, I added the piece to my calendar, indicating when I should write it. I didn’t, however, include any detail of what the idea entailed. A lesson, yes. But we pivot. Meanings often change over time. We learn from experiences and mistakes. But how can we find ourselves in situations to learn and grow? By being in the room wh…
The Network of Experts
In business, an expert network is a business that connects companies seeking advice or information with resources or experts who can provide said advice. A month ago, I took a blank sheet of paper and laid out topics I’m interested in. On this selection of sheets, I drew lines, limiting my space. Under each topic, I wrote several experts I look to when I…
40) When Playing, Surround Yourself With Happier People Than You.
41) Consume Modern Entertainment Consciously. Don’t blindly binge. I have started to set myself a daily time limit on video games, series, and films.
42) Consider What Motivates People. Why do they say or do what they do? Look at people’s deeper selves, not their surface selves. What do they value? What do they love? What are they passionate about?
43) Overthinker? Write It Down.
44) Think Of Your Life System. Your life is a system comprising of many machines. Each machine has a different purpose. Sometimes, parts of the machine will need replacing, or upgrading. Over time, the machine improves. So learn to accept you’ll never be perfect, or the complete package. You’ll always grow and change. So test out new methods and new machine parts to make the most efficient system possible. Over time, your system will run with very little thought. Remove the choices, just follow the system.
The Longness of Life
Life is long. Seneca stated, “Life is long if you know how to use it.” So how can we use it to make life longer? Physically life isn’t particularly long. Almost 120 billion people have ever lived, and today there exists just over 8 billion. That’s a lot of people who have been and gone. They too had dreams and sought growth, deep relationships, and happin…
The Shortness of Life
Life is short. Seneca famously wrote “On The Shortness of Life”. In the rush of life, it’s easy to see the days pass quickly. Weeks turn to months, that turn into years, and suddenly we realise we’ve been stationary for years. Focusing on always moving forward, however, can be stressful and overwhelming. The constant focus on growth can actually lead to …
The Life Balancing Act
I frequently think of the life-balancing act, also known as the Four Burners Theory. Take a grid. Place your hobbies in one corner, your career in another, friends in the third, and finally your family in the final corner of the grid. Hobbies can also be replaced with personal health, which is an obvious necessity to pursue in life. For today, I’ll incl…
45) Don’t Let Your Possessions Have Power Over You. Be wary of if the things you own, own you. Ensure everything has a purpose or incites happiness within you.
46) Reciprocity. Do somebody a favour and they’re more likely to do something for you.
The Kindness (And How To Kill People With It)
This is not advice to murder. Don’t find yourself sitting in a jail cell in handcuffs and say, “Dylan said it's ok.” It isn’t. So, by process of elimination, if this isn’t about murder, it has to be about kindness.Thanks for reading Something Greater! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
47) Does Power Have Power Over You? Don’t seek power over other people or things, have power over yourself and your brain. Accept you aren’t your thoughts.
48) Priority Should Be A Singular Word. In the early 20th century, the plural form, priorities, grew in popularity. If you have multiple priorities, you have none.
49) Seek Problems. Consider problems faced by yourself, others, or society. Solutions to problems are a precursor to growth and innovation. To constantly improve, seek problems.
50) Daily Habits. Which tasks on your daily schedule aren’t you doing? Why not? Do they make you feel uncomfortable? Attack them once. Then again. Until it becomes habitual. Also, reward yourself when you successfully attack your habits. Incite positive emotions to this and you’ll be more likely to repeat them.
51) Cut Yourself Some Slack. Coupled with the previous point, be aware of asking too much of yourself. If you always have tasks you don’t have time to complete, perhaps you’re asking too much of yourself. This is why it's important to always have set downtime in your life where you have no tasks to do, to avoid overworking and eventually burnout. Busy doesn’t equal productive. If you’re always busy, you’re not productive.
The Success
Michael Phelps is the most successful Olympian of all time. Through a surface-level observation of this fact, you’d think that would make him pretty happy, right? So why then at the peak of his career was Phelps seriously unhappy with his life? We look at these stars in the public spotlight and it seems like they have it all. A struggle for Phelps was be…
The Imposter Syndrome
“The person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever seen before.” – Albert Einstein I recently added to the description of Something Greater, “lessons and reminders to myself, from myself.” I’m adhering to that statement and today I'm writing about som…
52) Ask Good Questions. Be More Curious.
53) What Don’t You Want To Regret? What regrets don’t you want at the end of your life? Use this to drive your life so they don’t become a reality. See what older people in your life regret, or there are many videos on the internet where older people are asked about their regrets. See things through, and say yes to new things, that way you can see what’s right for you and what isn’t.
The Reinvention
Do we reach points in life where it’s almost inevitable that we need to make a change? If so, why? If not, are we too comfortable?Thanks for reading Something Greater! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Last week I introduced the multiverse of you. Yes, you! Consider a scale from 0-100 of versions of you in different imagined un…
54) Don’t Be Fearful Of Rejection. If we get rejected, understanding it is out of our control. If we dwell on it, then it consumes us. Don’t try to understand or control. Move on.
The Rejection
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality”.Thanks for reading Something Greater! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Jia Jiang is the creator of 100 days of rejection therapy. Back in 2012, Jia set out to become a great entrepreneur. They wanted all the attractive characteristics of the most successful entrepreneurs of…
55) Routine Isn’t Boring If You Love What’s In The Routine.
The Best Day
What would the world look like if everyone had their best day, every day? By definition, to have the best day means we’ve had days that aren’t our best days. So I’ll start by saying having every day be the best day is a paradox within itself. Exponentially improving best days? It’s a nice idea, but is it realistic?
The Boredom
Most good ideas come when you’re doing nothing at all. When you allow your imagination to run wild. Why does society deem doing nothing as a bad thing? Why do we always have to be productive, 100% of the time? Why is burnout the goal? Is there any wonder productivity is dropping worldwide in the job markets? We never stop. We drag ourselves to work jobs …
56) Job = Passion. Make your job and passion the same thing and you’ll never work a day in your life. But accept you’ll have to be patient. Delay gratification because success doesn’t come overnight. So celebrate small victories.
The Cognitive Dissonance And Personal Growth
The Cognitive Dissonance And Personal Growth Do we sometimes overwork because if we don’t have purpose in our work, what do we have? But being busy isn’t being productive. Is it cognitive dissonance that causes this busy approach to our work and personal growth?
57) Without Sadness, We Couldn’t Have Happiness.
58) Have Side Projects. Build a life where if one income stream dries up, you have others that support you. Be totally immune to the damage this would cause.
The Project
Do people with projects in their lives, whether personal or professional feel more satisfied? Do they feel more purpose? Are they naturally more motivated people if they adopt a large project?Thanks for reading Something Greater! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
The Management Of Time
If a project brings us purpose, it can lead to increased fulfilment. We discussed this last week for those who missed it. But, considering projects alone, there will still exist missing pieces in our lives. How can we integrate personal projects into our lives, with family, friends, and work, also known as the Four Burners Theory?
59) What Do You Have Specific Knowledge Of? This is knowing how to do something that society can’t yet easily train other people to do. Use this in your side projects.
60) Study History. Locate patterns and cycles. Learn to use this knowledge to prepare for its potential to occur again in the future.
61) Trust Is Related To Transparency. Be honest and do what is morally right.
62) Assess Your Relationships. Are your relationships win-win cooperation or lose-lose competitive relationships? Both parties have to agree on what type of relationship they’ll have. Work to address and solve lose-lose relationships. If you can’t, is the relationship worth preserving?
The Ones We Used To Know
Nostalgia is a powerful concept. People come and go from our lives, and we can very easily long to have these people in our lives once again. How can we accept that in life, people will come and go? How can we appreciate the time we had and the lessons they taught us?
63) You Are Not Special. But that’s your superpower. Why shouldn’t you pursue your purpose, regardless of societal expectations and “what the norm is”?
The Special
This is a reminder to myself, that I’m not special. I’m aware this isn’t the happiest start. But stick with me. I promise it has a positive message. Does anybody truly know what they are doing? We have pressure on us from family, friends, and societal expectations. Most people who love us want the best for us, and those lucky e…
The Stories
I’ve been thinking a lot about how we justify to ourselves certain aspects of our lives. How we spend our time, and how societal norms, expectations and narratives play into this.Thanks for reading Something Greater! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
The Diminutiveness
Diminutiveness (noun) the property of being very small in size synonyms: minuteness, petiteness, tininess, weeness Do you ever feel a sudden rush of your minuscule size in this very grand world? As I drove down the motorway last week, it hit me like a wave. So much has happened to get us to the points in our lives which we inhabit right this second. This po…
64) Write Something Worth Reading Or Do Something Worth Writing About.
The Death
Come and listen to the 24-year-old who knows everything there is to know about life, said nobody ever. As an opening to a piece, that would make most people want to turn and run. What can someone with that much of a lack of life experience, and no particular problems teach me about life?
The Never Know
We don’t know where it’s leading, but it can’t hurt to try, right? I listened to a podcast a few days ago, and one quote just hit me. “You can’t force spontaneity”.
65) Embrace And Understand Your Reality. Don’t sugarcoat things to convince yourself you’re living a different reality.
The Art of Self-Reflection
I'll start this week's piece with two questions. Do you know yourself? More importantly, do you like yourself?Thanks for reading Something Greater! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. I’ve struggled with both in the past. I’m a natural people pleaser, and so I would put others above myself. I lived a life in which I changed who I…
Art of More Self-Reflection
Methods of Personal Growth <-> Methods of Self Reflection. This isn’t true for everybody, but the constant cycle between the pursuit of personal growth and self-reflection leads to an endless upward spiral of our potential. Here are some methods that can help us start our own perpetual cycle of growth and reflection.
The Art Of Even More Self Reflection
I’m back again with more self-reflection methods for everyday life!Thanks for reading Something Greater! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Feedback From Others – We have biases and knowledge gaps that we’re not aware of. Other people in a group can help plug those biases and gaps for the overall group. If you look at somebody a…
The Art of Most Self-Reflection
The final chapter of actionable self-reflection concludes with 8 more points on self-reflection. Thanks for reading Something Greater! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Track Energy – I started this very recently. I went for a run last Wednesday morning and pulled a muscle in my back. It was the first time I’d run in a while, a…
Beautiful yet practical