Two-and-a-half weeks ago I decided to avoid buying any food with packaging for a week. I’m on eighteen days and counting. I didn’t try to come up with a perfect rule because trying for perfection kept making me delay trying. I settled on the rule that I wouldn’t buy food that had any packaging or get food at a restaurant. I’d figure out on the fly what to do in[…] Keep reading →

This morning I read New York magazine’s weekly listing of bars and restaurants, describing fun places in the city to go to. They have a section listing some activities called “The Cut,” which I think means these are the activities that “make the cut” of their curating. I used to read the listings to find things to do. The section is for that, and I presume many people use it[…] Keep reading →

Following up yesterday’s post, “The basics: more simple and valuable than you think” about how the masters tend to focus on basics, I found a series of videos made by a great basketball player, Michael Jordan. He’s made few instructional videos. He could do things no one else could and made them look easy. He can teach anything he wants. So what does he teach? Simple basics. Things like getting[…] Keep reading →

When I teach and coach basics, someone in the audience always wants to know about some advanced application of the material. I understand why they ask. When you’re learning the footwork to dance salsa, you really want to do the fancy spin moves, so you ask about that. The great dancers concentrate on their footwork, though. The masters seem always to suggest sticking with the basics. I find that the[…] Keep reading →

Following up on “Passions, you create,” which I recommend rereading, where I wrote about passion not being something you happen to find, like if you just turned over enough rocks you’d find it… Everyone has the same potential to develop passions, as far as I can tell. If all you do is turn over rocks but never dig in—that is, look at what others do and think about those things[…] Keep reading →

Why do I talk about my daily habits so much? I was talking to a friend yesterday about them. She told me she didn’t get to exercise as much as she’d like, especially in busy times, and asked how I found time to exercise and write every day. I asked how she got anything done without a daily routine. A daily routine gives you and your day structure. Losing that[…] Keep reading →

Following up yesterday’s post’s exercise for how to speak authentically, I wanted to give a couple more examples illustrating mastery of speaking authentically. People who speak authentically can say things others can’t, meaning they have more freedom. We respect them not for their technical mastery of some craft but that they speak without that. A great master today is Charles Barkley, whom I wrote about the other day. He’s famous[…] Keep reading →