Life Is Short And So Is This Book

by Peter Atkins

The trick is people who are most productive tend to say no to things that are unimportant to them and focus on what they believe matters.

Albert Einstein said: It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.

So to make the most of your life, say no to things that don’t matter, work hard at what you love, and occasionally take time away from your core focus to rest so that your mind can be quiet for great insights to come.

If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep. -Dale Carnegie

The lesson to me is that you can focus on something going well, or something beautiful, or something interesting -- even amidst terrible times.

Lastly, when you make mistakes along the way, as I have at many points in my life, accept them as well.

Winston Churchill said: Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Character is like a tree, and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. - Abraham Lincoln

Do what you think is right. Don't follow other people blindly. Be honest and keep your word. Admit your mistakes.

The extra time invested in exercise has been worth it, even if only measured from a professional standpoint.

it's important as an adult, no matter what type of parents you had, that you take responsibility for your life.

I’ve found you can choose to let all the things that go wrong in life depress you. Or, you can accept that things will go wrong, try to laugh, and then look at what you can do.

Assuming your basic life needs are being met, you can choose to be happy if you want -- even when you make mistakes, or are in the middle of some pretty awful circumstances.

Mark Twain in mind: The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

When I was growing up, someone told me to live as if I was going to die in ten years and had no immediate financial needs. That’s great advice. If you can do that, you'll be happier and more successful.

Although what makes you passionate generally doesn’t change over time, what you want to do sometimes does.

Option 1 is doing what you love every day, but not earning as much money as you might otherwise, and/or not having as much prestige in the eyes of your acquaintances. Option 2 is doing a job you hate or find boring, but either the job itself, or the money you can make from the job, impresses other folks.

How do you determine what you passionately want to do? I’ll share my own experience. Before I left Microsoft, I took out a piece of paper, and listed those moments in my life I loved most. I tried to identify patterns. With that information, and a bit of research about various career options, I picked something which I thought would allow me to do what made me most happy. I also paid close attention, using the same method, to things I didn’t like to do, and worked hard to eliminate those things from my life.

Ideally, you want a job you’d do even if you weren’t paid to do it.

If you can get paid to do what you perceive as play, you have a great job.

No matter how significant your past accomplishments may be, they won't keep you satisfied.

Alexander Graham Bell said: “When one door closes, another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”

Problems are much easier to deal with when they’re still small than if you you’ve let them grow over time.

the harder and more innovative things you try to accomplish, the more likely you are to fail.

So when decisions, ideas or new projects don’t work out, try to learn, and be open-minded. Also, see whether you can sort out whether the idea was flawed, or whether it was solid but the outcome suffered from bad luck.

Persistent curiosity, combined with sustained focus on reasonable goals, will change your life over time.

Benjamin Franklin wrote: “You may delay, but time will not”.