remiind.cc: Become wiser
A growing collection of quotes from Tim.
For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up all the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.
Link | next email: 2024-05-10
Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action. Being overwhelmed is often as unproductive as doing nothing, and is far more unpleasant. Being selective—doing less—is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.
Link | next email: 2024-05-10
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”
— Jack Canfield
Link | next email: 2024-05-13
1. Which 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems and unhappiness?
2. Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcomes and happiness?
Link | next email: 2024-05-01
Jamie Foxx on Fear:
“What’s on the other side of fear?”
His answer is always, “Nothing.”
Jamie Foxx is incredibly confident. As one of his close friends described to me: “Even when things go a little south, he ALWAYS makes you feel like he has everything under control. I see a lot of people in his circle gravitate toward him for that confidence, myself included.”
In my interview with him, I asked Jamie how he teaches confidence to his children, and he said that he asks his daughters to explore their fears with the question, “What’s on the other side of fear?”
His answer is always, “Nothing.”
He elaborates: “People are nervous for no reason, because no one’s gonna come out and slap you or beat you up. . . . When we talk about fear or a lack of being aggressive [holding someone back], it’s in your head. Not everybody is going to be super aggressive, but the one thing that you can deal with is a person’s fears. If you start early, if they are a shy person, they won’t be as shy if you keep instilling those things.”
Look at whatever you’re afraid of and ask, “What is on the other side of fear, if I push through this?” The answer is generally nothing. There are few or no negative consequences, or they’re temporary.
Link | next email: 2024-05-14
"What would this look like if it were easy?" is such a lovely and deceptively leveraged question. It’s easy to convince yourself that things need to be hard, that if you’re not redlining, you’re not trying hard enough. This leads us to look for paths of most resistance, often creating unnecessary hardship in the process. But what happens if we frame things in terms of elegance instead of strain? Sometimes, we find incredible results with ease instead of stress. Sometimes, we “solve” the problem by completely reframing it.
Link | next email: 2024-05-13
“Love does not consist of gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Link | next email: 2024-05-16
“Success” need not be complicated. Just start with making 1,000 people extremely, extremely happy.
Link | next email: 2024-04-23
Morning pages don’t need to solve your problems. They simply need to get them out of your head, where they’ll otherwise bounce around all day like a bullet ricocheting inside your skull.
Could bitching and moaning on paper for 5 minutes each morning change your life?
As crazy as it seems, I believe the answer is yes.
Link | next email: 2024-04-29
“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”
― Robert Frost
Link | next email: 2024-04-29
“Forward, like: We don’t stop. We don’t slow down. We don’t revisit past decisions. We don’t second guess."
— Marc Andreessen
Link | next email: 2024-04-25
“The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action in mind.”
— Frank Herbert
Link | next email: 2024-05-13
A good question to revisit whenever overwhelmed: Are you having a breakdown or a breakthrough?
Link | next email: 2024-05-03
The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people to hit home runs while everyone else is aiming for base hits. There is just less competition for bigger goals.
Link | next email: 2024-05-02
"If you love it, make it your life. And right along with that, be tenacious. Learn that the most important thing about being knocked down is getting back up. And if you can put yourself in the spot where you say, 'I don't care how many times I get knocked down, I'm getting back up every single time and going after what I want,' that's the answer."
— Scott Glenn
Link | next email: 2024-04-28