Eddie Rivero

Lessons from a dog's life: Live simply, love generously, play and nap daily

"The most authentic thing about us in our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than our suffering." - Ben Okri

Good Leadership Principle: "I don't work at being ordinary." - Paul McCartney

60 Inconvenient Personal Development Truths

Picked up these thoughts from "Mark and Angel Hack Life" blog.

I know you want to be the best you can be.  We all do.  But sometimes we look for success in the wrong places or we try to achieve it in the wrong ways.

Here are 60 inconvenient truths about personal development to help you stay on track.

1. The acquisition of knowledge doesn’t mean you’re growing.  Growing happens when what you know changes how you live.
2. You can’t have good ideas unless you’re willing to generate a lot of bad ones.
3. A good idea without action is nothing at all.
4. It’s not so much about finding opportunities as it is about creating them.
5. 10% of our lives is decided by uncontrollable circumstances.  90% is decided by how we react to those circumstances.
6. What we don’t start today won’t be finished by tomorrow.
7. If you’re waiting for the perfect conditions, ideas or plans to get started, you’ll never achieve anything.
8. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.
9. Change is often resisted when it is needed the most.
10. Discipline is choosing what you want most over what you want right now.  Read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
11. The harder you work, the luckier you will become.
12. Kindness and hard work together will always carry you farther than intelligence.
13. Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile.
14. Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.
15. Lots of successful people have failed as many times as they have succeeded.
16. Nobody succeeds all by themselves.
17. Right now, there’s a lot you don’t know.
18. Having a plan, even a flawed one at first, is better than no plan at all.
19. In the beginning, you need to say “yes” to a lot of things to discover and establish your goals.  Later on, you need to say “no” to a lot of things and concentrate on your goals.
20. No matter how you make a living or who you think you work for, you only work for one person, yourself.  The big question is:  What are you selling, and to whom?
21. We all have different strengths.  What worked for someone else might not work for you.
22. To be great does not mean you have to dominate others.  It means you have to dominate your own potential.
23. Being successful is a journey, not a destination.
24. Results are more important than the time it takes to achieve them.
25. Being busy and being productive are two different things.
26. Being happy and being successful are two different things.
27. You don’t have to settle.  It’s simply a choice you make every day.
28. Life is full of opportunities to feel exactly the way you want to feel.
29. You have every right to be happy, but it’s up to YOU and only YOU to exercise that right.  Read The Happiness Project.
30. You have the ability to clear negativity from your mind with a single thought.
31. We are all multi-dimensional human beings with simultaneous dimensions of success and failure in our lives.
32. Your success isn’t just about you.  It’s about how you positively impact the lives around you.
33. Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do.
34. Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else – you are the one who gets burned.
35. Life isn’t always logical.
36. When you spend time worrying, you’re simply using your imagination to create things you don’t want.
37. It’s usually only as good or bad as you think it is.
38. There is a lesson in everything you do, and learning the lesson is how you move forward.
39. No matter how smart you are, you will make mistakes.
40. There’s no such thing as ‘risk free.’  Everything you do or don’t do has an inherent risk.
41. Saying “no” to right people gives you the time and resources required to say “yes” to right opportunities.
42. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
43. When you’re caught up in the moment and your emotions are soaring, you’re bound to make poor decisions.
44. Simplicity is often a major factor of success.  But the process of simplifying things is rarely easy.
45. Cutting your losses is often better than the alternative.
46. It’s uncomfortable to challenge the status quo, but it’s worth it.
47. You can raise the bar or you can wait for others to raise it.  Either way, it’s getting raised.
48. Oftentimes, the only reason they want you to fit in is that once you do they can ignore you and go about their business.
49. Confusion isn’t a bad thing.  It means you’re growing and thinking.
50. When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.
51. When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.
52. Trying to be somebody you’re not is not sexy.  Be you.  That’s when you’re beautiful.
53. Good looks attracts the eyes.  Personality attracts the heart.
54. Sometimes you just have to do your own thing your own way, no matter what anyone else thinks or says about you.
55. When you receive negative feedback, remember, it doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it, it matters how many do.  Read The 4-Hour Workweek.
56. If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you’ll often find that you’re right.
57. Truly ‘rich’ people need ‘less’ to be happy.
58. A good life is when you assume nothing, do more, need less, smile often and realize how fortunate you are right now.
59. If you want love, give love.  If you want friends, be friendly.  If you want money, provide value.  It really is this simple.
60. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.

And remember, the extra mile is the stretch of road that’s never crowded.  As long as you follow your heart and never stop learning, you’ll turn not older, but newer every day.