23 Life Hacks

I have written a few of these lists over the years as they apply to life and business, here’s sort of a Best Of from those in no particular order. Share around if you get any value from this or you know someone who might...

1. Empathy and kindness will always win.

2. Always make the ask of something. If you don't ask, you'll always wonder. Most people never make the ask.

3. First point of contact with someone new? Smile. That sets the tone for everything moving forward.

4. Try new things. Repeat. You can't succeed or fail at something if you don't even try.

5. Don’t conform. If the rest of the world seems to be going down one road, consider taking a detour, another path. Maybe the world will follow suit.

6. Stay focused on the big picture and long *long* game but appreciate the moments.

7. Don't take it personally if people are negative toward you, it's just their shtick. Win at your game: positivity, momentum, personal growth, and resilient mindset.

8. Don't live for the weekends, that's like 28% of every week. Find your passion and you will enjoy most days.

9. Your network of collaborators, your ecosystem, is the everything. Surround yourself with inspiring, positive people who challenge you. Audit your circle.

10. Don't get bogged down in minutiae or you will waste hours of your day and years of your life dwelling on what could have been.

11. Work with people with passion. Skill and talent are important but passion and energy and commitment are just as important. The upside and ROI on those are through the roof.

12. Be self-aware, and take constructive criticism. If negative shit is always happening to you, then maybe there aren't anymore excuses? Take a long, honest look in mirror, and fix things.

13. Listen and ask questions. Everyone has a story. But you can't hear it if you're always talking.

14. Be on the offensive, always. Not defense. Compete.

15. Laugh lots (remember the Scottish proverb "Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead”)

16. Give, give, give (repeat) with no expectations of getting. Don’t worry, it all comes around.

17. Compartmentalize all the negative stuff in your life (because bad stuff happens to everyone). Focus on what you do have.

18. Don't talk a big game and say what you're gonna do some day. Do it. Now. Conquer that bucketlist. That startup. That coaching gig. That whatever. Show those around you what you're actually capable of.

19. Embrace new ideas. Innovate. Just because you've always been doing something one way doesn't mean it's still the right way (or ever was). Times change, people evolve, technology evolves.

20. Volunteer. "If we all do a little, we all do a lot.” (my 92-year-old, legally blind buddy Kenn Grainger told me this, and I'll never forget it).

21. Create or join an ecosystem of like-minded people locally, nationally or globally having an impact. It will change your life for the better.

22. Don't be all clever and cynical and tell us what's broken always. Tell us how to fix it. Push apathy do the curb. Don’t recycle it.

23. Pause and put stuff/drama in perspective. Things aren’t as nearly as bad as they might seem. Your problems might be rather trivial, and in fact easily surmountable, compared to what others face.