Accept your fallibility

We see mistakes and failure as shameful things. And we usually identify with them:

If I fail a test, then I am a failure. If I make a mistake then I am a mistake.

It requires three things:

• Putting yourself in situations where you can make interesting mistakes.
• Having the self-confidence to admit to them.
• Being courageous about making changes.

Treat the meeting with yourself as it was a meeting with a third party. It’s only you who can act on your most important tasks with priority.

Make sure that you set up boundaries for yourself and for other people. Remember to communicate with them clearly.

Such a boundary can be that you leave your office at a certain time each day because your family is your priority. It doesn’t mean, of course, that you can’t work later in periods of high workload.

Ringing phones, text messages, reminders, pop-ups, social media, email.

There’re countless studies demonstrating that multitasking will hinder your work both in terms of quality and quantity. 

Resist the temptation to get in the loop and do one thing at a time.

As a child, you’re taken care of by others. Hence, you assume that someone is responsible for you.

When you grow up, you are responsible for you. So never look at others when you’re unhappy. Instead, accept your unhappiness, and then do something about it.

There’s a big chance the people in your environment don’t strive for the same things as you. Many people live a timid life. People who don’t want anything from life and who spend their time watching tv.

Don’t give your time to those people. You might become one of them.

• You can't know everything. Be humble.
  
• Never blame others for your unhappiness. Take responsibility.
  
• Don't waste time on losers. You might become one of them.
  
• Most of us have a twisted idea about love.
  
• You actually don't have a lot of time.
• Learning never stops. 
• Sometimes you need to distance yourself from others and be alone.
  
• Small decisions lead to big outcomes.

Ask yourself: 

• How much time am I wasting on things that give me zero fulfillment? 
• Do I like my job? 
• Do I like the people in my life?

It's a thinking mistake and it occurs when we confuse selection factors with results. 

Professional swimmers don't have perfect bodies because they train extensively. Rather, they are good swimmers because of their physiques.

It plays on this tendency of ours to emphasize loss over gain.

The term sunk cost refers to any cost that has been paid already and cannot be recovered. The reason we can't ignore the cost, even though it's already been paid, is that we're wired to feel loss far more strongly than gain.

Once we have invested our time, effort and resources in something, we tend to avoid correcting ourselves in real-time if we are off-track.

Inversely, when people engage in mental contrasting, anticipating the upcoming obstacles, they tend to succeed.

Sharing information on failure among peers means less work overall, and better success for the entire team, as team members do not have to reinvent the wheel by making the same mistake to learn from it.

People do not share failure as it hurts their self-esteem, but if we keep the personal equation aside, a lot can be gained from the collective knowledge of what didn’t work.

"There are no formulas in creative work. I do many variations, which is a question of curiosity. I arrive at many different configurations ­- some just slight variations, others more radical - of an original idea. It is a game of evolution."

"What's the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules."

... to recover from a mistake with humor:

• Acknowledge the mistake. There’s no hiding it now. Everyone saw!
• Correct the mistake. If it’s necessary, make whatever correction you need to get things back on track.
• Make a joke. Make fun of yourself. Get everyone laughing and they won’t care anymore.
• Move on! And don’t bring up your flub again until you’re totally in the clear.

Write it down when you’ve gone over your budget. The negativity you feel will help prevent you from overspending more or doing it again. Just think of this step as damage control.

If you try to deprive yourself too much, you’ll binge later and throw all your hard work out the window. 

A spending binge can set you back far more than treating yourself occasionally, so go for the occasional minor splurge. Just keep your treats within your spending limits and you’ll be fine.