Oscar Wilde

Don't settle for good enough, for the " I hate my job but it makes great money, I provide for my family and I can save for retirement".

Don't ignore the call for greatness, whatever greatness means to you.

Don't de-prioritize your curiosity. Never be satisfied that you know enough. 

Grow to think of curiosity as a value, a virtue.

Being able to achieve a success metric is hard, but knowing which metric to achieve is even more important. Discover what you value and choose your own metrics for success, otherwise, your environment will dictate it for you, which could be unfulfilling for you.

Work towards your own idea of success and don’t let “FOMO” make you feel like a failure because you’re not meeting someone else’s metrics for success.

• Put aside your feelings so that you can concentrate only on the other person’s perspective.
• Use open ended questions that can help you draw out the interests and motivation that the person may not be verbalizing.
• Be clear about your own position and the weaknesses it has.
• Remove any personal intentions you may have, so as not to project them on to the other person.
• Using what you know about the person, their background, their mood, their intentions and expectations,  imagine how they are seeing the current situation.
• Validate their position by paraphrasing back to them what you think their position is.

When you break it down, almost every aspect of business involves an element of negotiation. 

By honing your perspective taking skills, you are much more likely to come up with solutions that are acceptable to all parties.