Writing to Myself: Small Reminders for Life and Work

Earlier this year, I kept a journal where I wrote one-line per day. One prompt I chose for myself was “Write to yourself.” A selection of those tiny thoughts is presented below with some added commentary.

Earlier this year, I kept a journal where I wrote one-line per day. One prompt I chose for myself was “Write to yourself.” I can be a forgetful person, so the goal here was to write bite-sized reminders to myself concerning what felt the most important that day. The reminder could be anything – golf, something I’d read that morning that I found insightful, or the difficulty of hiding an engagement ring. A selection of those tiny thoughts is presented below with some added commentary.

Invert. Always invert.

Instead of thinking about how to make smart decisions, it's useful to think about how to avoid dumb decisions. It’s a minor change, but can reframe a problem. More on this below. 

Always think of compounding.

If Einstein calls compounding “the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.” It’s probably worth thinking about at least once each day.

How not to shoot 100.

This is an example of inversion. When playing Bandon Dunes after months of not swinging a golf club, this was the only thought in my head. I took conservative lines and did everything I could to stay out of trouble. It worked and I (somehow) shot in the 90s each day.

Always think in a multidisciplinary way.

Think broadly and across subjects. Things rarely exist in a vacuum.

Do the opposite of your current work.

When you’ve been doing a particular task one way and feel stuck, it's valuable to think how you would do it the opposite way. At the very least, it will yield some interesting ideas. 

Enjoy the walk.

The journey is the destination. Enjoy every single second of it.

Work your process and trust it.

Focus on doing the right things and everything will take care of itself. Easier said than done, which is why I have to remind myself. 

Nothing is like being around your people.

This year has been packed full of travel. But nothing fires me up like getting home to my people and spending time with them.

Hard work gets rewarded in the long-term.

Hard work is hard (duh) and thinking long-term is just as hard. Having to do both at the same time can feel impossible. I need to remind myself of this one every single day.

Prioritize and prepare each day.

One of my goals for 2025 is to be better at prioritizing and focusing on my to-do list. It’s a slight change, but should provide more clarity each day. This one is a work in progress. 

Don’t believe the BS.

Unfortunately, there are many people who are full of it. Always verify for yourself.

Ask: Who will benefit?

See below about incentives.

Incentives are like superpowers.

The world is driven by incentives. Never ever underestimate them. 

Hiding a ring is super tough.

This was the day I bought the engagement ring for my fiancé. Thankfully, I found a hiding spot in an old backpack. But, it took all of my willpower not to stare at it (and reveal the surprise) every single day. 

Shaking things up is a good thing.

Change is good. Embrace it. You can’t do the same thing forever. Evolve.

Nothing beats a great product.

As the old saying goes, “you can’t polish a turd.”

Be useful.

Make yourself available to help others and contribute. No one ever complained about someone being too helpful or too friendly.

Break your mirrors.

Not literally, of course. This is a call to stop thinking so much about yourself. Dial down your ego and see above: Be useful.

A hard winter’s training.

A snippet from the Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus. This is about putting yourself in uncomfortable situations in the name of getting better, faster, stronger. 

Don’t believe the hype. Understand.

It’s surprisingly easy to manufacture hype. See through the hype and seek to understand.

Do you want partners or vendors?

There’s not a wrong answer here, but it’s important to set the expectation either way.

How do you balance the expectations of others?

I’m still working on this one. So far, I’ve found the best way to figure this out is to just ask people outright what they expect. There’s no use beating around the bush and assuming.

Be clear: Why does this matter?

This goes back to prioritization. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and back- and-forth, but I’ve always found this to be a good reorienting question. 

Will to prepare = Will to win.

Michael Jordan’s practice habits come to mind with this one. He would relentlessly prepare and loved to practice. Obviously, that worked out well for him. The will to win begins with a willingness to prepare.

Become friends with the dead.

This one sounds morbid, but in reality, it’s not. It’s a call to read more biographies and study the past. There’s a wealth of knowledge just sitting there. All we have to do is learn it and, more importantly, learn from it.

Remember what won’t change.

We’re terrible at predicting what will change in the future. It’s much easier to guess what won’t change and then work backwards from there. 

Invert. Always. Invert.