One-Liner Advice From My Mentors

Here’s everything I have retained from conversations with the handful of mentors I’ve had in my thirties, all compressed into the most straightforward form possible: one-liners worthy of becoming tweets for trending topics.

Happiness

It’s always easier to pretend you’re happy than actually to be happy — faking happiness might lead to profitability, but it also costs more over time.

Patience

Showing up is the most essential part of life, but the other key to the formula is being patient and selective with your opportunities.

Gratitude

The people in your orbit shouldn’t have to constantly remind you of the good things in your life.

Purpose

You should have a sense of how you matter to someone besides yourself.

Romance

Find someone you like listening to and looking at, then figure out what it takes to keep them around.

Lust

Don’t fall in love with someone just because they’re beautiful on the outside. Find something else to appreciate about them.

Emotions

Analyzing your emotions is like an interrogation for the truth, get to the bottom of it or you’ll catch the wrong culprit.

Rest & Recovery

A dead battery is no good to anyone. Don’t be a dead battery.

Confidence

The truth is that no one ever has confidence; they just get good at performing it.

Bullshit

If you understand confidence, you don’t need bullshit.

Humility

There’s always someone out there more intelligent than you.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

If you think anyone who criticizes you is wrong, then you’re probably an idiot.

Imposter Syndrome

If you’re actually worried about being an imposter, you’re not.

Double imposter syndrome

If you’re worried about being a fake who just thought they were concerned about being a fake, then you need a drink — and possibly a therapist. But odds are, you’re not a fake.

Mental health

If you need therapy and/or medication, and you go get them, then you should feel proud for taking care of yourself — never ashamed.

Likability

You don’t have to be a social guru — just don’t be antisocial.

Goals

Know what you can complete in five minutes and what can be accomplished in five years.

Productivity

It’s not about doing a hundred things but the handful that matter.

Procrastination

One good reason to do something you don’t want to is that, when it’s done, you won’t have to do it anymore.

Motivation

Nobody really wants to do anything at first. Finishing something always feels better than we think. In the middle of progress, that’s the sweet spot.

Boundaries

If you don’t guard your time, everyone will waste it for you.

Truth

Always tell the truth, but filter it for people you don’t trust — and surround yourself with people who do the same.

Leadership

A good leader makes good decisions for other people, sometimes at a cost to themselves.

Impressing People

If you actually want to impress someone, you’ll have to do it by accident, or you’ll come off like you’re trying too hard.

Failure

Take a break and try again, or give up. You’ll always be the only person who really cares about your success.

Success

Your efforts should lead to at least some of the results you want and keep you in business a little longer.

Overthinking

Thinking is good for you. Thinking in circles isn’t.

Envy

It’s OK to want what someone else has as long as you try to earn it.

Inspiration

Inspiration is admiring what someone else did and trying to figure out how they did it — so you can do it.

Innovation

The best ideas come from discomfort, frustration, and desperation — but they alleviate those conditions.

Mortality

If a genie granted us immortality, we’d spend 75 years playing our favorite video games, eating cereal, and quietly hating ourselves.

Fairness

Brooding over what you deserve but didn’t get is the most effective and lethal form of procrastination.

Anger

Give yourself permission to be angry — as long as you don’t resolve it using your fists, car, or hurtful words.

Fear

Don’t be afraid to try new things, even if they may seem intimidating at first — Embrace the adventure and live life to the fullest unless you’re running from a tiger is an experience.

The Future

The future is often more frightening than the present, but it always becomes the present eventually, so take a deep breath and relax.

Responsibility

A life where you’re constantly free and have no responsibilities might sound fun, but it would actually be boring.

Empathy

If you hate what someone is saying, try to think like them for a few minutes and see if you can realize they have a different perspective.

Complaining

Never talk about problems if you have no intention of solving them.

Revenge

Revenge is not a healthy emotion; it will only hold you back until you can deal with your issues.

Hardship

You aren’t given accolades for going through tough times — you only get praised when you make it to the other side.

Passion

Passion is often used to describe what we love; it’s simply a word for something you’re good at that you don’t make a profit at yet — but being good at it still requires practice and skill.

Curiosity

Except when someone asks you to juggle chainsaws, it’s great to live by questions like: “How does that work?” and “What happens if I try this?”

Morning Routines

A child’s smile is powerful, even if you’re not feeling your best. It can empower you to do something you wouldn’t usually feel like doing, like making breakfast.

Bad Days

Some days are more complex than others, but if you can get one thing done, that’s something to be grateful for.

Emergency Days

Sometimes seasons change, you develop a fever overnight, and you lose all productivity — that’s when you need to pause your everyday life and focus on yourself.

Trauma

Everyone experiences trauma, so you won’t get sympathy for your situation – but you will be rewarded when you overcome it.

Rewards vs. Awards

An award is given to you for your accomplishments, whereas a reward is something that you earn and improves your quality of life.

Procrastination

Every random ten minutes here and there adds up quickly.

Organization

Knowing where everything is will help greatly if you want to be more productive.

Minimalism

Having fewer belongings will give you less to worry about.

Trying Too Hard

Pushing yourself too hard at the beginning will make it harder to finish.

Health

Just because you’re 30 doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice chocolate and alcohol for eating kale and exercising.

No one said it’s gonna be easy, but it is definitely doable.

Though people often say life is easy peasy, it certainly isn’t. In fact, life is difficult and complicated. It’s possible to get through, though – we just overthink things sometimes and make them harder than they need to be. My mentors always challenged me to sift out unimportant details and focus on what actually matters.