I once saw Bruce Mau’s incomplete manifesto for growth. After reflecting on his living and working patterns, I loved how he put together his answer to this question and asked himself: What is really valuable here? How might these patterns be helpful to others?

This is my way of expressing it and bringing more clarity into my thinking.

Many of these ideas are borrowed from great thinkers of the present and the past, and I will add more links and references in the future.

Gratitude journal. Every day, I write at least three things I am grateful for in my journal. This habit helps me focus on the positive things to appreciate and see more during the day.

Keep a “victory log”. Along with my journal, I keep track of what I consider a “victory” to celebrate in a personal, professional or learning context. It’s a good list to check when I feel I am struggling with something, to remind me of how far I have come.

Live below your means. I don’t “upgrade” my lifestyle with my income. This habit helped me have a degree of freedom in more challenging moments. I also like to think of a “plan B” in case dramatic events happen, and it gives me more confidence and freedom.

Prioritize sleep and no alcohol before sleep. Never drink alcohol close to bedtime, at most four hours earlier; this habit, along with eating lightly at night and not eating anything three hours before bed, dramatically improved my sleep quality. It’s also a way to appreciate the positive side of having small kids and not being able to go out for dinner.

Hell yeah or no! it’s a very effective “decision razor” in today’s world of infinite possibilities and FOMO. All that is not an immediate “hell yeah”; it’s a “no”. With this in mind, I try not to jump into the one thousand things that my infinite curiosity would lead me into.

Before I say yes, act as if it’s tomorrow. Another quick “decision razor”. Since we discount the value of future time, it’s easy to commit to something in the future, and then when the time comes, we regret having committed to that and change our decision. This “mental time travel” combined with the “hell yeah or no” are a very effective combination.

The stoic archer: We control how well we prepare, our decisions and actions, and ultimately, we can’t control the final outcome of our actions, so we should accept the outcome and realize that it’s not always in our power. If we do our best, we can be at peace regardless of the outcome.

Accept it, change it, or leave it. A very practical approach for dealing with things we don’t like. We can accept them, change them or leave them, and what we should not do is complain about them and wish them to change, and at the same time, not do anything to change them nor leave them.

Will that matter if I die tomorrow? Another very effective “reality check” for all the big “dramas” that unfold sometimes. In the heat of the moment, I try to ask myself this question and get some perspective.

Short-term pessimist, long-term optimist. Thinking that things will get worse in the short term and preparing for the worst while at the same time keeping a positive outlook for the long term. Helps me to have a long-term perspective and do the “hard stuff” first.

Increase the luck surface: my “lottery tickets". I see every interaction and everything I share as “lottery tickets”. I do it because I thoroughly enjoy it, and I do it for the sake of it; at the same time, I love to think that each thing I share is a lottery ticket. I never know who might see it and what can happen, and the more I share the stuff I love, the more lottery tickets I get.

Diversify

Extreme curiosity

Enjoy the process

Productize yourself

Always do your best

Work that feels like play

Which wolf do we feed?

Progress over perfection

Patience and compounding

Intersections and Portfolio Life

External value depends on the context

Escape competition through authenticity

Promoting yourself vs promoting your ideas: self-promotion focuses on showcasing ourselves and seeking personal recognition, while idea promotion is all about sharing valuable stuff and hoping to benefit others, and having better reach ourselves is a means to that end. So, I want people to discover me without wanting to appear to be acting in a self-serving way. My priority is helping people and having an impact.

Fear of speaking in public: I reframed my "fear of speaking in public" to "I feel deep respect for the people in this room and I want to do my best”

Ask for help

Ask for feedback

Always reach out

Pass the plane test

The 1% assholes rule

Put the fish on the table

Planting seeds or weeds

Have 1:1 instead of 1:many

Keep a diary of interactions

Humour is your superpower

Your vibe attracts your tribe

Happy to help, and generosity

The average of the five people

The personal board of advisors

Deeper questions: what is your story?

Pretend there’s a camera crew filming

Interact with the person, not the content

Each feels they have the best of the deal

Play long-term games with long-term people

Pick partners with intelligence, energy and integrity

Sharing our feelings. Vulnerability doesn't mean being reckless or indiscriminate in sharing our personal information. It involves a thoughtful and selective approach to sharing our feelings and experiences with people we trust. Recognizing we're human, with all our flaws, not trying to chase an ideal that we can not reach and that will only cause you to lie, especially to ourselves, and depriving us of our potential.

Reveal other people's superpowers: don’t fall into the trap of not recognizing the greatness of others, because it might undermine ours. It’s like we are “more” by making other people “less”. Which is, of course, totally wrong, and I would dare say it’s the complete opposite.

Slack time and “busyness”. We don’t have to look like we are always 100% busy and "on fire" at every moment. We should normalize having some free capacity or slack and then use that slack for personal growth and projects, that, in the long term, will also benefit the company we work in.

Gratitude at work: we can almost always find something to be grateful for, each day, and when we have the habit of noticing these little things, we start seeing more and more.

Slack and free capacity vs busyness. We don’t have to look like we are always 100% busy and "on fire" at every moment. We should normalize having some free capacity or slack and then use that slack for personal growth and projects, that, in the long term, will also benefit the company we work in.