Lessons Learned in 2023 - An Add On to the 2023 Mega Recap

In my 2023 Mega Recap post - this section was mistakenly left out. It was the most important one for me to share so dropping it here.

Sorry for the double email, but hope you get something out of it!

Lessons Learned

• Optimism is a moral obligation. - David Deutsch. Being optimistic is the belief that we can create new solutions to the problems we are facing today. Therefore it is a moral obligation to remain optimistic in spite of the circumstances.
• Direction, not intention, determines your destination. - Andy Stanley. We must align ourselves properly first to get the desired outcomes we seek. You can't just want to do it bad enough, you have also be headed in the right direction. To quote J. Cole - Love Yourz, "The good news is you came a long way, the bad news is you went the wrong way." Ensuring you're running in the right direction is such an underrated part of success.
• Systems, not goals. - Scott Adams. Goals are what you hope to achieve in the future. Systems are the things you do consistently to get there. Goals are intentions, systems are direction (see above).
• There's a difference between a decision-maker and a leader. Both leaders and decision-makers focus on the what and the how. Leaders also have to focus on the who and the why. Leadership is a responsibility, whereas decision-making is a role. As a leader, you are empowered by those who you are leading. As a decision-maker, you are empowered by the structure you are in. Leaders are chosen every day by the people they are leading. Decision makers were chosen by others.
• It's not what you can do, but what you can repeat. The willingness to do things again and again and again over increasingly longer periods of time is what separates a life well lived from a lived life. In the words of Morgan Housel, it's better to have average returns over an above-average period of time than to try to optimize for short-term gains.
• There exist only four true boundaries in life: imagination, belief, curiosity, and commitment. These are the sole factors that truly have the power to limit you. Imagination pertains to your capacity to envision a future that isn't yet a tangible reality in your present surroundings. Belief is the trust you place in your own abilities, utilizing the knowledge, skills, and resources at your disposal to bring an idea into existence. Curiosity is your eagerness to engage with and explore new experiences and concepts. Commitment is your dedication to persevere and bring tasks or projects to their fruition. These four elements are the only things that you can use to limit yourself, and when you broaden any one of these, your entire world expands exponentially.