The Goal of This Post

This post is a synthesis from the book How to Live, by Derek Sivers, sharing bold, inspiring and conflicting ideas on how to live a meaningful life.

---

1. Be Independent

• Misery comes from dependency. Stay unlabeled and unbound.
• The opinion that matters is your own. Decide for yourself.
• Decide everything is your fault. Blame only yourself.
• You don’t see things as they are. You see them as you are.

—

2. Commit

• Your dedication and actions make any choice great.
• Get the deeper pleasure of diving into one choice.
• Commit to one career path. Build your expertise and reputation over time.
• Endurance is rare. Commitment gives you peace of mind.

—

3. Fill Your Senses

• Maximize your inputs. Be insatiable.
• How to experience it all? Nothing twice. Everything only once.
• Be a stranger in a strange land. Never go down a road you recognize.

Have no expectation of how something should be, or you won’t see how it really is.

—

4. Do Nothing

• All actions are optional. You don’t have to act or react. You don’t have to do anything.
• Change your need to change things.
• Say nothing unless it must be said.
• The less you do, the more you can see. Observe and learn. Watch the world.

—

5. Think Super Long-Term

• Serve the future. Do small things now with huge benefits for your older self.
• Actions amplify through time to have a massive impact on the future.
• Imagine your future self judging your current life choices.
• When you choose a behavior, you choose its future consequences.

Your future self is depending on you. Use the compounding amplifier of time.

—

6. Intertwine With The World

• Moving across the world makes you smarter, because you stop thinking you’re always right.
• Traveling makes you better at communicating, since you can’t assume familiarity, and must speak simply and clearly.
• Ask questions until you understand why things are the way they are.

—

7. Make Memories

• Do memorable things. Experience the unusual. Pursue novelty. Replace your routines.
• Document everything, or you’ll eventually forget it.
• Journal every day. Video everything. To enjoy your past is to live twice.

Turn your experiences into stories. Make a story for the things you want to remember.

—

8. Master Something

• Striving makes you happy. Pursuit is the opposite of depression.
• Decisions are easy when you have only one priority.
• You need ritual, not inspiration. Every day, no matter what, you must practice.

Define “success” for yourself. Describe the outcome you want. Do it for the journey, not the destination.

—

9. Let Randomness Rule

• Life is more random than it seems. You are less random than you seem.
• Randomize your life. Randomness keeps your mind open and observant.
• Randomness helps you learn acceptance. Neither upset nor joy – just seeing it as it is.

Stuff happens. All you can control is your response. Practice how to react to chaos: with dignity, poise, and grace.

---

All content credit goes to the author(s). I’ve shared the bits I’ve enjoyed the most and found most useful.

Cheers ’til next time! Saludos!
Alberto