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.

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1. Live For Others

• The best way to be safe is to help others be safe.
• The best way to be connected is to help others be connected.
• People look out for each other. You are lifted by those around you.

On Connection

• Ask open-ended questions. Ask them to elaborate on whatever they’ve said.
• Allow silence. Show that you’re interested.
• Be warm, open, and fully present with everyone you encounter.

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2. Get Rich

• Making money is proof you’re adding value to people’s lives. Think about what’s valuable to others.
• Making money is a skill. Learn it and practice it as you would do anything else.
• Own and control 100% of what you create. Stay 100% focused on creating value.

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3. Reinvent Yourself Regularly

• Definitions are not reasons. Definitions are just your old responses to past situations.
• Your past is not your future. There is no consistency. Nothing is congruent.
• Disconnect from your past. Keep nothing permanent. It’s liberating.

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4. Love

• Love is a combination of attention, appreciation, and empathy.
• Actively listen to people. But never try to fix them.
• Admit what you’re really feeling, even when it’s uncomfortable. Honesty is deep.

The more you really connect with people, the more you learn about yourself: what excites you, what drains you, what attracts you, and what intimidates you.

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5. Create

• Don’t wait for inspiration. Do your work everyday, no matter what.
• Don’t just express yourself. Discover yourself.
• Create questions, not answers. Explore whatever excites you most.
• When your creation is good enough, let it go. Release it, so it can go out into the world, without you.

If you are proud of what you made, it was a success. Success comes not from the crowd, but from feeling proud.

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6. Don’t Die

• Avoid failure to survive. Be less wrong. Win by not losing.
• Avoid the bad. Focus on avoiding the downsides.
• Death reminds us that time is limited and precious. Death gives value to life.

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7. Make a Million Mistakes

• Try everything, all the time, expecting everything to fail.
• Capture the lessons from each experience.
• Ignore every warning. Learn by hands-on experience.

If you’re never wrong, you never change. Keep making mistakes, so you can keep changing, learning, and growing.

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8. Make Change

• Change the world as much as you can.
• Nothing improves without action. You have to go change things yourself.
• Progress comes from those who ignore boundaries, break the rules, or make a whole new game.

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9. Balance Everything

• Virtue is in the balance between extremes.
• Keep your impulses in check, and protect what’s important to you.
• Balance your needs versus the needs of others.

Balance your knowledge. Balance your political opinion. Balance the abilities of your body. Balance two languages. Balance your response to situations. Balance the world.

Help lift up those who have been pushed down. Balance justice. Balance human nature.

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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