I’m always wary of sharing lists of life-related tips in my emails.

Anyone can find counterexamples if they look hard enough, or misinterpret or butcher a standalone tip.

But today I’m going to buck my own trend.

So if you’re the cynical type who always looks to poke holes or who takes great pleasure in proving things wrong, here’s what I suggest:

Don't ask yourself "why is this wrong?".  Ask yourself “why might this be right?” instead.

Okay. 

Enough beating around the bush.

On to it.

Here’s a list of life-advice tips which once upon a time I would’ve spotted in a book or two and nodded sagely at without really understanding what was going on.

The tip would look good on paper and not much else.

But the tips below don't just look “good on paper”.  They look real & true to me.  I’ve road-tested them.  They’re tips which, to my mind, point to how we can get the most out of life and to how life really works.

Here goes:

1.  You can’t solve a feeling

2.  Discover your blind spots

3.  If your gut speaks to you, listen to it

4.  Get curious about your relationship with your thoughts

5.  If you don’t make mistakes, you probably won’t make anything

6.  Forget what works for other people.  Find out what works for you

7.  Whenever you feel you “should”, ask yourself “do I really want to?”

8.  Pain comes from resisting situations which are outside your control

9.  Being okay with not being okay is the best route to being okay again

10.  There’s nothing wrong with you.  There’s nothing wrong with anyone

11.  Self-awareness is the path to a happier, more peaceful & more fulfilling life

12.  You cannot think your way out of a problem your own thoughts have created

13.  Don’t focus on perfect choices & outcomes.  Focus on more right & more wrong

I’ll also add:

None of these tips is a magic pill.  They all require thinking, testing, internalising and asking “what does this mean for me?”.

(tip #6 in action – very meta!)

You could say the tips are the signposts, not the destination.  They’re directions to look or explorations to be had.  They go much deeper than just the words on the page.

This is why each tip could have a book written about it.

Or, at the very least, a jovial and light-hearted daily email.

It wouldn't be the first time.  I’ve written about a few of these in the past and will, I’m sure, write about them again in the future.

And if you want to influence this, I have an offer for you today.

If there’s a tip you’d like me to write more about, hit reply.

In your reply, let me know which of these tips feels most true to you and which feels most unfamiliar or off the mark.

Then let me know which tip you’d like to hear more about (can be different to the two you’ve already flagged).

As I said already, there’s a good chance I’ll write more about these in a daily email anyway.  

But this is your chance to jump the queue.

That’s all for today.

- Tom