3-2-1: On the shortness of life, what mastery requires, and how to overlap the things you love

“Mastery requires both impatience and patience.

The impatience to have a bias toward action, to not waste time, and to work with a sense of urgency each day.

The patience to delay gratification, to wait for your actions to accumulate, and to trust the process.”

Most of the time, “What should I do with my life?” is a terrible question. “What should I do with this tennis serve?” “What should I do with this line at Starbucks?” “What should I do with this traffic jam?” “How should I respond to the anger I feel welling up in my chest?” These are better questions. Excellence is the next five minutes, improvemen

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You have two essential tasks in life: to be a good person and to pursue the occupation that you love. Everything else is a waste of energy and a squandering of your potential. How does one do that? OK, that’s a tougher question. But the philosophy we see from the Stoics makes it simple enough: say no to distractions, to destructive emotions, to out

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