4176: 7 Alternative Ways to Evaluate Your Life Every Day by Chris Guillebeau on Defining Success

Get the 200+ Page Optimal Living Daily Workbook (PDF) - Free. Want to turn today's episode into an actionable plan? Join the Optimal Living Weekly newsletter and I'll send you our 200-page digital workbook immediately. It's packed with the best takeaways from the show, formatted for easy reading and implementation at home. Get your free PDF workbook here: https://oldpodcast.eo.page/join Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com Episode 4176: Chris Guillebeau offers seven alternative ways to judge a day, starting with the simple question of whether today mattered. He suggests defining success the night before, doing the avoided task before anything else, inventing personal metrics that fit a whole life rather than only work goals, and counting the moments that actually felt happy. The through line is that a life needs daily measures, not only long term goals. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://chrisguillebeau.com/7-alternative-ways-to-evaluate-your-life-every-day/ Quotes to ponder: "Did today matter? If so, great. Do more things like it tomorrow." "There's one sure-fire way to get that thing done that you've been putting off: do it before you do anything else." "Take the time to actually write down your answers" Optimal Living Daily is a daily personal development and self-improvement podcast where we narrate the best self-help articles on minimalism, productivity, and intentional living, read to you by a professional narrator so you can live your best life a little more every day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get the 200+ Page Optimal Living Daily Workbook (PDF) - Free. Want to turn today's episode into an actionable plan? Join the Optimal Living Weekly newsletter and I'll send you our 200-page digital workbook immediately. It's packed with the best takeaways from the show, formatted for easy reading and implementation at home. Get your free PDF workbook here: https://oldpodcast.eo.page/join Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com Episode 4175: Cal Newport explains how he fits an ambitious workload into a nine to five week by choosing the schedule first and forcing everything else to fit around it. He serializes his projects, sets honest and often distant delivery dates, refuses or drops work that will not fit, and turns recurring tasks into fixed habits. The result is a productivity system built on a hard boundary rather than on finding more hours. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2008/02/15/fixed-schedule-productivity-how-i-accomplish-a-large-amount-of-work-in-a-small-number-of-work-hours/ Quotes to ponder: "Choose a schedule of work hours that you think provides the ideal balance of effort and relaxation." "Fix the schedule you want. Then make everything else fit around your needs." "In the end you're judged on your large-scale list of important completions." Optimal Living Daily is a daily personal development and self-improvement podcast where we narrate the best self-help articles on minimalism, productivity, and intentional living, read to you by a professional narrator so you can live your best life a little more every day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get the 200+ Page Optimal Living Daily Workbook (PDF) - Free. Want to turn today's episode into an actionable plan? Join the Optimal Living Weekly newsletter and I'll send you our 200-page digital workbook immediately. It's packed with the best takeaways from the show, formatted for easy reading and implementation at home. Get your free PDF workbook here: https://oldpodcast.eo.page/join Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com Episode 4174: Richard Paterson explains why a busy mind hides the peace that is already present, opening with Eckhart Tolle's story of a beggar who sat for years on a box full of gold. He describes peak experiences as brief gaps in thought that reveal an unchanging awareness underneath, and compares mental noise to fog around a lighthouse that only appears to dim the beam. The practice he recommends is learning to watch the mind rather than be carried along by it. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.thinklessandgrowrich.com/how-to-quieten-the-mind/ Quotes to ponder: "When the mind is quiet, the peace, love and joy of your true Self naturally shines through." "The task is to quieten our busy minds enough to notice the gold underneath." "In the absence of mental activity, we catch a glimpse of the gold within." Optimal Living Daily is a daily personal development and self-improvement podcast where we narrate the best self-help articles on minimalism, productivity, and intentional living, read to you by a professional narrator so you can live your best life a little more every day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get the 200+ Page Optimal Living Daily Workbook (PDF) - Free. Want to turn today's episode into an actionable plan? Join the Optimal Living Weekly newsletter and I'll send you our 200-page digital workbook immediately. It's packed with the best takeaways from the show, formatted for easy reading and implementation at home. Get your free PDF workbook here: https://oldpodcast.eo.page/join Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com Episode 4173: James Altucher explains how the back half of his learning system compresses the ten thousand hour rule into something reachable. He argues that failure is the most useful teacher available, that energy across physical, emotional, creative and spiritual health decides how much learning is even possible, and that improving one percent a day compounds into a thirty-eight fold gain in a year. The closing step is the plainest one: reading about a skill is not the same as practicing it. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://archive.jamesaltucher.com/blog/seven-steps-learn-master-anything/ Quotes to ponder: "Without energy, you can't learn." "You can't learn as much from succeeding because it's harder to pinpoint where mistakes are" "One percent a day = 3800 percent a year." Optimal Living Daily is a daily personal development and self-improvement podcast where we narrate the best self-help articles on minimalism, productivity, and intentional living, read to you by a professional narrator so you can live your best life a little more every day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get the 200+ Page Optimal Living Daily Workbook (PDF) - Free. Want to turn today's episode into an actionable plan? Join the Optimal Living Weekly newsletter and I'll send you our 200-page digital workbook immediately. It's packed with the best takeaways from the show, formatted for easy reading and implementation at home. Get your free PDF workbook here: https://oldpodcast.eo.page/join Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com Episode 4172: James Altucher explains how he stopped failing at everything he tried to learn and built a method for learning instead. In this first part he argues the 10,000-hour rule can be hacked, and lays out his Plus, Minus, Equal approach of studying mentors, teaching the people behind you, and trading notes with peers at your own level. He then breaks any pursuit down into the micro-skills that real personal development actually requires. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://archive.jamesaltucher.com/blog/seven-steps-learn-master-anything/ Quotes to ponder: "Find people who love what you love and spend as much time talking about this shared area as you can." "If you can't explain in a simple way, then you need to learn more." "You can't learn as much from succeeding because it's harder to pinpoint where mistakes are" Optimal Living Daily is a daily personal development and self-improvement podcast where we narrate the best self-help articles on minimalism, productivity, and intentional living, read to you by a professional narrator so you can live your best life a little more every day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get the 200+ Page Optimal Living Daily Workbook (PDF) - Free. Want to turn today's episode into an actionable plan? Join the Optimal Living Weekly newsletter and I'll send you our 200-page digital workbook immediately. It's packed with the best takeaways from the show, formatted for easy reading and implementation at home. Get your free PDF workbook here: https://oldpodcast.eo.page/join Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com Episode 4171: Colin Wright explains the value of a Stoic buffer between yourself and the world, the quarter-second pause that lets you choose a response instead of reacting. He then makes the opposite case, that a philosophy held one hundred percent of the time is less useful than one held ninety-nine percent, and that some sunsets and some sorrows are better felt than assessed. The takeaway is that emotional resilience includes knowing when to drop the guard on purpose. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://exilelifestyle.com/flappability/ Quotes to ponder: "To recognize that you cannot control what's happening to you, but you can control how you respond to it." "Absolutism seldom leads to optimal outcomes." "It's like working hard to strengthen your grip, only to realize that learning to unclench and relax the muscle is just as vital as the opposite." Optimal Living Daily is a daily personal development and self-improvement podcast where we narrate the best self-help articles on minimalism, productivity, and intentional living, read to you by a professional narrator so you can live your best life a little more every day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get the 200+ Page Optimal Living Daily Workbook (PDF) - Free. Want to turn today's episode into an actionable plan? Join the Optimal Living Weekly newsletter and I'll send you our 200-page digital workbook immediately. It's packed with the best takeaways from the show, formatted for easy reading and implementation at home. Get your free PDF workbook here: https://oldpodcast.eo.page/join Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com Episode 4170: David Cain explains why the familiar advice to stop being so hard on yourself is usually bad advice. He points out that people who excel with money, health, or work almost all hold themselves to clear personal rules, and that those rules remove hundreds of small negotiations rather than removing freedom. His case is that a standard you set for yourself is a good decision made in advance, and that the real constraint is having no standards at all. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.raptitude.com/2017/07/wise-people-have-rules-for-themselves/ Quotes to ponder: "your quality of life improves when you set clear standards for how you live" "A good personal standard clarifies and simplifies, eliminating what would be countless painful decision points." "Instead of going by mood or whim, you already know what you will do and what you won't." Optimal Living Daily is a daily personal development and self-improvement podcast where we narrate the best self-help articles on minimalism, productivity, and intentional living, read to you by a professional narrator so you can live your best life a little more every day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Winding down for the night? Take a few minutes to slow down, clear your head, and find your center with our newest podcast, Step Into Calm: Daily Walking Meditations. Listen and subscribe to the full feed here: Step Into Calm Get the 200+ Page Optimal Living Daily Workbook (PDF) - Free. Want to turn today's episode into an actionable plan? Join the Optimal Living Weekly newsletter and I'll send you our 200-page digital workbook immediately. It's packed with the best takeaways from the show, formatted for easy reading and implementation at home. Get your free PDF workbook here: https://oldpodcast.eo.page/join Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com Episode 4169: In this Step Into Calm bonus episode, Justin guides you through a ten-minute evening walking meditation built to unwind the day before bed. Take 1,000 steps at your own pace while your breath slows, your shoulders drop, and the day's loose ends settle, so you reach the end of the night calm and ready for deeper rest. Optimal Living Daily is a daily personal development and self-improvement podcast where we narrate the best self-help articles on minimalism, productivity, and intentional living, read to you by a professional narrator so you can live your best life a little more every day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get the 200+ Page Optimal Living Daily Workbook (PDF) - Free. Want to turn today's episode into an actionable plan? Join the Optimal Living Weekly newsletter and I'll send you our 200-page digital workbook immediately. It's packed with the best takeaways from the show, formatted for easy reading and implementation at home. Get your free PDF workbook here: https://oldpodcast.eo.page/join Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com Episode 4168: Allison Carmen describes a client whose mood swung with every turn of the morning, and the four-part daily practice she offered in response: gratitude at both ends of the day, the mantra of Maybe, deliberate awareness of emotional dips, and small planned moments of joy. She is clear that the practice does not remove sadness or anxiety. It keeps ordinary setbacks from taking over the whole day. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.allisoncarmen.com/are-you-on-an-emotional-rollercoaster-everyday/ Quotes to ponder: "Having this daily practice does not mean you will never feel sad, negative or anxious." "The more aware we become of the things that throw us off course, the less we will allow daily experiences to overcome our inner joy and path." "With Maybe we can return to the present peacefully and have hope for the future." Optimal Living Daily is a daily personal development and self-improvement podcast where we narrate the best self-help articles on minimalism, productivity, and intentional living, read to you by a professional narrator so you can live your best life a little more every day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get the 200+ Page Optimal Living Daily Workbook (PDF) - Free. Want to turn today's episode into an actionable plan? Join the Optimal Living Weekly newsletter and I'll send you our 200-page digital workbook immediately. It's packed with the best takeaways from the show, formatted for easy reading and implementation at home. Get your free PDF workbook here: https://oldpodcast.eo.page/join Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com Episode 4167: Lori Deschene revisits the years she spent convinced she was failing because she had no sense of purpose yet. She explains that the obstacle was never the uncertainty but the belief that she should already have had an answer, and that the search itself was time well spent. Her takeaway is that direction comes from following instincts in the present rather than waiting for a guarantee about the future. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://tinybuddha.com/blog/feel-purposeless-fear-youre-wasting-time/ Quotes to ponder: "My biggest obstacle wasn't that I felt lost; it was that I felt I shouldn't be." "There's no set timeframe for doing anything." "The only one who can make wise decisions for you is you." Optimal Living Daily is a daily personal development and self-improvement podcast where we narrate the best self-help articles on minimalism, productivity, and intentional living, read to you by a professional narrator so you can live your best life a little more every day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices