589. What You Are Today

You are today, the sum total of all the choices and decisions you made in the past. You have no-one to thank or to blame but yourself. It is good to remember this when taking new decisions.

588. When the Going Gets Tough

When the going gets tough, the only alternative to disaster is to get up and fight back.

587. Walk Faster

Observe your normal walking pace and increase it by 25%.

586. A Wolf

Learn to be a Wolf. Know that you will often have to create your own opportunities. You can get on in the world either by your own industry alone or in combination with the weaknesses of others.

585. Winners

If you want to be a winner, keep the company of winners and avoid that of losers.  After all, we winners are outnumbered 10:1 at least.

584. "Common Sense"

Cultivate what is known as your Common Sense. It is not common at all. It is the least practiced virtue in the world. Common sense is not always good and good sense is not always common.

583. Philosophy and Wisdom

Remember Why you are studying Philosophy. Philosophy is defined as the Love of  Wisdom. You are studying to be Wise. Make sure that every day you grow a little wiser. To do this is to ensure that your life is not wasted. A wise man will always be bigger than his problems. To a wise man, problems are simply situations that require his attention. Because of who you are as a man, by definition you are far greater than any situation. Keep learning and growing so that you will always be greater than any problem.


Do not set out to cause yourself problems; always try to circumvent them where you can. Problems are inevitable. There will always be problems. Learn to be bigger than the problems.


It can be very useful to re-frame (re-name) the word "Problem" as "Challenge" or "Situation Requiring My Attention" (SRMA) . This re-framing puts a distance between you and the event and gives you a better perspective on it. This also robs the word of its power to obstruct you. So long as you see something as a problem, then you have to wrestle with it. When you call it a challenge then you simply rise to meet and defeat it. A thing called a problem keeps you stuck, called a challenge, the same thing makes you take action. Seek the company of problem solvers and learn their techniques.