Hey everyone,
Today is my birthday! As I’ve done for five straight years, here is my list of birthday advice. Check out my previous lists when I turned 43, 44, 45, and 46.
Big thank you to Kevin Kelly for the original inspiration on doing these!
Here we go…
1. The best hostess gift is doing the dishes.
2. Money makes you happy but more money does not make you happier.
3. Taste knows taste: When your favorite restaurant is full, ask for their favorite restaurant.
4. Never book a massage at a place with a 20-page color brochure.
5. No one cares how much you lift. The only true flex is good form.
6. Don’t yuck someone’s yum.
7. Often the things you wouldn’t have done are the things you’re gladdest you did.
8. Slower you eat it, longer you taste it.
9. Sign of relationship health: When times are tough you need more time together.
10. If you’re cold when you start walking, you’ll be perfect when you get walking.
11. In the workplace: Behaviors allowed are behaviors created.
12. Face lotion on body? Sumptuous. Body lotion on face? Sticky.
13. Better to have a kid you need to tone down than tone up.
14. Always buy a backpack with a chest strap.
15. When playing music from your phone into your car turn the volume up on the phone—not the car.
16. My 8yo taught me: Immediate family is anyone who would come, immediately.
17. When city biking, remember your priority is being safe—not being right.
18. When opening a yogurt on a plane, open it away from you.
19. Big in the small town, big in the small town. Big in the big town, big in all towns.
20. For better French toast: Triple the cinnamon, triple the vanilla.
21. For a long life, health. For a very long life, luck.
22. Boating tip: Better to hit something going slow than going fast.
23. Don’t tell people your dreams unless they’re in them. Even then, wait a day.
24. Wedding advice: When the party is really rocking slink off and stand on a chair in a corner to really burn the scene into your memory.
25. You don’t have to be friends with everybody but you do have to be friendly to everybody.
26. Beware services that add beauty but subtract soul.
27. Exhaustion often masquerades as hunger.
28. Keep an extra toothbrush in your suitcase.
29. People working boring jobs often have no one to talk to and a lot to say.
30. The best way to complain is to create.
31. Stop “shoulding” on yourself.
32. If you think something’s going to be good it’s more likely to be good.
33. To make the microwave leftovers taste more gourmet, add 30 seconds.
34. Show some color: Never buy a black or white car.
35. You can plan the vacation but you can’t plan what you’ll like the most.
36. The more things you make the more good things you make.
37. The only real test of intelligence is whether you get what you want out of life.
38. The best clue for what someone wants is what they give.
39. Rough rule of thumb on little kids: 1 to walk, 2 to talk.
40. Writing tip: If it’s not interesting to you, it’s not interesting.
41. Before buying something expensive, get three quotes.
42. To calm someone angry: Repeat what they're telling you they're angry about.
43. When you go into your neighbor’s backyard to get your ball, don’t look in the windows.
44. Kindness is wiping the pee off the public toilet.
45. When the pancakes start bubbling they’re ready to flip.
46. If you use the crutch when you don’t need the crutch you will need the crutch.
47. Vanity is a great motivator.
I’m pretty sure I stole all of these but some specific credits: (5) Agostino Mazzarelli, (22) An Richardson, (24) Erik Lundgren, (30) Maria Popova, (37) Naval Ravikant…