If you let pride stop you, you will hate life

I gauge success in years, not weeks. The weekend box-office approach to book launches is short sighted and encourages crappy books.

I discourage passive skepticism, which is the armchair variety where people sit back and criticize without ever subjecting their theories or themselves to real field testing.

Role models who push us to exceed our limits, physical training that removes our spare tires, and risks that expand our sphere of comfortable action are all examples of eustress—stress that is healthful and the stimulus for growth.

I'm not a fan of idleness, except in small doses.

I value self-discipline, but creating systems that make it next to impossible to misbehave is more reliable than self-control.

Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure-all. When people suggest you follow your "passion" or your "bliss," I propose that they are, in fact, referring to the same singular concept: excitement. This brings us full circle. The question you should be asking isn't, "What do I want?" or "What are my goals?" but "What would excite me?"