Category: Turning Stories
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How wanting something less freed me up to do more
While it’s good to be passionate about your work, an overwhelming ambition—bordering on a need—to achieve or have something, sometimes this drive actually gets in the way. I learned this the hard way. I spent most of my 20s wanting to be a bestselling author—recognized by traditional publications, sold lots of books, invited to speeches,…
Herbert Lui
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Some people have it, some people don’t?
A few years ago, I wrote that writing is thinking. You are better off writing to think, not trying to think before you write. “But some people are just better at it,” Ant K writes in a comment (which Karolis recently agreed with). He compared his work with another author he held in high esteem.…
Herbert Lui
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Hangry
Hangry is an emotional state of being hungry and feeling angry. If I don’t eat, I get hangry. The longer I go, the hangrier I get. When I travelled with my friends, they would crack jokes as they reminded me to pack a snack bar. I used to get really upset with myself for feeling…
Herbert Lui
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Find an idea that’s easy to pick up and put down
One thing that made writing really frustrating for me early on was trying to complete a draft of an idea that I clearly didn’t have enough time to express. For example, there are many days when I have 15 minutes—maybe five!—to write. If I was still “stuck” in the middle of a draft that I’d…
Herbert Lui
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This is the perfect time
Image by Austin Chan If you’re reading this, you’re thinking, “I’m too late,” or “Other people are so much better at this than me,” or, “Why bother?” You’re probably feeling defeated, depressed, and a special kind of self-loathing that comes with awareness. You know that you shouldn’t feel this way. It’s not constructive. But you…
Herbert Lui
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Practice being bored
When was the last time you were the only person in the room not using your phone? You’re not as busy as you think. If you feel busy, it’s because you’re running away from feeling bored. While boredom feels really bad at first, it comes with a lot of benefits. For starters, it frees your…
Herbert Lui
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You vs. the parasite
I did bookkeeping for my first year of business. One year was enough for me. It was boring and very spreadsheet–heavy, and I knew I never wanted to do it again. So I did what I thought savvy entrepreneurs called “delegating.” I hired a bookkeeping and accounting firm to do it for me, and I…
Herbert Lui
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“Never do nothing”
It was earlier in his life, perhaps when he worked in finance, that Dave Spitz picked up a belief: “If you do everything on your to-do list, you’re succeeding. If you don’t, you’re failing.” Dave quit finance and eventually started California Strength, a training facility for Olympic weightlifting. While he owns a gym, he doesn’t…
Herbert Lui
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One chance
Dan Sullivan is a coach for entrepreneurs. He asks every prospective client a question, “If we were having this discussion three years from today, and you were looking back over those three years, what has to have happened in your life, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy with your progress?” It’s a…
Herbert Lui
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What’s the point?
“What’s the point in planning, if it could all end at any time?” Dustin Gorton survived the Columbine massacre at age 18. He learned how fleeting life can be that day. A blog attributes a powerful reflection to him, penned when he turned 36. It reads, “I came away with the [lesson that] death is…
Herbert Lui