35 Fast Tips to Make This Your Best Year Yet by Robin Sharma

1. Remember that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your thoughts.
2. Keep the promises you make to others – and to yourself.
3. The project that most scares you is the project you need to do first.
4. Small daily improvements are the key to staggering long-term results.
5. Stop being busy being busy. This New Year, clean out the distractions from your work+life and devote to a monomaniacal focus on the few things that matter.
6. Read “The War of Art”.
7. Watch “The Fighter”.
8. In a world where technology is causing some of us to forget how to act human, become the politest person you know.
9. Remember that all great ideas were first ridiculed.
10. Remember that critics are dreamers gone scared.
11. Be “Apple-Like” in your obsession with getting the details right.
12. Take 60 minutes every weekend to craft a blueprint for the coming seven days. As Saul Bellow once said: “A plan relieves you of the torment of choice.”
13. Release your need to be liked this New Year. You can’t be a visionary if you long to be liked.
14. Disrupt or be disrupted.
15. Hire a personal trainer to get you into the best shape of your life. Superstars focus on the value they receive versus the cost of the service.
16. Give your teammates, customers and family one of the greatest gifts of all: the gift of your attention (and presence).
17. Every morning ask yourself: “How may I best serve the most people?”
18. Every night ask yourself: “What 5 good things happened to me this day?”
19. Don’t waste your most valuable hours (the morning) doing low value work.
20. Leave every project you touch at work better than you found it.
21. Your job is not just to work. Your job is to leave a trail of leaders behind you.
22. A job is not “just a job”. Every job is a gorgeous vehicle to express your gifts and talents – and to model exceptionalism for all around you.
23. Fears unfaced become your limits.
24. Get up at 5 am and take 60 minutes to prepare your mind, body, emotions and spirit to be remarkable during the hours that follow. Being a superstar is not the domain of the gifted but the prepared.
25. Write love letters to your family.
26. Smile at strangers.
27. Drink more water.
28. Keep a journal. Your life’s story is worth recording.
29. Do more than you’re paid to do and do work that leaves your teammates breathless.
30. Leave your ego at the door every morning.
31. Set 5 daily goals every morning. These small wins will lead to nearly 2000 little victories by the end of the year.
32. Say “please” and “thank you”.
33. Remember the secret to happiness is doing work that matters and being an instrument of service.
34. Don’t be the richest person in the graveyard. Health is wealth.
35. Life’s short. The greatest risk is risk-less living. And settling for average.

Rules for The Remarkable

by Robin Sharma

1. Give more than you take.

2. Be the most optimistic person you know.

3. Remember that manners matter.

4. If you’re not innovating, you’re on a descent into obsolescence.

5. Your work and personal life reflect your standards and self-worth.

6. Doing your best work is a core secret of sustained happiness. We spend most of our lives at work so why not aim for genius at it?

7. Business is about relationships. And if you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business.

8. Every moment in front of a customer is an opportunity to express your most important values. And to make a difference (another of the truths of happiness).

9. See your work as a craft, not just a job. And practice every day.

10. Remember, your physical fitness is directly tied to how successful you are at work.

11. Remember that whether you’re building a business or growing a family, you’re a creative artist.

12. Be the first to greet others vs waiting to be greeted (I learned this one from Nelson Mandela)

13. Use the language of leadership vs the phrases of victims (like “there’s a problem here” or “I have some bad news” or “I’m in trouble” or “this will never work” or “I’m always tired”).

14. Refuse to allow any form of mediocrity into any touchpoint of your life.

15. Enjoy possessions but don’t be owned by them.

16. Remember that blaming others is excusing yourself.

17. The fears you don’t face become your chains. (And every fear you embrace causes growth in your confidence and personal power…my new book “The Secret Letters from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” is all about how to achieve this).

18. A problem’s only a problem if you choose to process it as a problem.

19. Honor excellence.

20. Pursue beauty.

21. Appreciate firefighters, teachers and mothers… the real heroes of this world versus reality show celebrities who make fortunes in their race to the bottom.

22. Inspire your teammates.

23. Work harder than is common.

24. Make today’s work better than yesterday’s.

25. To double your income, triple your rate of learning (and personal growth).

26. Use your life to have an Impact… while you create a gorgeous lifestyle for yourself and those you love.

SALVADOR DALI

“Salvador Dali’s art is like that of no other painter. He saw the world through a different set of lenses and, as a result, he created pieces that are breathtaking in their power and unrivaled in their creative impact. I want you to keep stepping out of the darkness that your life once was…

I want you to create a life that, indeed, will be considered a work of art. You have that potential. We all do, as a matter of fact. It all comes down to whether you want to do the inner work required to get there. Become the Salvador Dali of your life, my friend, and just watch the wonders unfold.” 

Via “Discover Your Destiny with the Monk who sold his Ferrari” by Robin Sharma