Category: Life Lessons

If you want 2026 to be the best year of your life, please watch this video…

In Vistage we often talk about “success models”. We ask people “what is your success model?”. Effective, successful leaders have one.

A success model for a new year

This is an extremely practical and complete guide to really making positive progress in 2026. I was all set for making a video of my own, but Dan Pink nailed it with this one – so I’d rather share his, than a lesser version by myself.

You can download Dan’s workbook for this process here: http://danpink.com/workbook/

Quick Summary of Dan Pink’s 2026 Success Model

  1. Regret Review: 1. What is your biggest regret for 2025
    • 2. Write it down
    • 3. Lesson you learned from it
    • 4. How you are not going to repeat it
    • 5. Throw out the regret, keep the lessons
  2. B. Premortem
    • 1. You are at the end of 2026, and what you said you’d do never happened… Why? Write down what might have caused the failure
    • 2. Design 2026 to block those failures
  3. C. One word theme
    • 1. Choose a single word to guide 2026
  4. D. 90 day seasons
    • 1. Treat the year as 4 chapters (long enough to see progress, short enough to see the end line)
  5. E. Protect your first hour
    • 1. Don’t hand over your first hour to your phone!
    • 2. Use it for deep work, moves your priorities forward
  6. F. 2 minute rule
    • 1. If a task takes 2 mins or less, do it right away (put those dirty dishes away)
  7. G. Create a weekly shut down ritual
    • 1. Take 5 mins to plan Monday, the tasks that still need to be finished up
  8. H. Weekly reset
    • 1. 15 mins with your calendar and to do list
  9. I. Mise en place
    • 1. Implantation intention – layout your environment to ensure your first hour is strategically setup
  10. J. 15 min walk break
  11. K. 85% Rule 1. Pick one goal and make it hard enough to not suceed all the time, but not too hard so you succeed 85%
  12. L. Refine discomfort as learning
    • 1. This isn’t failure. This is what learning feels like.
  13. M. Design friction wisely
    • 1. Delete 1 app, set up auto pay
    • 2. Pick 1 behavior you want to make harder (add friction – charge phone outside of room)
    • 3. Pick 1 behavior you want to make easier (remove friction)
  14. N. Public promises
    • 1. Pick 1 goal, share it to someone
    • 2. Have them ask weekly: did you do what you promised?
  15. O. Track small wins daily
    • 1. Create a progress ritual
  16. P. Challenge network
    • 1. Feedback Fridays
    • 2. What’s one thing you’d change to make it better?
  17. Q. Curate your circle
    • 1. Get a cheerleader
    • 2. Get a coach
    • 3. Get a challenger
  18. R. To Don’t List
    • 1. Subtract – what’s not worth my time?
  19. S. Micro sabbath
    • 1. Short pause, no stimulation, 15 mins of nothingness
  20. T. 26 thank you notes
    • 1. Send out thank you notes

You will be the Same Person in 5 years… Except for 2 things

I recently made a video (shared below) about 2 things that have the power to make a difference to who you will be in 5 years time. I said 2:

  • Books you read
  • Relationships with people

and recently came across a tweet with a few more… but still very much under your own control.

The person you will be in 5 years depends on:

  • the food you eat
  • amount of exercise you do
  • how much sleep per day
  • books or articles you read
  • how much more you write
  • money you save and invest
  • who you work with
  • friends you spend time with
  • new skills you develop
  • asking for help when you’re stuck
  • connections you make and keep
  • promises you make and keep
  • where and how far you travel
  • doors you open for others
  • knowing when to leave
  • new habits you develop
  • quitting the stuff that holds you back

Check out the original tweet…

and check out the original video…

If you liked this post, you will also like Preparing for the Future (not Reacting to the Past) and Set Clear Intentions for 2025: My own Process… and my Intention.

6 Rules on Life from Mathew McConaghey

  1. Life is 100% better when nobody knows anything about you
  2. Don’t take advice from people who are not where you want to be in life
  3. Everyone will show you who they are if you wait long enough
  4. You need to be smart enough to create your own opportunities, don’t wait for them to come to you
  5. The secret to happiness is freedom, the secret to freedom is courage, in life you must take action if you want to experience freedom
  6. You will always have some sort of conflict going on in your life.. you must learn to enjoy life while still solving them, there is beauty in everything we experience. You can either cry in the storm or dance in the rain.

found this online this morning and it resonated.

I’m not sure I understand completely what he means with the first advice… but then he is very famous and I am not.

Visibility creates Accountability

Simple concept.

I think we actually know what is most important… we just forget quickly and regularly.

The moment something becomes visible—goals, metrics, progress, behavior, scores—it invites attention, reflection, and response.

Visibility reminds us regularly if what we are doing is working.

In sports there is a scoreboard and no doubt about who is winning or losing. The scoreboard creates pressure, but it is a healthy kind of stress that focuses the mind. The scoreboard clarifies which strategies and tactics are effective and which are a waste of time.

When everyone knows the scoreboard, effort aligns with outcomes.

If you’re not getting accountability, maybe the score isn’t visible enough.

To live a long time

You need to love living.

…and most people don’t figure out how to love living.

I myself have struggled to find a way to love the state of being alive.

During Covid I came across an Indian guru called Sadhguru… in one of his talks he spoke about 3 types of people: fools, smart and genius. The fools wake up in the morning and they hate what they have to do that day. The smart people have found a way to wake up each morning and like what they have to do that day. The genius learns to love what they have to do.

“The Genius learns to love what they have to do” Sadhguru

A week ago a student shared a powerful story with our class. Several years before he was going through a difficult period in his life and he had become angry and frustrated with the world. A mentor of his took him out for a walk. The walk ended inside a cemetery. His mentor said to him “look around you. Every single person here would give everything they have for one single problem of yours”.

Problems are a sign that you are still alive. I am learning slowly to love problems. Problems are not annoyances that get in the way of life. Problems are the molecules of life.

There is a book seen often in airport bookshops – “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k” by Mark Manson. I avoided reading it for many years (I claim because of the title, but most probably because I was jealous of the success of the author!). 2 years ago my wife told me that it was worth reading.

The first 2 lines of the book read something like this:

  1. You cannot choose not not give a f**k.
  2. The secret to living well is to focus your f**ks on something truly important.

“What’s so important in your life that you’re willing to be ridiculed for it?”
Mark Manson, author of The Subtle art of not giving a F**k

You can’t switch off caring. The secret to life is to find something worth to caring deeply about. If you don’t find something big and meaningful to care about, then every small irritation will drive you nuts.

I was asked many years ago by my wife’s niece “what is the most important lesson you have ever learnt in life”. (I answered the question as a youtube video here).

Consistency over 1 week changes nothing, over 10 years changes everything

If you are going to make any change in your life – be it health, relationships, learning a language, learning a musical instrument – any practice habit that you can only sustain for a week will lead to no change in your life. Any practice habit that you can sustain for a 10 year period will transform your life.

The saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” is true… but not over the period of 1 single day – it is true if you choose the apple over the donut every single day for a 10 year period.

Tiny habits that are almost too small to be significant, but are easy enough that you are likely to sustain them – will have a greater impact than a big habit that you are at risk of not sustaining.

It is not the one cigarette that will kill you… it is the one a day… or one an hour.

Short bursts of effort can sometimes provide immediate, though often superficial changes… it is the relentless, persistent, continuous action … maintained over the long term that leads to profound and lasting transformation in any area of life.

On taking Intelligent Action and Improving your Intuition

An update on last week’s video “Life Rewards Action more than Intelligence” (that went viral with over 170,000 views in the first 10 days).

There were a lot of comments… many were positive and encouraging… but there were a range of questions/concerns that “dumb action” might be worse than none at all… this video responds to this concern about the risks of dumb action rather than inaction.

So, don’t worry too much and take a step towards something that matters to you today.

Here is a blog post summary of Peter Drucker’s book “Managing Oneself”: Managing Oneself

Life rewards Action, not Intelligence (video)

Taking action consistently outweighs merely having the potential to act. The speaker reflects on how they once equated doing well in school with succeeding in life, only to learn that real-world success comes from initiative and execution, not just intelligence or talent.

Through life experiences, they discovered that waiting for the perfect moment or ideal circumstances often leads to missed opportunities. It’s those who take imperfect, immediate action who ultimately achieve meaningful results.

Practical Takeaways

  • Start Before You Feel Ready: Waiting for the perfect plan or skill set often leads to inaction. Taking the first step creates momentum.
  • Learn Through Doing: Action drives experience, and experience sharpens your skills far beyond what theoretical knowledge can achieve.
  • Consistency Over Perfection: Regular, intentional efforts build habits and lead to long-term success.

Life rewards Action, not intelligence.


Intelligence might open doors, but action walks through them. Every step you take builds confidence and creates opportunities. If you’ve been hesitating on a decision, today’s the day to take action.

If you liked this post, you will also like Jedi Productivity 9 of 11: Yoda’s first rule: Do or do not, there is no try and Why People Take Action.

57 Lessons from Charlie Munger

I so loved this list of 57 lessons from Charlie Munger, shared by David Senra of Founders Popcast, that I’ve shared the tweet and the full list here on the blog. I’m a fan of the Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger school of simple, direct, pithy wisdom 😉

If you like lists, my most popular blog posts have been lists:

The tweet from David:

57 Lessons from Charlie Munger

David’s notes from the NEW Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger turned into maxims:

  • 1. Find a simple idea and take it seriously.
  • 2. Good ideas are rare. When you find one bet heavily.
  • 3. Humans have been writing down their best ideas for 5,000 years. Read them.
  • 4. Avoiding stupid mistakes is more important than being smart.
  • 5. Don’t work with anyone you don’t admire.
  • 6. Don’t sell anything you wouldn’t buy.
  • 7. Avoiding a bad habit is easier than breaking a bad habit.
  • 8. Work on your best idea. Don’t diversify
  • 9. Incentives rule everything around you.
  • 10. Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.
  • 11. The most important rule in management is: Get the incentives right.
  • 12. The storyteller is the most powerful person in the world.
  • 13. Education is the process whereby the ability to lead a good life is acquired.
  • 14. Be dependable for your tribe.
  • 15. Trust is one of the greatest economic forces on Earth.
  • 16. Don’t over optimize for growth at the expense of durability.
  • 17. Great businesses are built by going ridiculously far in maximizing or minimizing one or a few things. Think Costco.
  • 18. The combination of scale and fanaticism is *very* powerful. Think Sam Walton.
  • 19. Do the unpleasant task first.
  • 20. Don’t multitask.
  • 21. Learning is changing behavior.
  • 22. Avoiding stupidity for a long time *is* genius.
  • 23. Many hard problems are solved best when approached backwards.
  • 24. Think of ideas as tools. When a better tool comes along use it.
  • 25. Clip your business and personal expenses. Small leaks sink big ships.
  • 26. Make friends with smart dead people. Adam Smith, Darwin, Cicero, Ben Franklin —whoever interests you. Read their writing. Steal their ideas. They don’t need them anymore.
  • 27. Only focus on great businesses and great businesses have moats.
  • 28. Dominating a niche can produce profit margins that make you salivate.
  • 29. Telling people WHY increases compliance.
  • 30. Stay in the game long enough to get lucky.
  • 31. Stack cash to survive unexpected problems and seize unexpected opportunities.
  • 32. Don’t confuse intelligence with invincibility.
  • 33. Panic spreads and compounds quickly.
  • 34. If you’re not winning —scale down and intensify.
  • 35. Appeal to interest, not to reason.
  • 36. Understanding opportunity cost is a superpower.
  • 37. Don’t confuse the map for the territory.
  • 38. People often interpret price as a signal for quality.
  • 39. All human systems are gamed.
  • 40. Beating back bureaucracy is a never ending battle.
  • 41. The acquisition of knowledge is a moral duty.
  • 42. Learning from history is a form of leverage.
  • 43. Make sure your best players get the most playing time.
  • 44. It is inevitable that bad things will happen to you. When they do get up, keep going, and remember the next maxim:
  • 45. Self pity has no utility.
  • 46. Find out what you are best at. Then pound away at it. Forever.
  • 47. Envy is weakness.
  • 48. The behavior of peer companies will be mindlessly imitated.
  • 49. Emotion blurs judgement.
  • 50. Only play games where you have an edge.
  • 51. Avoid mob rule. Avoid demagogues. Avoid dogma. Avoid bureaucracy.
  • 52. Optimize for independence.
  • 53. Use money to buy freedom.
  • 54. Aim for durability.
  • 55. Keep the people who don’t matter from interfering with the work of the people who do.
  • 56. What do you have an *intense* interest in? Do that for your living.
  • 57. Self improvement has no end.

check out the founders Podcast twitter feed:

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