Kevin Kelly’s, “Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier”, is a book of aphorisms that he wrote for his adult children. I used to love reading aphorisms and famous quotations. They inspire me. They sound so wise. They usually come from someone, like Kelly, who has been successful.
The problem for me is that without action, they are simply cotton candy for my mind. Instead of memorizing aphorisms, writing quotes in a journal or posting them on my wall, I take a different tact. I only pay attention to the ones on which I have taken committed action. That narrows my list of aphorisms down to only a few.
In my life, I follow my 3 Big Rocks and 1 Big Rock principles. These are so ingrained in me, that they are instinctive now.
I have a few other core principles around kindness, love, honesty and manhood. I can’t sum up any of them in a Tweetable length aphorism. But I don’t need to.
I’m not writing a book of them.
I live them instead.
PS. I’m enjoying Kelly’s book. It is a light an easy lunchtime read. Many of his aphorisms ring true for me and even better, a few are making me think.