Knowing what not to think about. What to ignore and not to do. It's your most first and most important job.

Thich Nhat Hanh:
Before we can make deep changes in our lives, we have to look into our diet, our way of consuming. We have to live in such a way that we stop consuming the things that poison us and intoxicate us. Then we will have the strength to allow the best in us to arise, and we will no longer be victims of anger, of frustration.

Michel Foucalt talked of the ancient genre of hupomnemata (notes to oneself). He called the journal a “weapon for spiritual combat,” a way to practice philosophy and purge the mind of agitation and foolishness and to overcome difficulty. To silence the barking dogs in your head. To prepare for the day ahead. To reflect on the day that has passed. Take note of insights you've heard. Take the time to feel wisdom flow through your fingertips and onto the page.

This is what the best journals look like. They aren't for the reader. They are for the writer. To slow the mind down. To wage peace with oneself.

It's spiritual windshield wipers, as the writer Julia Cameron once put it. It's a few minutes of reflection that both demands and creates stillness.

Once, twice, three times a day. Whatever. Find what works for you.

Just know that it may turn out to be the most important thing you do all day.

This toxic form of ego has a less-assuming evil twin — often called 'imposter syndrome'.

It's a nagging, endless anxiety that you're not qualified for what you're doing — and you're about to be found out for it.

“Sir, to what do you attribute your success in life?”

Immediately, Churchill replied, “Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down.”

The wise and busy also learn that solitude and stillness are there in pockets, if we look for them. The few minutes before going onstage for a talk or sitting in your hotel room before a meeting. The morning before the rest of the house wakes up. Or late in the evening after the world has gone to sleep.

Grab these moments. Schedule them. Cultivate them.