Maria Popova's Top Ten Learnings

Woman Power IconGreat pic of Lucy and Pierce Fuller. We are looking forward to finally meeting Pierce and Nell at a Texas Family Thanksgiving (Famsgiving) event in Dallas!

Last week, on WPW, I shared about Maria Popova’s essential life-learnings. Please read the ten below and then take time to read the expanded version here.

1. Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind. Cultivate that capacity for “negative capability.”

2. Do nothing for prestige or status or money or approval alone. 

3. Be generous. Be generous with your time and your resources and with giving credit and, especially, with your words. 

4. Build pockets of stillness into your life. Meditate. Go for walks. Ride your bike going nowhere in particular.

5. When people tell you who they are, Maya Angelou famously advised, believe them. Just as important, however, when people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them. 

6. Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity.

7. Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time.

8. Seek out what magnifies your spirit. 

9. Don’t be afraid to be an idealist. 

10. Don’t just resist cynicism — fight it actively. 

[Icons by youngest, Lucy Singletary Barfield @lucybarfieldcreative.]

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