It reduces cancer, depression, insomnia, dementia, diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, and many other disabling conditions — and increases healthy longevity. If you have the personality, resources, and inclination for extensive physical activity, that’s great — you’ll be much more likely to avoid disability and live independently into old age.

I can only stick with activities I enjoy. I play squash — not well but enthusiastically; for the hour I’m on a squash court, that’s all I think about, and when I finish, drenched in sweat, endorphins and other beneficial neurochemicals coursing through my body, I can’t wait to play again. So, busy as my schedule is, I fit squash in.

Try to find vigorous activities you love doing. But if that’s not for you, you can still get a large dose of the miracle drug if you build physical activity into your daily routines — taking stairs instead of the elevator, walking farther to work or stores, bicycling whenever possible. A brisk walk, ideally outdoors, is the most accessible. Four brisk walks every week for at least thirty minutes, ideally in a refreshing natural space, can do wonders.

1. A lack of clarity about who you are—and what you should do—can hurt. If it lingers long enough, it leads to a chaotic mind.

2. When your heart knows what you should do but your mind isn’t willing to accept the consequences, a void begins to form inside you. You long for that void to be filled.

3. We lack clarity in our careers, relationships, and lives because we don’t know who we really are, what we want, what our core values are, and what purpose our souls should serve.

4. This inner turmoil can spill into our everyday lives. The first step is to acknowledge it, then understand and accept who we are.

5. It can be difficult to come to terms with who we are deep down and what we want. Society has conditioned us to function according to its expectations. We have forgotten our real selves.

Ask for advice
People love giving advice. So, start your small talk with a request for advice: ‘I want to buy a smartphone [or a cocktail or a book], but I can’t decide which one.’ Most people will happily open up. Then thank them for the tip and the other person will feel like a fireman who has successfully extinguished a fire. The psychology behind this: if you ask for advice, you create intimacy; intimacy makes rejection difficult. Therefore, if you want to influence someone, it is a good idea to ask that person for advice first.

Ask a second question
We often ask something and then wait for the other person to ask something back. This is not a conversation. Instead, use the old reporter trick and ask a second question. If you just asked ‘Where did you grow up?’, then a good follow-up question might be: ‘How has that place shaped you?’

The highest form of wealth is the ability to wake up every morning and say, “I can do whatever I want today.”

People want to become wealthier to make them happier. Happiness is a complicated subject because everyone’s different. But if there’s a common denominator in happiness—a universal fuel of joy—it’s that people want to control their lives.

The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want, is priceless. It is the highest dividend money pays.

The mind without pauses is like a cluttered desk — no space to work, no room to breathe.
Stillness doesn’t throw everything away. It clears a little space so you can see what actually matters.

With even a little mental clarity, the impossible feels manageable.
The loud becomes softer.
The messy feels organised.
And sometimes, the question that haunted you finds its answer in the quiet.

Stillness is not wasting time — it is reclaiming it.

In any negotiation, neither side can see the whole picture. You know the cards you hold and the terms you are willing to accept. At the same time, you have no clear view of your opponent’s cards or the concessions they may be prepared to make.

This uncertainty makes negotiation similar to poker, a game in which part of the information is always hidden. A negotiator, like a poker player, tries to deduce the opponent’s hand by interpreting their moves rather than relying on complete knowledge.

As with any game of imperfect information, success depends heavily on position at the table.

Most of the time, we don’t consciously notice the thoughts that pass through our minds or realise the extent to which they shape our reality. The more deeply embedded these beliefs become, the harder they feel to challenge. You may begin to believe that “this is just who I am,” rather than recognising these beliefs as learned patterns — and, more importantly, patterns that can be unlearned.

Our beliefs determine how we perceive situations, how we interpret events, and ultimately how we define ourselves. They become self-fulfilling prophecies, for better or for worse.