On airplanes.

November 1, 2022

I do my best thinking on air planes.

Five years ago, on the one way flight to San Francisco, I wrote out a list of 20 mantras that I wanted to live my life by:

1) Work hard at things because they have meaning for me, independent of how it makes others perceive me.

2) Form relationships based on values rather than interests, proximity, or convenience.

3) Stop being obsessed with success.

4) Do not concern yourself with convincing others to like you if it means sacrificing authenticity.

5) Read more good books. Stop reading books if they are shit.

6) Save for future you, but for opportunity rather than security.

7) Tell people what you think and mean, and stand up for yourself when facing anxiety.

8) Carve quiet into your life, even if it is frightening

9) Avoid chasing uncomfortability as an ideal.

10) Improve the quality and reduce the quantity of your relationships.

11) Find time for therapy.

12) Follow more often.

13) Genuinely thank people in your life who you appreciate.

14) Reject romance and embrace mundane love.

15) Meditate and reflect.

16) Seek out those you disagree with and engage them.

17) Do not speak ill of others; remove yourself from them instead.

18) Truly contemplate your own death, often and intentionally.

19) Only say yes from a place of meaning.

20) On occasion, settle and be okay with it.

I’m sitting on the runway waiting for my one way flight to Brooklyn to depart, and I’m struck by the power of manifesting a life I want to live. Some of these values I failed to embody, and a few of them I would change to better suit the person I have become, but I feel proud that I was able to live by most of these simple statements.

A new chapter begins today, and as I turn the page I begin to contemplate another set of principles to guide me through this next adventure.

San Francisco, you will always be in my heart.

New York, it’s your time to shelter and nurture it.