In three day’s time, a decision to walk to the local coffee shop might result in you meeting the love of your life. Or maybe, you don’t bother looking both ways while crossing the road and end up getting hit by a car.

A few weeks ago, I decided to walk to the nearby bank to get some cash out of the ATM. But on my way home, I nearly got hit by a speeding truck. If I took just half a second longer to jump out of the way, I wouldn’t be able to write this article right now. …

Something that takes you five seconds to do could change the way a stranger sees and interacts with other people. Think of it as a ripple effect. You show kindness to one person, and they pass it on. And before you know it, the entire world is a better place because of one positive interaction you had with a stranger.

My friend, you can have a much more significant impact on the world than you think. What you do every single day could potentially change the world. …

There’s a popular quote from Dave Ramsey that goes, “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.”

It’s true. We all want to be liked. We want to be respected and admired by everyone in our community. But more often than not, our desire to be liked tends to backfire.

Here’s the thing: when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing nobody. As a result, your personality becomes incredibly dull, as you don’t want to say or do anything that causes conflict. …

A lot of people don’t like being alone. They have a desire to go to large parties, meet hundreds of people, and have long conversations until the early hours of the morning.

That’s not me. I prefer being alone with my thoughts, reflecting on the past, and thinking about everything that the future has to offer.

Why? I don’t know. But it’s a natural part of who I am. I can’t help it. So instead of wishing for my personality to be extroverted, I read, write, and do many other things that you’d expect a typical introvert to do.

You may wonder if an introvert is lonely, has many friends, or anything else that comes to mind. I don’t blame you for thinking that; I’m genuinely empathetic to your curiosity. But the reality is that we often enjoy our time alone, thinking, and pondering the most profound questions of life. …

“You’ve been to 23 countries. What advice would you give to someone who’s afraid of leaving their hometown?”

A few days ago, I was asked that question during a Zoom call with a friend who has never been to a different state — yet alone another country. I took a few moments to think of a response. Then, I quoted a famous line from Seneca that previously helped me to stop overthinking:

“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”

It’s incredibly easy to be scared of flying whenever a crash occurs. Yet, the odds of dying in a plane crash are approximately 1 in 11 million. …

Elon Musk is undoubtedly one of the most inspiring and ambitious people on the entire planet. He’s launched rockets into space, built tunnels under Los Angeles, and created one of the world’s most recognizable car brands. And if those aren’t incredible achievements, I don’t know what are.

Elon recently became the richest person in the world. And unsurprisingly, he credits a lot of his success over the past few decades to a passion for reading new books.

“I read books and talked to people. I mean, that’s kind of how one learns anything. There are lots of great books out there & lots of smart people.” …

As a kid, I’d often go to France with my family because it didn’t take long to drive there from my British hometown. But whenever we arrived in the country, none of us could speak a word of French.

Sure, we could buy something pretty easily in a bakery. Most people in tourist towns speak (at least) a basic level of English, so it wasn’t difficult to order a baguette or a few croissants. But maybe that was the problem: Everyone could speak English, so we had no incentive to learn French.

That realization hit me faster than the sudden feeling of jetlag after a long transatlantic flight. I was in their country. I was experiencing their culture, food, and music. So surely, it would be a good idea to learn a little bit of their language. …

Very few things in life are guaranteed. However, adversity is one of them.

No matter who you are or where you come from, challenges and setbacks have the potential to change your life for the better or worse. But like the old adage goes, you cannot choose the circumstances that happen to you — only your response to them. Why? That’s the only thing you can control.

Take the Covid-19 pandemic as an example. It’s incredibly easy for me to worry about the rising case count and death toll around the world. Hospitals are becoming overwhelmed. …