No. 659 – December 14, 2025
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Tiny Thoughts
If you don’t commit to living life on your terms, other people will commit you to theirs.
You have to train before the race, not after. You have to build the skill before you get the job that requires it. You have to be trustworthy for years before anyone trusts you with something important. The bill comes first. The reward comes later.
The universe does not offer financing.
This is hard to accept because modern life trains us to expect the opposite. We are addicted to “Buy Now, Pay Later.” You live in the house before you pay off the mortgage. You get the degree before you pay off the loan. You eat the meal before you ask for the check.
We are conditioned to enjoy the benefit today and pay the cost tomorrow.
Achievement reverses the transaction. It requires full payment in advance (and regular payments forever). If you want a fit body, a calm mind, a healthy relationship, or financial independence, the cost is non-negotiable. You must do the work before you get the result.
This is why most people quit. They pay a little, see nothing, and stop. They never make it far enough to see the first return arrive.
Insights
Author Jonathan Safran Foer on happiness:
“I think and think and think, I’ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.”
Benjamin Franklin with a dose of timeless wisdom:
“Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself a slave to it.”
Professional basketball player Dawn Staley, who won three gold medals in the Olympic Games, describes her perspective in preparation for the Olympics:
“Winning the gold medal is my goal, not my dream. My dream is about playing to win as often as possible with and against the best women basketball players in the world. Winning the gold medal as a goal gives me some direction, but my dream is something I need to live every day. And I’m doing that each time I play to win… When I’m playing to win, that’s when I feel resonance. If I win, that’s great. I want to win, and having the gold medal as my goal forces me to play to win. But what I love to do, what my dream is, is to play to win.”
The Knowledge Project
Ogilvy Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland reveals the formula for persuasion, why people make decisions, and how to use psychology to your advantage.
Rory is the world’s leading advertising strategist. He spent almost four decades at the world’s leading advertising agency studying why people behave the way they do and how to change that behavior.
He explains why contrast drives choices and efficiency often destroys value, and how trust, friction, and design shape real-world behavior.
Here are some Tiny Lessons from this episode.
1. Trust is the only shortcut.
2. Visible costs often hide invisible benefits.
3. Efficiency is the enemy of magic.
4. Creativity starts where logic stops.
5. Context creates value.
+ Listen now Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Web/Transcript | X | YouTube
More from this episode …
+ Read all 20 Tiny Lessons
+ Read the 19 Big Lessons
+ A short clip on how we look for efficiency in the wrong place.
+ A clip on visible costs and invisible benefits that went viral.
Thanks for reading,
— Shane Parrish