Book Titles

One of the goals for all of us should be to, as much as possible, maximize the diversification of interests, skills, and opportunities in each of our portfolios.

Sometimes, you might discover that you like a different function better than the one you’re currently doing. Having the new skills in your portfolio, developed through exploration, allows you to switch to that new function more easily.

Diversification doesn’t just afford you a softer landing if you’re forced to quit. It also helps you to make more rational decisions about walking away from something that’s no longer worth pursuing.

…like everything else that potentially improves quitting behavior, just because your portfolio is diversified doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to make great choices about what to quit and what to keep pursuing.

Left to our own devices, we tend to focus on the thing we’re doing, practically to the exclusion of anything else. It’s not just that we don’t explore other opportunities. We don’t notice them when they’re right in front of us.

…goals have a dark side. They point to numerous negative consequences of goal setting, several of which interfere with rational quitting behavior.

…while goals do help us to be grittier, grit isn’t always a virtue… [it’s] good for getting you to stick to hard things that are worthwhile, but grit also gets you to stick to hard things that are no longer worthwhile.

Finish lines are funny things. You either reach them or you don’t. You either succeed or you fail. There is no in between. Progress along the way matters very little.

The pass-fail nature of goals impedes your progress because it stops you from starting things for fear of being unable to complete them.

As soon as you set a goal or a target, you put yourself immediately in the losses, at least in relation to your distance from the goal. As soon as you cross the finish line, you are now short of the finish line.