Many mistakes move us forward more than backward. Conscientious people often experience a springboard effect following mistakes, whereby fixing the mistakes accelerates growth faster than if they'd never made any missteps.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Impatience. I'm not very good at waiting around or dealing with things that aren't moving at a pace that I want them to. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Superiority. I shrink when I'm around people who act superior, whether it's due to authority or intellect.
According to my mum, my first word was look. My brother arrived 17 months after I was born, so most days Mum would have been pushing us around in a buggy, and I would be pointing at everything going, Look, look, look. What I was really saying was, Everyone, I'm here!
I regret many things. To not have learned English as a boy. I had the time to have at least studied English and I didn't do it. I deeply regret it. I experienced situations where I was with incredible and spectacular personalities to be able to talk and have a chat and you feel half ignorant.
Ever feel like you're playing a character in your own life? Like you're constantly adjusting your personality based on who's in the room, what they might think, or what seems "acceptable" at the moment? I spent years doing exactly that. Morphing into whatever version of myself I thought would get the most approval, the least conflict, or the best opportunities. It was exhausting, and worse, I started losing track of who I actually was beneath all those masks.
Every season, the Next Big Idea Club editorial team reviews dozens of upcoming books to curate a selection of the most exciting, must-read nonfiction titles. We start with a broad pool of nominees from which we identify a small handful of finalists and, ultimately, an official season selection. Today, it's our pleasure to share our list of five finalists for Season 29! Without further ado, the new books we're most excited about right now are . . .
My resolution next year is to climb a tough peak in the Chamonix Valley in France. The 'why' is because it's been on my list for 15 years, and it's overdue. The 'how' is a detailed set of logistical, physical, mental, and family preparations.
I've never believed that change should be reserved for special days, but the New Year tends to carry a sense of promise. It often brings a surge of clarity, motivation, and hope that maybe things really could be different. And then, as January moves along, that initial energy fades. Responsibilities pile up. Our bandwidth shrinks. And before we know it, we're pulled back into the familiar current of obligations, far from the shore we were hoping to reach.
