CREATING OPPORTUNITIES - KEY TAKEAWAYS

CRAFT COMES BEFORE PASSION Passion isn't a profession, it's a way of working. To achieve a lifestyle (and workstyle) that you love, start by cultivating rare and valuable skills that will set you apart.

PLAN TO ADAPT YOUR PLAN Plan flexibly, and be ready to pivot in your career if necessary. Always have a Plan A, B, and even Z in your back pocket.

DON'T SETTLE FOR THE STATUS QUO Try to regularly "disrupt" your own status quo. If you're getting too comfortable in your current position, it's probably time to challenge yourself in new ways.

GET MISSION CRITICAL Think about your work--and where you are going--in terms of a larger mission. A job title is a closed objective, but a mission can grow with you.

LUCK IS A STATE OF MIND Expose yourself to new situations, keep an open mind, and be proactive about pursuing chance opportunities. Luck comes to those who seek it.

WORK WITH INTENTION Calibrate your career for maximum impact by working at the intersection of your genuine skills, interests, and opportunities.

BUILDING EXPERTISE – KEY TAKEAWAYS

STOP TRYING TO "BE GOOD" Give yourself permission to screw up. Once you stop trying to be good (and look smart), you can focus on tackling the exciting challenges that will help you get better.

SPRINT TO SPEED UP MASTERY Set aside time for regular "sprints" where you work intensively on a key project or skill without distraction. Then reward yourself with a break.

AVOID THE "OK PLATEAU" Focus on practicing the hard stuff when you're developing new skills. As with weight lifting, you know you're making headway when you feel the burn.

HUNGER FOR FEEDBACK Develop a method for gathering feedback--whether it's tracking the numbers yourself or hiring a coach. No factor is more essential to growth and learning.

MAKE BUILDING HABITS A HABIT Try to change one key habit a month. If you can make the behaviors that help you excel automatic, executing at the top of your game becomes significantly easier.

DAILY OBSERVATION DRIVES PROGRESS Track your progress by journaling for a few minutes every day. The practice will help you identify stumbling blocks, observe patterns, and document successes.

CULTIVATING RELATIONSHIPS - KEY TAKEAWAYS

DON'T GO IT ALONE Seek out fellow travelers--trusted colleagues and collaborators whom you can ask for help, who will tell you the truth, and who will hold you accountable.

CREATE SOCIAL CONTRACTS Address what could go wrong in a creative relationship up front. Then, when a conflict does arise, you've created a comfortable space for talking about it.

TRUST IN GENEROSITY Focus on how you can help others, and lasting connections will come. The true spirit of networking should be generosity, not obligation.

ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE Asking always precedes connecting, and if you do it regularly, your network will thrive. Make a weekly habit of reaching out to people whom you admire.

CROSS-POLLINATION BEGETS CREATIVITY Try to assemble creative teams that include both veteran collaborators and newbies. Diversity (in the right dosage) accelerates your creative potential.

ACT LIKE A MASTER BUILDER, NOT A MASTER MIND Build on--and improvise with--others' ideas and skill sets. If you let everyone shine in his or her area of expertise, your projects will thrive.

TAKING RISKS - KEY TAKEAWAYS

APPRECIATE YOUR ADAPTABILITY Be aware that when you fail, you will adapt to the new situation much more quickly than you expect. Setbacks often have a silver lining.

TAKE ACTION TO AVOID REGRET Fear a failure to act more than you fear failure itself. Most people's biggest regrets are the opportunities they did not act on, not those they did.

DON'T GO ALL IN Try to make small bets for the initial test-runs of your project or idea. It's hard to predict what will take off, and this limits your exposure to risk.

MISTAKES ARE INFORMATION Mine your "failures" for valuable data about what works and what doesn't. As long as you learn from the process, it's not a mistake.

DIVE INTO UNCERTAINTY Don't be afraid to live in the shade of big questions. Uncertainty and ambiguity are a necessary part of risk-taking and the creative process.

ACCEPT YOUR AGENCY Embrace your power to make the outcome of any risk a success. Almost any situation can be turned around with persistence and ingenuity.

THE BETTER YOU

The Better You is your believable possible. Your believable possible is your potential in any given moment, the person you know at your very core that you are capable of being at this instant. Your believable possible exists at the edge of your perceived ability. Your believable possible is frightening and uncomfortable, but not to the point of paralysis. Your believable possible is just uncomfortable enough.