John Doherty

The person you choose to spend your life with matters more than your career, your city, your ambitions. Choose someone who makes you laugh, who tells you the truth, and who you'd still want to sit next to on a Tuesday night with nothing to do. Romance fades. Character doesn't.

Spend less than you earn. That's it. That's the whole pearl.

The things you don't do will stay with you far longer than the things you did badly. At least the failures give you a story. The chances you didn't take just leave a quiet ache.

Learn to cook three things really well. People will think you're sophisticated. You're not — but you'll eat better than most of your friends and that counts for something.

Find work that would embarrass you to do badly. That feeling — where your own standards won't let you quit — is the closest thing to a career compass I've ever found.

The sooner you say "I was wrong about that," the sooner you get to be right about the next thing. Ego is expensive. Drop it early and often.

Move your body every single day. Even just a walk. Your future self — the one with the bad knees and the slower mornings — is sending a message back through time right now. Listen to him.

You need about four good friends. Four people who will pick up the phone at midnight, tell you when you're being an idiot, and show up when things go wrong. Quality over quantity, every time.

You have more time than you think, and less than you need. Stop spending it on things you're doing out of habit rather than choice. Audit your weeks occasionally. The results are always surprising.

Before you send the angry email — sleep on it. Before you end the friendship — sleep on it. Before you quit — sleep on it. Most things look completely different at 7am.

At least once, go somewhere that dwarfs you. A mountain, an ocean, a very old cathedral. It recalibrates everything. Highly recommend.

Nobody knows what they're doing as much as they appear to. The people who seem most confident are just more comfortable with uncertainty. Relax. Make your best guess. Adjust as you go. That's all any of us are doing.