A course of action being reasonable does not mean you should be free of consequences for taking it.

Here’s an example: If I am walking with my child and they suddenly have a life-threatening allergic reaction, I will smash a store window to get an Epi-pen from inside. I will do this without hesitation, as it is a reasonable course of action if there’s no other way to save my child’s life. However, if the store owner later demands that I pay for the damages, I will of course comply. Just because my course of action was reasonable and necessary doesn’t mean that the cost of those actions should fall on someone else!

People sometimes get it in their heads that if the thing they did was justified, then that means they shouldn’t face any negative repercussions for it. That’s a silly, immature attitude. You are the captain of your soul, and the owner of your choices. You should make the right ones; you should also own the cost of doing so.

I think it’s a good idea to ask yourself, “what’s the best possible outcome I can expect?”

Things sometimes sound like a good idea, but we don’t take the time to figure out what the upper bound even is. Once we do, we can sometimes discover that the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. It might be a good reward, but too little of it to be worth the cost and effort of obtaining it.

Knowing the best-case scenario also helps us evaluate how good we’re doing overall, on projects that don’t come to fruition all at once. If my garden can produce a theoretical maximum of one hundred tomatoes and I currently have 85 growing, then that’s pretty great! And maybe it’s not worth disrupting my operation to try to get a mere 15 more. But if I only grew 10 this season out of a potential 100, then it’s fine to try something radically different next season.

Nothing is destroyed, only changed. Things can be broken, but true destruction is remarkably rare and nearly impossible. You’ll always have scraps, and “scraps” is just another word for “parts.”

If you want to talk about something specific, it’s best to find people who want to talk about that thing and befriend them, rather than forcing your friends to talk about that thing. Obviously you can feel your friends out first, but if it’s a deep interest you want to explore at great length? Find a specialist. Keep your friends.

Of all the things to pack when you travel, don’t forget a stern stomach.

Being ready to solve a problem and being the kind of person who can solve problems are closely related, obviously. Part of preparing to solve individual problems is being the kind of person who is ready to accept that they might arrive.

I don’t need to prepare for everything that might happen. I just need to be ready to accept that solutions require changes. The most difficult part of overcoming obstacles is often trying to keep your original plan perfectly intact. Accept the impossibility of that, and focus simply on getting closer to your goal, and problems become much easier to solve – and thus you, much more prepared.

Why it’s Christmas day! No, you haven’t missed it!

Be of good cheer, my friends. Keep what’s special about today in your heart all year ’round.

May your evening be merry, may you spend it with those you love, and may you check in on your neighbors. If your hearth is warm, open it. Your heart, too.

It’s very easy to get a little bit ahead and then squander it. It’s harder to get a little bit ahead and then use it to go a little further. If you want to provide for others, always remember that one of the “others” you must provide for is your future self.

Can you swim? If yes, did you ever take formal lessons, or did you simply grow up in and around water? I grew up near the ocean, in a part of the country where beaches, swimming pools, lakes and ponds are all very common. For children in this area, being in the water is natural on pretty much any day where it’s warm. So like most kids in my demographic, I can swim simply because I’ve been in water since before I could walk.

If you’re like me, imagine trying to explain to someone how to swim if that person has never seen a body of water larger than a bathtub before. Imagine a young child from a landlocked, desert country. Never seen a pool, let alone an ocean. And explain to them – verbally – how to swim.

It is very unlikely that they will be successful their first time, based only on your instructions. Not just because of their own inexperience, but yours. You’re an experienced swimmer, sure. But a very inexperienced swimming instructor.

The more intuitive something is for you, the harder it will be for you to teach it to someone for whom it is not intuitive at all. The gap is too wide for the limited tools you have. Experience teaching something is different than experience doing it.

To truly rise to the heights in a given skill, you need to do more than just be good at it. You need to be able to teach, to inform, to impart knowledge – so practice when you can.