I started reading the uber smart blog Brain Pickings a few years ago. This blog was started seven years ago by Maria Popova as a quick email to some friends. Brain Pickings is a “human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, a subjective lens on what matters in the world and why, bringing you things you didn’t know you were interested in — until you are. Founded in 2006 as a weekly email that went out to seven friends and eventually brought online, the site was included in the Library of Congress permanent web archive in 2012. “
The 7 Lessons Maria Popova shared on her 7 year anniversary (at the end of 2013):
- Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind.
- Do nothing out of guilt, or for prestige, status, money or approval alone.
- Be generous with your time and your resources and with giving credit and, especially, with your words.
- Build pockets of stillness into your life.
- “When people tell you who they are, believe them” – Maya Angelou. But even more importantly, when people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them.
- “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” – Annie Dillard
- “Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time.” – Debbie Millman
You can buy an awesome letterpress poster from Holstee with these lessons. It looks like this:
Read the full article: Brain Pickings: 7 Things I Learned in 7 Years of Reading, Writing, and Living
I love these lessons and have found in my 2 1/2 years of blogging that they are all true. #2 and #3 especially resonate with me. How about you?
Here are Maria Popova’s favorites from her 7 years of writing Brain Pickings:
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Have a great day!
PS. Don’t forget to check out my fun giveaways!