Cold Mirror

Everyone else will lie to you. I won't.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

The man you envy
is dealing with something
you would not trade for the thing you envy.

You only see the part he shows.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

You're spending money you don't have
on things you don't need
to impress people you don't like.

Seneca said this two thousand years ago.
Nothing has changed.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

You've been burned enough times
that caution feels like wisdom.

Sometimes it is.

Often it's just fear
that learned to explain itself well.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

The advice your friends give you
is shaped by what makes them comfortable.

Not by what would make you successful.

Those are rarely the same thing.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

You're good at your job.

You're terrible at making that fact
impossible to ignore.

Those are different skills.
You only developed one.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

Status is borrowed.

Respect is earned.

Most men spend their lives
chasing the first
and wondering why they don't have the second.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

The LinkedIn version of you
and the 2am version of you
are having very different conversations
about how things are going.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

You're not "an ideas person."

You're someone who's more comfortable
with ideas than with execution.

That's a limitation,
not a personality type.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

Some friendships only exist
because both people are afraid
to be the one who ends it.

That's not friendship.
That's a hostage situation with dinner plans.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

You want the result
but not the reputation that comes with wanting it.

So you pretend you don't want it
and wonder why you don't have it.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

The man who constantly proves himself
to everyone around him
has still not proven it to himself.

That's the only proof that counts.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

You're not "going through something."

You've been going through the same thing
for three years.

At some point it stops being a phase.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

Most men don't leave bad situations.

They wait for the situation to become
so unbearable that leaving
feels like the only option.

Then they call it a decision.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

@Nikos_Lygeros well said, mister.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

You have enough information to start.

You've had enough for years.

More research is not what you need.
You know this.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

You think the goal is to make more.

The goal is to need less and make more.

One of those is a strategy.
The other is a treadmill.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

The man who needs to dominate every conversation
hasn't said anything worth dominating one with yet.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

You said "I'll start Monday" so many times
that Monday has stopped believing you.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

You're not selective with your time.

You're conflict-avoidant
and saying no requires a confrontation
you're not willing to have.

[Cold Mirror @ColdMirror__]

You keep rewriting the plan
so you never have to execute the plan.

Planning feels like progress.
It isn't.