Jay Armstrong

Award-winning author. Dad with sense of humor and an incurable brain disease. Sometimes life is hard but good guys don’t give up.

[Jay Armstrong @writeonfighton]

@tferriss what is one strategy I can apply today to become a better listener?

[Jay Armstrong @writeonfighton]

@JasonKelce Thanks for everything! Enjoy retirement! https://t.co/Z92fvRej0n

[Karen DeBonis, author @KarenDeBonis]

@gailboenning and @writeonfighton were wonderful hosts on their podblog One Line, One Love, and I was thrilled to speak with them! You can listen to my episode at the link and learn which "one line" from my book I chose.
https://t.co/Jji8dhbM3m

[Jay Armstrong @writeonfighton]

@hubermanlab I have cerebral atrophy and work with UPenn to support and inform other patients with movement disorders. A lack of willpower is a side effect of such a diagnosis. What exercises/ strategies do you recommend to the strengthen aMMC for patients who lack willpower?

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

Doing less meaningless work, so that you can focus on things of greater personal importance, is NOT laziness. This is hard for most to accept, because our culture tends to reward personal sacrifice instead of personal productivity.

Let’s define “laziness” anew—to endure a non-ideal existence, to let circumstance or others decide life for you, or to amass a fortune while passing through life like a spectator from an office window. The size of your bank account doesn’t change this, nor does the number of hours you log in handling unimportant e-mail or minutiae.

Focus on being productive instead of busy.

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

The 4-Hour Workweek was turned down by 26 out of 27 publishers.

After it was sold, the president of one potential marketing partner, a large bookseller, e-mailed me historical bestseller statistics to make it clear—this wouldn’t be a mainstream success.

So I did all I knew how to do. I wrote it with two of my closest friends in mind, speaking directly to them and their problems— problems I long had—and I focused on the unusual options that had worked for me around the world. I certainly tried to set conditions for making a sleeper hit possible, but I knew it wasn’t likely.

I hoped for the best and planned for the worst.

May 2, 2007, I receive a call on my cell from my editor.

“Tim, you hit the list.”

It was just past 5 p.m. in New York City, and I was exhausted. The book had launched five days before, and I had just finished a series of more than twenty radio interviews in succession, beginning at 6 a.m. that morning. I never planned a book tour, preferring instead to “batch” radio satellite tours into 48 hours.

“Heather, I love you, but please don’t fuck with me.”

“No, you really hit the list. Congratulations, Mr. New York Times bestselling author!”

I leaned against the wall and slid down until I was sitting on the floor. I closed my eyes, smiled, and took a deep breath.

Things were about to change. Everything was about to change.

[David Perell @david_perell]

I asked Tim Ferriss: “How do you know if you’re ready to write a book?”

He said: “If this cannot be your top priority for the next year at a minimum, don’t do a book. There’s a glut of mediocrity in the world. Please don’t contribute to it.”

[Jay Armstrong @writeonfighton]

@tferriss my writer friend and I are starting a podcast with strategies/systems to help new writers ( young & old) prioritize writing.

Where is the best place/platform to meet writers who are eager to talk about their work and share their experience with prioritizing writing?

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

Life is unpredictable. There are many unexpected problems that will pop up, and I’ve found that two things help me sail choppy water during the day.

Both are done in the morning: A) read a few pages of Stoicism, like Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, and B) control at least a few things you can control.

First, for A, here is one Marcus Aurelius quote on my refrigerator that often does the trick:

“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own—not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me.”

Now, B) control what you can control. No matter how shitty your day is, no matter how catastrophic it might become, you can make your bed.

And that gives you the feeling, at least it gives me the feeling, even in a disastrous day, that I’ve held on to the cliff ledge by a fingernail and I haven’t fallen.

[Jay Armstrong @writeonfighton]

@tferriss I have a progressive brain disease and I'm suppose to be giving up. Yet last week I published my second book ( on essentially not giving up) and now people are already asking about the third. Do you have any advice/resources on creating and maintaining expectations?

[Jay Armstrong @writeonfighton]

Don't be fool by the beautifully crafted prose, this is a gritty, dirt-under-your-fingernails, survival story.
Inspiring, empowering and a graceful reminder of your ability to brave up and triumph over life's challenges. @gailboenning

[Jesse W Jackson @JesseJacksonDFW]

My review of @writeonfighton new book https://t.co/byVVHd47de

[Jesse W Jackson @JesseJacksonDFW]

The new book from @writeonfighton reminds me of the different columns that Emma Bombeck and Lewis Grizzard used to write, humorous yet insightful. Ordinary Hero arrives gracefully to Amazon on 11/1/23 and if you preorder - it's only $0.99! https://t.co/5dl5hPHvRQ

[Jesse W Jackson @JesseJacksonDFW]

Please check out @writeonfighton new book! Only $0.99! https://t.co/20IASMIM2j

[Jay Armstrong @writeonfighton]

#GoPhils #RedOctober

[Jay Armstrong @writeonfighton]

Ordinary Hero: The Power of Building Character One Step at a Time by Jay Armstrong https://t.co/E7BZBiK3RA via @goodreads

[Jay Armstrong @writeonfighton]

@JesseJacksonDFW Thank you my friend!

[Jay Armstrong @writeonfighton]

The Power of Attitude and Action - WriteOnFightOn https://t.co/ieHnZ0omjP

[Jay Armstrong @writeonfighton]

Ordinary Hero: The Power of Building Character One Step at a Time https://t.co/75W5df8QJh #Amazon via @Amazon

[Jesse W Jackson @JesseJacksonDFW]

The creator of "The Mary Question" @writeonfighton has a new book available for preorder, it's only $0.99, please go and order it - let's give Jay some love https://t.co/5dl5hPHvRQ