Too busy to read?

Accepting (and ideally embracing) uncertainty is liberating. If you set out on a long journey, things will go wrong. If they do not - if everything goes perfectly to plan - that does not mean you are a genius. It means your goal was too modest. You will encounter forest fires and have to gamble on climbing into a wobbly canoe and seeing what happens.

We can only spend our time once. It is foolish to not consider why we should take one path and not another. Being clear about why you choose to do something is an under-appreciated first step to living adventurously.

whatever direction you plump for today is unlikely to be your path for the rest of your life. You don't have to stress that you'll be shackled to your decision forever. There can be a lightness to it.

A bad day is a good day. Earn the good times. Embrace Type 2 Fun. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Dorstokkmila. The Doorstep Mile. Leaving your front door is the longest mile of any journey.

I learned to concentrate on what I could control rather than on all that I could not. There was little point getting angry at millions of acres of blazing forest and a squillion mosquitoes. All I could do was deal with the situation in front of me and keep moving forwards.

Doing something small today - and then again tomorrow - is the best way to move towards your aspirations.

You and I are both battling a terminal illness with no cure and a 100% fatality rate. It is called Life. We will all be dead within a few decades. Deferring living adventurously is madness, albeit a madness so prevalent in society as to be regarded as standard. It astonishes me how few people rage against this. The risk of living a life that you do not want in the hope that it might eventually buy your freedom is a hell of a chance to take.

There is no correct route through life. There is no ideal lifestyle. There is not even one perfect way of life for you. It is better than that: there is an enticing abundance of intriguing possibilities. Don't be ashamed or afraid to pick an adventurous path that tickles your fancy, then go and explore it.

There are easier ways to live than this. But I do not want an easy life. I am starkly aware that my time is finite. I want to avoid regrets and the drift of decades, even if all I manage some days is stepping away from the email onslaught for 20 minutes to climb a tree. I am not just living for the weekend as I hear so many people sigh at the school gates. I have fewer than 2000 Mondays left to live. I want to make the most of them, not just tick them off!

Shoot for the moon. Set yourself an outrageous goal. Just do it. Make it harder to ignore your dream than to overcome the risks and obstacles. Failing is an acceptable and unavoidable fact of life. Giving up easily need not be. Keep taking one more step and you might be surprised how far you go. You are the only person who controls your potential. Everything is up to you. The choice is yours. A bad day is a good day. Earn the good times. Embrace Type 2 Fun. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Be brutally honest with yourself. Do you believe your own excuses? Does this year matter? Then use it. Think like a goldfish. Do not think about the end. Focus on the next step to keep you moving. Take care of yourself. Physically and mentally. Being fit feels good. A healthy mind in a healthy body. The world is a good place. Trust. Smile. Boldness and relentless passion will be rewarded.

get your head down in the office and hope for promotion every couple of years until you're 65.

writing two obituaries for your life; one that follows your current trajectory and one for the life you wish you dared to live.

How to get more time. The 4-step plan from time-management guru Alastair Humphreys (written on the loo) Say 'Hell yeah, or no' when deciding what activities to commit to. Ask the 80-year-old version of yourself whether you should be spending your time on this thing. What can you cut out of your life to get more time? Quit each of your distractions for a week and notice how much free time that creates. Turn off your phone.

Sonder is 'the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own - populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness.'

'Yowzers, I'm so busy,' we boast, pretending not to be gleeful if we win the busiest person contest. At its heart, being busy makes us feel important and necessary. Most of us (except those who are saving lives or cleaning streets) are not really either of those things. But it is nicer to believe that we are.

Do something daily that excites you, makes you happier and curious. Something that scares you a little. It is the process that is important and the direction you walk every day, not the notional outcome at the end of that journey.

We are all too frantic to be able to savour life or focus on the important things. And we live in a society that applauds the wildest ball jugglers.

Check out www.deathclock.com. The Death Clock calculates the date of your death. Cheerful, I know. But if you're the sort of procrastinating person who needs a deadline to get something done, well, there it is. Your deadline! Stick it in your diary now.

Each day brings me closer to my death. No matter how aware I am of this, it is sometimes difficult to believe my days are numbered. I burn carelessly through weeks, even months, unable to restart living fully.

An hour spent at work is equivalent to trading an hour of your life for some cash. It is worth pausing occasionally to consider that exchange (ideally at work when you might get paid for the pause). * Do you enjoy your work? Or is it a pragmatic necessity that you must accept and make the best of? * How much would you pay for an hour of life? How much do you earn per hour? * Is this a fair/good/unavoidable swap? * Could you earn more for that hour of your life? Could you work fewer hours?

Life is busy. But it is also for living. You'll never have a life as good as this one again. Make the most of it.

You spend more time looking at your phone than making memories.

you can do anything in life, but you cannot do everything.

'How we spend our days,' noted Annie Dillard, 'is, of course, how we spend our lives.'