2024: Patience

Do not get excited about a hypothetical scenario. Wait to be happy until it is a done deal. Remain focused throughout the process of trying to attain it and do not borrow happiness from the future. Once it's official I can celebrate but until then I need to be disciplined and live in the present moment.

2023: Action

Take bold action. If it's a mistake then at least I learn from it, and chances are I can make up for the mistake if needed by acting boldly again. As Teddy Roosevelt said, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The second best thing is the wrong thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

2022: Morality

It's hard to do the right thing. It's also hard to admit that it's hard, that I am tempted to do bad things, that I need to work hard to be good. It's way easier to just tell myself "I'm a good person" and leave it at that. But I am neither a good person nor a bad person — I am whatever I act as. So I need to admit that doing the right thing is not easy or automatic and that I have the capacity to be bad if I'm not careful, which necessitates consistent, conscious effort to be good every day of my life.

2021: Perfection

Do not try to be perfect. The goal of self-improvement taken to its logical extreme is perfection, so it seems rational that perfection should be the goal. But in reality, nobody wants me to be perfect. What could be more boring and uninspiring than a person who has no flaws, weaknesses, or insecurities? It's tempting to try to be perfect, but it's not an effective strategy for getting the outcomes I want.

2020: Rejection

First and foremost, if someone rejects you (a person, a college, a job) then it's surely a sign that you would not actually have been a good fit for whatever you got rejected from. Second, use rejection as motivation. If the rejection is personal, even better. One day they'll see what they missed, they really will.