Thanks to Maria Popova : https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/10/23/nine-years-of-brain-pickings/

1	Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind	It’s enormously disorienting to simply say, “I don’t know.” But it’s infinitely more rewarding to understand than to be right — even if that means changing your mind about a topic, an ideology, or, above all, yourself.
2	Don't do it for prestige,status or money alone.	Read Paul Graham's how to find your life's purpose. Work on what you like, not on what you'd like to like. Remember James Marcus Bach - "Secrets of a Tampa Bay Scholar" - focus on Authentic problems. Following extrinsic motivators will burn you out eventually.
3	Be generous	with time, resources, credit, praise, your words. There's always a person at the other end - remember that.
4	Build pockets of stillness into your life	As Trevor Blake puts it - create moments of insight. Meditation, daydreaming, boredom are all ok. DON'T SKIMP ON SLEEP!!
5	When people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them	But believe them when they tell you who they are
6	Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time	Rome wasn't built in a day. That's why it's important to find work that has meaning for you.
7	See out what magnifies your spirit	People, ideas, books that elevate you - find them, hold on to them.
8	Don't be afraid to be an idealist	E.B. White, one of our last great idealists, was eternally right when he asserted half a century ago that the role of the writer is “to lift people up, not lower them down” — a role each of us is called to with increasing urgency, whatever cog we may be in the machinery of society. Supply creates its own demand. Only by consistently supplying it can we hope to increase the demand for the substantive over the superficial — in our individual lives and in the collective dream called culture.