Mental toughness is often framed as the perseverance that gets you across the finish line,. But most days, mental toughness isn't about crossing the finish line. It's about getting to the starting line. Mental toughness is not skipping the days that are easy to skip.

Theologian and philosopher Saint Augustine on doing what you can for who you know, Source: De Doctrina Christiana.

"Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.".

Engineer and inventor Colin Chapman offers a guiding principle for high-performance:. "Simplify, then add lightness.".

“Today might be the best chance you have to take action.” -James Clear.

"Your first task is to find what feels effortless to you. Your second task is to put maximum effort into it." . -James Clear.

An old Latin proverb, "Initium est dimidium facti", reminds us of the timeless importance of simply beginning the task at hand. It translates to:. "Once you've started, you're halfway there.". Source: Horace, the Roman poet, in his work Epistles.

From James Clear.

"Stories of failure resonate more than stories of success. Few people reach the top, but everyone has failed—including those who eventually succeed. If you're teaching people how to succeed in a given field (or talking about your own success), start with how you failed.".

Which distractions in your life have become disguised as priorities?. "The way to help someone is not to critique what makes them smaller, but to encourage what makes them larger." -James Clear.

The Process:. 1. Decide what you want to achieve. 2. Try different ways of achieving it until you find one that works for you. 3. Do more of what works. Do less of what doesn’t. 4. Don’t stop doing it until it stops working. 5. Repeat. It is both this simple and this hard.

"The quality of your thoughts is determined by the quality of your reading. Spend more time thinking about the inputs." -James Clear.

I had a great time today at #BankiBrunch, a daily coder's meetup at #100Devs. It turns out that Ajax turns 20 years this year, the web development technique by Jesse James Garret, used to send and receive data without interfering with the display.

"Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.".

What Leon is live on twitch?!.

From Author and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe on perseverance. Source: Oldtown Folks (1869).

Sometimes I feel like I only have one skill; perseverance. "When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you till it seems as if you couldn't hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that's just the place and time that the tide'll turn.".

I wasn't going to share this but now I have 'We add authentication to our applications' stuck in my head.

Don't be held hostage by your expectations. Set an extremely high bar, but be adaptable to reframe failures. Focus on how the world is working with you, not against you. Everything you are given is material for the next move. Everything.

If you're looking for a job in software engineering this is a great place to start. But remember when things get tough: There is always a way. Stay in the game. You can do it.