I asked Thoreau for some guidance today.

Here are 3 things he told me:

1. Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet.
2. A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.
3. However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.