Uncommon life lessons are earned through living an uncommon life.

These are lessons that are not taught in school or talked about frequently, but they have had a big impact on my life and I believe they can help others as well.

Whether you’re just starting out on your self-development or business journey or you’ve been around the block a few times, you’ll find something useful in these lessons

Let’s begin.

1. Your income is only limited by two things: skillset and mindset. Without the right skills, you can’t do what you say. Without the right mindset, you can’t even say what you want to do.

2. Decide who you want to be rejected by. I would rather people reject me than for me to reject me. In order to focus on yourself, you will have to ruthlessly disappoint people. Get used to it.

3. You don’t have a business problem. You have personal problems masquerading as business problems. Fix yourself before you attempt to fix your business.

4. If you want an extraordinary life, don’t expect to be balanced. You have to live like most people won’t, so you can achieve what most people can’t. You will sacrifice nights out and short-term fun for your goals.

5. Mental health is the foundation of everything. The older I get, the more I realize most people don’t have good mental health habits. Poor mental health will make everything 10x harder.

6. Understand the difference between a winning lottery ticket and a winning formula. Most advice from successful people is like reading winning lottery tickets. Formulas are replicable. Tickets are luck. Formulas are adaptable. Tickets are rigid.

7. Sometimes the kindest thing you can do is to accept someone for who they are. If you can’t accept them, you’ve only got two options: change the relationship or leave the relationship. Trying to do anything else expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

8. Invest in building leverage early and often. Build in public. Document your journey on social media. Attract a loyal audience. Anything you want to do in life is easier when you’ve got leverage.

9. Distance yourself from people who are sensitive or easily offended. They are time wasters and will suck the emotional energy from you. It’s not your job to be their parent or therapist.

10. Look at what the majority of people are doing. Then do the opposite. Extraordinary results won’t come from average actions. To be great, you have to do great. Average actions produce average results.

11. Motivation follows action. To be motivated, do motivating things. Your mind can’t feel what it can’t see your body doing. If in doubt, move.

12. Judge people on their behavior. Talk is cheap. Words are meaningless. Most goals are a form of mental masturbation. I only judge people on their actions and progress.

13. The recipe for a productive morning routine is simple. View sunlight. Exercise. Cold exposure. Mindfulness. You can do all of this within one hour of your day. Can’t fit it in? Wake up earlier.

14. Ignore ‘free’ advice from most people. Or pay the price. If this person hasn’t achieved what you want, their advice is worthless at best and dangerous at worse. Remember you will have to live with the consequences of the outcome.

15. The story you tell yourself is the story you become. You can change your life simply by telling better stories about yourself. Be the main character of your life, not at NPC. Have goals. Take risks. Go on adventures.

16. Extrinsic motivation = dopamine candy. Relying on money and material possessions feels great while you’re doing it, but ultimately leaves you unsatisfied and lonely.

17. An 80-year-old Harvard study proved enduring happiness was correlated with the quality of relationships you have. Control your social environment to control the amount of happiness you enjoy.

18. 90% of life decisions are reversible. Aside from addiction, having a kid, going to jail or ruining your reputation, you can reverse most decisions. Stop procrastinating on decisions that can be changed.

19. Change the scope but stick to the schedule. When I’m short on time, I don’t ditch the habit, I shorten the duration. If I can only write for 30 minutes, instead of my usual 1 hour, I do it. Consistency creates momentum.

20. Control friction to control your life. Friction is the difference between achieving your goals or not. Reduce friction for habits you want to start. Increase friction for habits you want to stop.

21. Trajectory > Speed. I am more concerned with the direction I am headed in rather than my speed. I might walk slowly, but I’ll never walk backward.

22. Focus on high-leverage activities. Embed exercise, reading and meditating into your daily routine. These activities are force multipliers that can 10x your daily output.

23. I focus on work that endures over time. Create digital assets. Reduce digital liabilities. Assets make time your friend. Liabilities make time your enemy.

24. BONUS: Understand what game you’re playing. Everyone is playing a game. The game of money, career or family. Once you know the game, ask yourself: is this game worth winning? Some are, and some aren’t.

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