I’m Turning 27-Years-Old Next Month. Here Are The 27 Life Lessons I’ve Learned So Far.
Personal lessons on life, finances and relationships.
Great relationships are made, not found.
Forget the Disney fantasy. Creating meaningful relationships requires sacrifice, commitment and investment of your time and energy. You likely won’t ever find your perfect relationship. But you can create one.
No one really cares about you.
Friends and family will love you. But they don’t care what you do with your life. You have to take responsibility for taking steps to achieve your own dreams and goals. Your life will improve in proportion to how much responsibility you take.
Not all friendships are forever. And that’s okay.
Some people are in your life for a reason, season or for a long time. Don’t hold onto a relationship that has stopped being meaningful. Let go or be dragged.
The formula for success is easy.
Success = consistency x time x rate of improvement. Do something every day, for long enough while constantly trying to improve and you’ll be successful. But formulas are easy. Taking action is hard.
Reading books will change your life.
Books are the best investment you can make in your own development. For the cost of a dinner, you get access to knowledge and life lessons that took someone a lifetime to learn. Read more books, quit most of them and read the great ones twice.
You’ll never feel like you’ve ‘arrived’.
That feeling of having everything in your life figured out will never come. Life is an iterated game. The challenges you face will only increase as you grow. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Focus on what you have.
And you gain what you lack”. — Greg McKeown
Focus on what you lack.
And you lose what you have”. — Greg McKeown
The complete recipe for your mental health.
Exercise regularly, sleep 7–8 hours a night, engage in mindfulness, connect with nature and surround yourself with people that you love and care for. You want a calm mind, a fit body and a house full of love.
Start a side hustle.
I wish I started writing on Medium earlier. I wish I started my podcast earlier. I wish I started my consulting agency earlier. The best time to start your side hustle was 1 year ago. The next best time is today.
Build digital leverage.
Building leverage is now permissionless. You don’t need to get approval from gatekeepers to start a blog, podcast or website. Digital leverage amplifies your value proposition. As Archimedes once said, “give me a lever long enough, and I shall move the world”.
Create content.
Digital leverage is built through your online content. Your online content is a reflection of what you genuinely enjoy doing. You can become the #1 content creator in a niche you love. Pick a platform, start creating and show up every day.
Painful life regrets have positively shaped my life.
Sounds counterintuitive, but regrets have made my life meaningful. Any deep lessons or experiences I’ve had were bourne from regrets of the past. Don’t ignore your regrets, learn to use them better.
Invest in yourself.
Invest in your finances. Invest in your relationships. Invest in your career. Invest in your hobbies. Invest in your body. Invest in your mind. Invest in your education. Investment in yourself always pays the best dividends.
Travel.
There are two ways to learn about the world; reading or traveling. Once you’ve read enough, put down the book. It is time to start exploring. Don’t travel to escape yourself, travel to discover yourself.
Don’t rely on one employer.
Your employer pays you a minimal amount to keep you at your job. You are one organizational restructure, economic downturn or bad boss away from your life being turned upside down. Constantly cheat on your employer with your side hustle.
Taking risks.
Understand the concept of convexity. Always aim for opportunities with a high upside and limited downside. When I record a podcast, I can’t receive negative listens, but I have the potential to reach a million people. Not taking any risks is the biggest risk you can take.
Compound interest.
All of the best things in life — money, relationship, business — come as a result of compound interest. How do you build compound interest? Investing in yourself. See #14.
Aggregation of marginal gains.
Changing your life requires small improvements that make you 1% better every day. You rather be consistently good than occasionally great.
You can make money quickly.
But you can’t make money easily. Provide value at scale and you’ll get rich quick, but it won’t be easy. Anyone selling you the get-rich-easy scheme is getting rich off you.
Time.
People won’t value your time as much as you will. Guard and protect your time. It’s the only resource you have. Everything you say ‘yes’ to means you are saying ‘no’ to something else.
Creativity.
We are all naturally creative. It is the society we live in that beats it out of us. Reconnect with that inner child. What did you love doing as a child? Writing, painting or drawing? Stop ignoring your inner creativity. Use it to create a better world for yourself.
Ideas.
Write down ten new ideas every day. They don’t have to be good ideas or even realistic. That’s not the point. Your ability to come up with ideas is like a muscle. Use it or lose it.
Fear.
Once you overcome one set of fears, you have an approach to overcome any fear you have. You also have the confidence and momentum from your own development to keep growing. Killing one fear enables you to kill them all.
Dealing with judgment.
No matter what you do, people will judge you. That’s life. You have to learn to get over it. But the truth is that most people don’t really care what you do. The fear of judgment holds more people back than actual judgment.
Therapy.
We’ve all got emotional baggage to work through. What doesn’t get resolved from your childhood gets repeated in your adulthood. Talking to someone is the first step toward change. The decision is yours: evolve or repeat.
Reflect on your morality.
The two guarantees in life are paying taxes and death. We will all die. Rather than hide from your own morality. Use it to guide you. When you look back on your life, what will you want to be remembered for?
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