The birthday right before you become a parent is meant to be scary.
I feel okay. But what the heck do I know. This is my last bash with freedom. The next birthday will be full of baby screams. I ain’t mad it though. Sounds like a blast haha.
Today on my birthday I’m a 36 year old grandpa with a hearing aid. Here are the 36 life lessons I’ve learned that will inspire the heck out of you.
Freedom is 100% ownership of your time
This birthday is special because it’s one year since I quit my job.
No more bosses. No more spreadsheets. No more pretending to care about daily revenue updates.
The biggest advantage is a free calendar. When your day is full of back-to-back meetings you can’t think straight. Muddy thinking equals dumb mistakes. And no free time increases the speed you experience time.
Use money to buy time, not material possessions.
Obsession for one thing creates self-powered motivation
All I think about every day is writing.
I can’t sleep when I have an idea for a story. Youtuber, Mr Beast, felt the same at the start of his online journey.
Obsession is underrated. When you’re obsessed all the purpose, passion, vision board crap goes in the bin. All that matters is getting a hit of the activity that is your ecstasy pill.
Alcohol is poison that steals your energy so you can’t succeed
The stuff rots your insides.
A red wine a day to stay healthy is one of the greatest lies ever told.
Alcohol dehydrates you. Your body is made up of mostly water. When you’re dehydrated regularly from alcohol your skin starts to dry up, eventually turning into wrinkles.
Then there’s the brain fog the next day caused by dehydration. Your body uses water to empty all the waste. Without enough water the waste builds up.
The best thing I ever did was give up alcohol and increase my water intake.
Getting Drunk = Deliberate Dehydration
Writers don’t stop writing
… they run out of energy.
Platforms don’t die. The users run out of energy.
Whoever has the most energy wins.
Money doesn’t make you happier
It does buy you more time to do things you love.
Having kids is scary
The doctor scares you right after the pregnancy. They tell you about stillborns and miscarriages. You walk out of the doctor’s office trembling.
Then your network tells you how much babies are a pain in the ass and how you flushed your life down the toilet to support another tiny human. What evs. What I’ve learned after 36 years is…
What scares you causes you to grow the most.
The best friend you can have is the one that shows up at your door after you experience a massive loss
Last year I copped a massive loss.
My former monk boss showed up at my doorstep an hour later. No one told him to. No one forced him. He just cleared his schedule because he saw a friend in need. You’ll typically find one to two people like this.
Hold onto these best friends for dear life. They’re the selfless souls that make the world go round.
Writing online is free therapy
Get the thoughts out of your head and onto the screen. They’ll look different. Your interpretation of the world will change.
The best part is writing can help others. What you think is cliche is incredibly helpful to many.
Posting every day on Twitter is a life hack
Habits define successful careers.
An amazing career needs opportunities. They come to you by posting daily. Twitter is the easiest because who the hell can’t type one killer sentence that leaves people speechless?
Living underneath a flight path is a bad idea
I moved house in the last year. I waltzed into the inspection of the home with too much excitement.
After we moved in I realized why it was so cheap: it’s under a major flight path. We don’t get jumbo jets flying overhead. Nope. We get small planes and helicopters that fly close to our roof.
Noise pollution definitely increases stress levels.
A proper Zoom background makes you look pro
This year I nuked the dull white wall background.
Now I have a proper background with a bookshelf (no books), colored lights, pot plants, a salt lamp, and a kickass model of the Back To The Future movie Delorean car.
The biggest tweak is key lights that shine on my face. They’re soft and help make the Zoom representation of my skinny ass look better.
Invest in looking pro — especially if you run an online business.
The best habits get built when they’re scheduled on your calendar
My writing habit has become unstoppable. The big difference happens when you put it on the calendar. After enough repetitions your brain starts to know when it’s time to write, and time to goof off.
When you do what you love each day you jump out of bed
Monday morning blues are a thing of the past. Work you love doing doesn’t feel like work at all. If you ever find yourself in this position, don’t take it for granted. Many people never experience it.
Read less books
The book bros tell you to read 10,000 words an hour. This year I’ve read a lot less books. The advantage is I’ve now had time to read better books, slower. When you’re not in a rush to read, the notes you take are better too.
TikTok ruins your attention span
The Netflix stock price fell off a cliff. Few understand. People gave up Netflix for TikTok. This is bad because TikTok is full of fast, short videos. Each video gives you a dopamine hit. The next video automatically plays.
If you watch enough TikTok your attention span gets destroyed.
Don’t join the goldfish generation. Stay clear of TikTok. Read a book instead.
Quit your job and try working for yourself for a while
It’s not for everyone. But if you never try you’ll never know. Not trying a common experience tends to lead to regrets.
Even if you fail working for yourself, you’ll learn a lot.
Being stuck at home for 2 years sucks
The crazy restrictions caused by coroni-rona are slowly easing in most countries, except the red flag asian nation.
It’s hard to believe we survived such an odd time in history. It’s easy to see these past 2 years as a giant waste of time. I disagree.
The amount of learning that’s happened while everyone is stuck at home is glorious. We’re going to come out of this thing smarter and ready to build an even better future.
Tell your life partner one thing every day you’re grateful for
Got this from a relationship book. Seemed stupid but now I love it. You’ll go from finding annoyances to loving them for who they are when you focus on what you’re grateful they did each day.
Get a business partner if you want to own an online business
I tried to start an online academy three times and failed. On the fourth attempt I got a business partner. Game changing. It’s easier to find the right path with two brains. By yourself, you’ll drown.
Failing at the same thing multiple times will eventually see you win
I’ve had many failed relationships, until last year when I got married. If you search for something long enough you’ll eventually find it. Fall down nine times. Get back up ten.
Go for more walks
Walking is such a huge life hack. Who knew something so simple could be so powerful. Walking gets your brain fired up. It stirs up your creativity — great if you’re a writer or in a profession that requires creativity (every career).
A proper microphone makes you sound like you’re more successful than you are
If your voice sounds good your opinion sounds better. Fake it until you make it, as they say.
The best way to test your psychology is to be an investor
If markets going down makes you fearful, go work on your psychology. Read psychology books. Reduce stress. Proactively lean into fearful situations. Those with a bulletproof mindset eventually become rich.
Even when you’re successful you’re still an amateur at something
I can write okay. But I suck at so many things: cooking, cleaning, cold emails, pretend-smiling, parallel parking. Admitting what you suck at reinforces your humility muscle. Humility creates hidden success that looks like luck.
Put aside a budget every year to do online courses
None of us are as smart as we think. I do at least one online course a month. I’ve done more than three twitter courses to try and master the platform. The key with courses is you pay money to save time.
Moving house is the worst experience in the world
Despite having your stuff thrown into boxes and waiting months to unpack it all and set stuff up the way you like it … there’s a greater pain — real estate agents. They show us we’re at peak selfishness with their greed.
Everything is a cult
Bitcoin is a religion. Politics is a religion. Writing is a religion. Tesla is a religion. Elon is a religion. Pick your religion then share your gospel. It’s okay to wanna sacrifice yourself for a cause bigger than you.
Help those on the way up
I started doing this in the last year. Gives me a lot of fulfillment. Takeaway: unofficially mentor a few people who show signs of proof-of-work.
No market is saturated
(Especially the online world.)
The market is just full of low-quality stuff you can easily beat with patience and higher quality. Saturation equals validated opportunity.
F*ck networking
Networking is transactional and feels like puke. Make friends instead.
Problems that look like they’ll ruin the world always get solved
The solutions just haven’t been invented yet.
Example: climate change could ruin Earth. Or we could get a second Earth. No point predicting the worst. You’ll lose because innovation gives us hidden solutions no one can predict. Nice.
Selfish people block hundreds of amazing opportunities from their lives
(They just don’t know.)
Practice selflessness. You’ll look lucky. Oh, and make less ‘asks’ in life. Most of you are asking for too many things in your emails, and for opportunities you don’t deserve yet. Slow is fast, fast is smooth. One meaningful ask, not a hundred dumb asks, like follow me.
If you don’t have time, the goal isn’t a priority
“I don’t have time” is a verbal disease.
We have time for stuff that matters. We don’t have time for stuff that doesn’t. Quit lying to yourself. If you say you don’t have time, ask yourself: do I really want this or are my intentions piss-weak?
You’ll miss your colleagues if you quit your job
Online business can be lonely. The best strategy is to deliberately make time each week to reconnect with people in the real world. Coffee catchups are a blessing when you don’t work in an office anymore.
Open up a savings account for taxes
Or get a surprise tax bill & pay high interest that’ll lead to regrets.
You can write your own rules for life
All the rules you encounter are optional if you know how to negotiate.
Quit seeing barriers. Start seeing walls that can be smashed down if you dare. What you want in life lies on the other side of “it can’t be done” or “it’s been done before” or “you can’t do that here.”
Cheers to another year on this planet.
