What I Wish I Knew 11 Years Ago About Life
My grey hairs have been breeding like a horny rabbit. Perhaps there’s some truth to “grey hair is the visualization of stress.”
No more d*ckheads on drugs with tops off.
That’s the decision I made yesterday. I stood on top of the hill of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Australia. Below me were 20,000 people dancing to the sounds of Alesso, Afrojack, and Steve Aoki.
This used to be my happy place — dance music, DJs, alcohol, and bad behavior. Only 11 years ago I’d look forward to a music event like this for an entire year.
Yesterday I realized this is where I went to escape.
But I didn’t want to be there anymore. On the side stage I saw a friend of mine DJ to a crowd of head boppers.
“He and I went to school together,” I told my wife.
11 years ago he was my idol. I wanted to be a successful DJ like him. Yesterday, though, he looked different.
Huge beer gut, fake high-fives with the other DJs, three cigarettes in a 30-minute set, no longer playing main stage, loads of wrinkles.
He looked beaten up by the DJ life, the life I would’ve once died for.
On the final song of Alesso’s DJ set I watched the fireworks and said farewell to this life forever. Now I’m married and write online, everything is shifting fast. There’s a lot I don’t care about anymore.
Lesson: what you care about now you probably won’t care about in 11 years.
2. Don’t try to educate captain stupids
Coronirona was an IQ Test. Read that again.
And many people failed, including a few close to me.
The worst are the oldies in my life. They think what happens to a teenager applies to them. Meanwhile, the death rate of over 70s remains high. Get the free jab of life or accept your fate. I don’t have time to argue anymore.
The data is so clear a 5 year old can understand it.
When you waste your time — and most importantly, your emotions — trying to change the minds of people who question data but don’t question the drunk at the pub that told them “it’s over,” your life becomes tragic.
Exit dumbville.
3. Look after your meat suit
The day starts out as terrible if your body is screwed.
Few remember this. They poison their greatest gift with eCigarettes, alcohol, processed food, and a lack of sunlight.
Your meat suit is the delivery vehicle of happiness. Make your health a priority by getting sunlight, eating more plants, exercising, reading philosophy, smiling more, and sleeping for 8 hours.
They say stress is one of the worst things for your body.
Recently, my grey hairs have been breeding like a horny rabbit. I’ve been the most stressed in the last few months.
Perhaps there’s some truth to “grey hair is the visualization of stress.”
4. Don’t do work you hate forever
Let’s not pretend we all have amazing jobs and go to work with a skip in our step. For most us, we’ve worked back-to-back jobs we hate to pay bills.
There’s no shame in it.
Survival mode is just fine. But at some point you’ve gotta exit the consumerism race, live below your means, and find a way to do work you enjoy — the type of work where the payment doesn’t matter so much.
5. Selfishness is a quiet disease that kills good humans
Some say having children can cure selfishness.
Either way, if all you care about is yourself then life will be a painful nightmare. Sorry to say. Life becomes more interesting when you go outside yourself and learn to be part of society.
Society equals helping others. Too many people have forgotten that.
6. Work on something after hours
11 years ago I spent my nights escaping reality. I had dark mental illness and could produce dystopian thoughts with ease on any topic.
Those nights I wasted could have been spent working on my music and achieving my goal back then of becoming a music producer.
Now I know not to waste the time outside of work. Last year I quit my job forever because of an after hours side hustle.
Get a side hustle. Change your life.
7. Conventional thinking is mostly wrong
The crowd doesn’t know what’s best for you. Stop listening to the majority who are driven by their fear and are deeply insecure.
The best advice doesn’t come from the common person wasting their time living in fear and avoiding discomfort at all costs.
Search for uncommon thought leaders. Try ones you disagree with. That’s how you learn true wisdom.
8. That voice that says “do it” only gets louder as you age
It becomes a scream if you’re not careful. Do the thing you’ve always wanted to do, or face terrible regrets. Assume the best and an uncommon path you could have never have dreamed of will work in your favor.
9. Everything worth doing is bloody hard
My new life motto: choose your hard.
Hard things are the best things looking back.
Nothing worth achieving is easy. The devil is your fear. It wants you to do predictable, boring, meaningless stuff to avoid discomfort.
When you find hard you find something worth living for.
10. Die on the hill
Stand up for what you believe in. Too many pissants give up too soon or are easily defeated. The uncommon 1% that get most of the results keep going.
If you believe it, then turn the naysayers into fans. If you believe we believe.
11. Say fuggit more often
Most of us give away too many f*cks to completely dumb stuff.
Life is meant to go against your favor. Once you realize that you stop standing still and start fighting hard against the current.
“Fuggit” is the answer for most problems.
12. Being tired removes filters
That can be the best time to express yourself and overcome limiting beliefs. Different states of mind have different advantages.
13. Every downside has an upside
Look for the upside.
Start with this question: how could I see this as a massive advantage?
14. Content creators unfairly get more opportunities
If you rely on your small circle of friends and work colleagues for opportunities, you’re screwed. It’s not enough.
Publishing content online is a magnet for people. People are the delivery vehicles for opportunities.
Publish one short thought online every day. I’m proof of what happens.
15. Rules make life a prison for your mind
And happiness becomes hard to find.
Have less rules for people and life. Rules are made to be broken. Rules are forcing you to make people behave the way you want. But most people will do the opposite, so quit torturing yourself.
If you meet a deeply unhappy person, find out how many rules they have. You’ll see for yourself.
Less rules, happy life.
16. Money is a tool, not a way to be happy
Money buys you time. Time buys you the chance to work on a goal you care about. The progress from goals is true happiness, not what the money from goal achievement buys you.
Chase money, feel endlessly lost. Instead, chase goals, progress to happiness.
17. Following the news cycle equals insanity
What I love about the news is they’re always waiting at the boundary line of the football game called life with another crisis.
The heartache is never over. There’s always some other situation you can’t control — that makes you feel like humanity is doomed — to replace it.
Turn off the insanity.
Use smarter information sources to learn about the world. Or go full monk mode for a year and forget about it all to heal the mind.
Takeaway
Your life can completely transform. Make the small changes today to speed up the progress.
