34 Most Important Things I Have Learnt In Life

This month I turned 34. Here are 34 things I have learnt in the last year:

1. Follow your intuition (gut feeling/hunch/6th sense – whatever you want to call it). It’s there for a reason.
2. If you are not giving your all in this life, what are you saving it for? No one is getting out alive.
3. Make mistakes early in life. Plenty of them and then learn from them. (Read my post on making mistakes)
4. Hold strong opinions but loosely. You should be willing to change them in light new information. Don’t be the fool who is never willing to change his/her mind.
5. Everyone wants recognition, acceptance and be seen for who they are. No matter how ‘cool’ they are or act. Be accepting of yourself and be accepting of others.
6. Make a deal with yourself to learn something new every day, week, month and year. Commit to growth.
7. Writing makes you a critical thinker. It helps to clarify your thoughts. Write every day – Even if it’s a few lines (you don’t have to put it out for the world to read – I was writing for 6 months before I decided to post it).
8. Compliance can be achieved by education and compassion or by enforcement. More often than not we try to achieve it by enforcement due to some asshole that games the system. Don’t be that asshole that ruins it for everyone.
9. Don’t apologise if you don’t mean it. Don’t try to be polite by saying sorry when you’re not. Be honest. Saying sorry is usually easy. Being honest is not.
10. Don’t be afraid to talk about and seek help in relation to mental health issues.
11. Use your food as medicine so it doesn’t get replaced by medicine as you age.
12. Have a daily meditation practice. It will change your life in more ways than you can imagine.
13. There is merit in analysing things but don’t get paralysed by overthinking. Take action.
14. If you want the approval of your peers, then do what everyone else is doing. For any meaningful success in life, do what no one else would dare.
15. Have high self-esteem. If you don’t love yourself no one else will.
16. Easy decisions, hard life. Hard decisions, easy life. Choose wisely.
17. Sleep is one of the most important and underrated markers of good health. Invest in your sleep. Get good pillows, mattress sheets etc. Adults need 7-9 hours of sleep opportunity every night. It doesn’t make you lazy, it makes you healthy. There is tons of research on this. Educate yourself on sleep. (I highly recommend this book – it changed the way I think of sleep)
18. Your body is your greatest asset. All your dreams, goals, aspirations and desires are dependent on your physical ability to achieve and enjoy them. Look after your body. Eat well, exercise and make healthy choices every day. A healthy person has a million dreams, but a sick person only has one.
19. Habits are important. Invest the time, energy and money to build good habits and track your progress.
20. Learn about the viewpoints of others (religion, politics, cultures etc). It will give you a window into your own biases.
21. Learn about history. Understand why the world operates the way it does.
22. You can never please everyone in your circle. So you must always endeavour to please and make yourself happy. Make your life to your own liking.
23. When making a decision, always ask yourself; is this decision based on love or fear?
24. Avoid religious debates and arguments. Everyone is right and everyone is wrong at the same time. It is all a matter of perspective and belief. You have yours and they have theirs. Let’s just leave it at that.
25. As you age you will realise, life is about simplification and subtraction. Not about constant additions. Ask yourself; what can I subtract or remove from my life to make it simpler?
26. Plan high-quality leisure actives (learning an instrument, a new language, reading a book, creating something, exercise). Don’t just spend your time watching TV and scrolling sideways and downwards on social media.
27. Have goals. SMART goals. Give yourself a goal every day and track your progress.
28. As much as we want to teach our children the ways of life. There is so much we can learn from them; Living in the moment, sense of curiosity, wonder and awe. Learn from children.
29. Don’t just make a to-do list. Make a done list as well. List all the things you get done every day. Look back at the end of the day, week, month and year you will be amazed how much you can get done. Let it propel you to do more.
30. Don’t just save money for the sake of saving money. Make a plan to invest and utilise that money. If you save just for a rainy day, you are going to get a rainy day.
31. Learn to articulate and express your emotions, feelings and ideas effectively. It is a superpower in personal and professional life.
32. Build emotional intelligence. Understand why you feel the way you do and how to change it (if you assess it to be negative).
33. Go for a walk every day. Not only is it good for your physical well-being, but it can also do wonders for your mental health and clarity.
34. Life is a series of problems that need to be solved. We move from one problem to another. Some problems are good (where to buy a house, where to go for the next holiday) and some problems are not so good (dealing with job-loss, dealing with a failed marriage). Money does not solve life’s problem. People with lots of money have different kinds of problems but problems nevertheless.