13.) For extremely busy people, performance enhancing supplements go a long way.
At a certain point, I almost feel like certain performance enhancing substances are a necessity.
When I say this, I’m mainly talking about people who lead extremely busy, fast-pasted, high stress lives: CEO’s, company presidents, and doctors who work extremely long shift hours, etc.
Another example is entrepreneurs with multiple businesses.
You get the idea.
Even JFK took cognitive enhancing substances (among many other busy, famous people).
Although I believe JFK took a form of speed (which I don’t recommend), what I’m mainly referring to here is kratom, phenibut, and modafinil.
Also Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) if you’re low on your test levels.
Until you’ve walked a mile in one of these people’s shoes, you have no room to talk. I for example, am an extremely busy business owner/entrepreneur.
I know I’m simply more productive, motivated, focused, and better able to handle stress, when I consume certain substances for certain purposes.
I don’t consider it cheating, because I play the game of life according to my own rules. I know what I like and I know what works for me.
I know I can take things responsibly, and correctly. I know I won’t get addicted to them. I know I won’t abuse them.
In a nutshell, I know/trust myself. And by that I mean I really trust myself, not this kind of self-deceiving illusion you see in some people.
14.) There is a right way and wrong way to do everything.
Deep down, I think everybody is aware of whether they went about something half-assed, or if they did it to the best of their ability.
Deep down, everyone knows this. If you do something half-assed or go about it with a bad attitude, an agenda, or ignorance, you’re at least subconsciously aware of it.
You know when you could’ve done better, and until you address it I think it eats away at you. This becomes more apparent, the more important the matter is.
Usually it’s either you that addresses it or someone else does.
If you know there was a better, more effective way to do something, and it’s something that was important to you, it will eat away at you until you acknowledge it.
My advice: Do things right the first time, and you save yourself a ton headaches, regret, and potential heartache later on.
Structure your life in such a way that it’s easy to do things correctly the first time. Make life easy on yourself.
Structure your life in a way that makes it harder to do things the wrong way, than it is to do them the right way.
You want to know the difference? Here it is: Be intentional. Always wake up and go about your day with specific intent and purpose.
NEVER be the guy that just goes through the motions.
What are you passionate about? What is it you want to do? What do you want to get done?
Ask yourself these questions CONSTANTLY. If you’re living intentionally, naturally its just much easier to do things the correct way.
Knowing what your destination is makes the path in front of you light up.
Having a purpose, intention, illuminates your path so that it’s HARDER TO THINGS WRONG THAN IT IS TO THEM RIGHT.
15.) Things will never matter as much to other people, as they will to you.
If you really want something done right, you’re always going to have to do it yourself.
Nobody will ever care about your business (or your life), the way that you do.
Never make the mistake of imposing care into other people, because it will never matter as much to them as it does to you.
You have made the connections and rationalizations in your mind about why certain things should matter, or why something is important. They haven’t.
It’s as simple as that. People make decisions based off of their own self interests. They do this and do you do this.
This is not a bad thing, it just is what it is and it’s easy to forget this fact about people.
Let’s say for example you have someone working for you. Let’s say you’re trying to get a point across to them that they need to do something over again, or do it better.
In other words, you want them to complete something the way you would’ve done it.
That employee needs to know how what you’re telling them to do will help them.
You see it’s more important for it to benefit the employee than it is to benefit you (in their minds). Of course you don’t see it this way, but you’re just thinking in the same way that they are (”it’s more important that it benefits me than it is that it benefits them”).
This is just as true in sales as it is with your employees.
People are always, always thinking in terms of what, why, or how something benefits them. They don’t care if YOU benefit from it or not. The only thing they might care about is if not doing things correctly will it hurt you enough to hurt them (fear of losing their job).
This is human nature; there is no point in disagreeing with it.
Its human nature and it’s never going to change.
You will cause yourself so much stress, worry, and resentment, if you rely too heavily on other people.
Sooner or later, they’ll always disappoint you.
It’s inevitable because you made the cardinal sin of relying on them, instead of the only person you should ever truly rely on: yourself.
16.) People have the ability to influence and change you, even people that seem stupid, so ALWAYS BE AWARE OF WHO IS INFLUENCING YOU!
Like it or not, the people you surround yourself with can and DO influence you. I learned a couple years back that this is much truer than I ever realized.
This is just as important for the negative consequences as it is for the positive ones.
I’ll catch myself making statements that sound like something my friend would say. I’ll catch myself even having thoughts that my friend would probably think.
If this is a new concept to you, don’t stress out just yet, because I’m not even saying this is bad thing.
The 1st step is just becoming and staying aware of it (realizing it for yourself).
With time, you’ll know what the right course of action will be for you. Ask yourself: ‘’Is this an influence I should keep in my life or not?’’.
If you even have to seriously contemplate that question, than you already know what the answer is.
When you’re in presence of good influences, you know RIGHT AWAY.
You think to yourself: ‘’Wow I need more and more of this!’’. You feel fired up up by the good ideas, creative thoughts, and energy you get from the right people.
The right influences ignite you with energy, drive, motivation and fire. The wrong influences suck all these from you like vampires.
Learn to start trusting yourself; you don’t always need to seek answers to your questions elsewhere. More often than not you already know the answer and you just need to listen to your gut.
17.) Being a minimalist is better for your mental health, and is the only way to succeed in the 21st century (and beyond).
I came to a realization this year. That realization was I have a tendency to hold onto too many things, both tangible and in a general sense.
I’m not gonna go so far as to say I’m a hoarder, but I don’t throw enough things away (physical things and mental thoughts both).
My revelation was that this problem was bleeding into every part of my life. I’m currently in the process of trying to become a strict minimalist and I’ll admit, it’s new for me. I’m still learning and it’s harder than I thought it would be.
De-cluttering your life is so essential I could write a whole article (probably even a book) on it.
With that said, obviously I’m already seeing the incredible benefits to living this way.
The first step is going through your apartment/house and throwing away enough items so that you have no more than 200 items. I got this idea from Will Freeman of RevolutionaryLifestyleDesign.com.
You start with your house, then move onto your car, and then your office.
Once you do this with all your physical possessions, you’ll learn how to start de-cluttering your mind as well.
You would be absolutely amazed at how much mental space this frees up.
Learning how to ignore the things that don’t matter, and focus only on those that do, is beautiful thing.
We live in a crazy world with a million things trying to grab our attention at all times. It’s not easy to be young, or old for that matter, in 2017.
Smart phones have taken the digital age into a new frontier. Notifications fly in at us from every direction through social media, emails, text messages, phone calls, and on and on and on….
People are glued to their cell phones, and their attention spans are abysmal.
When they’re not on their cell they’re either on a computer, or watching TV.
My solution to you:
Every now and again, go for a walk and leave your cell phone at home. Get yourself familiar again with nature and your physical environment.
Turn off your cell phone notifications (and most definitely turn these off when you’re working).
Always be aware…..don’t just be a circumstance of modern day life.
Being a minimalist makes this easier to do. You don’t have the extra mental clutter to distract you from yourself.
The more mental and physical clutter you have in your life the more your attention gets divided (and this is deceptively hurtful to your ability to get shit done).
18.) Organizing your life (& everything in it), makes a world of difference in your ability to FOCUS.
This ties into becoming a minimalist. Organizing your life starts with the de-cluttering of your mental and physical day to day life.
Although I only recently started the minimalist lifestyle, I’ve always been organized in my own way. Some might call it chaotic organization, which sounds like an oxy-moron.
I’ve had 30 of experience being chaotically organized, so at this point I’m used to it. Amid the excess clutter (which I’m working towards fixing), I still have the ability to focus intensely on the things that really matter: Wealth, health, and relationships/social life (in that order).
De-cluttering your life might take a few months before you’re get to a point where you’ll notice change.
First, understand that life, especially excelling in life, comes down to 3 categories: Wealth, health, and relationships.
Wealth is # 1. Like my man Victor Pride always says: ‘’The work always comes 1st.”
He couldn’t be more right about this.
I touched on this in part 1 of this article. I suggest you read Gary Keller’s book ‘’The One Thing’’. In short, basically what he says is to focus 3-4 hours a day (at least) on your one thing. Here is how he describes the One Thing:
‘’What is the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?’’ -Gary Keller
Well my friends it should come as no surprise that the ‘’One Thing’’ in every man’s life should be building and maintaining a financial house.
It’s been this way for man since the dawn of time. Without money, resources, a roof over your head, and food on the table: a relationship with a wife or child is non-existent.
You can’t have those things unless you first have money. This is priority # 1.
What I took from this is to go a step further and hone in (for at least 3-4 hours a day), on what it is you specifically do, that brings in that money.
What single aspect of your work has the greatest impact on your ability to bring in more money? The 1st step is understanding and believing that money is priority # 1. The 2nd step is honing in on that one thing you do that actually produces more of the money.
What is directly responsible and has the greatest impact on you receiving that money? Narrow in on that and ATTACK it with a vengeance. Attack it like a goddamn shark.
The 2nd priority is health (living healthy, fitness, the foods you eat, what you put and don’t put in your body).
The 3rd priority is social relationships (friendships, and intimacy).
# 1 (Money/Financial health) has a much greater impact on the other two (physical health and social life), than the other ways around.
This is unless you are seriously ill of course. If you are sick, your ability to make money will take serious blow. If you become ill, that needs to jump to the top of your priority list.
The problem with that however is that getting over an illness usually costs money, and often times a lot of it. So once again, the money would’ve had to have already been there…
I don’t care to go into detail about #’s 2 and 3. There will be plenty of articles to read on this site about those two later on.
19.) Being able to PRIORITIZE everything in your life, makes all the difference in your ability to be EFFECTIVE.
See # 18 above.
20.) At a certain point, worry is no longer your ally, it is your enemy.
I learned last year that too much worry, works against you instead of for you. You see, just enough worry, is good, it’s healthy.
If you never worry about anything, you have zero motivation in life. You have no reason to get up off your ass every day and change things (don’t ever get complacent with life).
So just enough worry is good and is even encouraged.
Another word for this type of worry is called ‘’Eustress’’. Eustress is the type of stress you feel that is good for you. It motivates you and makes you take action towards things.
The other type of stress is called ‘’Distress’’. Distress is the negative kind of stress that releases cortisol in your brain. Cortisol is the actual chemical in your brain that gets released when you experience distress.
Distress is one of the most DAMAGING states you can allow yourself to be in. I cannot write an article long enough explaining how bad distress is for you. Just take my word for it.
It hinders your productivity, focus, well-being, physical health, and happiness (and happiness is the point of life).
Emotionally it takes a toll on you, and as we all know, emotions are contagious. A bad emotional state can multiply on itself like a virus, causing another thing to wrong, and another, and another….
As I previously mentioned: Always be aware.
There you have it boys. The top 20 things I learned at age 30. If you’re younger than 30, take each of these to heart. Go back and re-read this article (you won’t retain it all in one read).
Just by simply being aware of these points, you’ll avoid a lot of the mistakes I made.
Take advantage of this article and this site, and use the knowledge to get where you’re going faster. The world is not waiting on you, and every hour you’re getting older and older.
I never had a resource like this at your age, I had to learn all these principals the hard way. Take it from someone who’s been there already. Hell, forget about age; just take from someone who’s walked a different path than you have.
You can choose to ignore the points I address in these 3 articles, but sooner or later that day will come where I’ll be there saying ‘’I told you so’’.
If you missed part 1 go here, if you missed part 2 go here.
-Matt Mitchell
