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9 min read
After cleaning out some of my files, I’ve come across a file with dozens of crucial ideas I’ve collected over the past 3 years.
Some of these ideas really have the potential to turn your life around, as it did for mine.
Just a couple years ago, I was about 30,000 in debt, and completely broke.
Applying some of these principles, not only have I accumulated over 600,000 in assets, I have maintained a sort of peace…
A peace worth more than any money in the world.
So, here are 20 life-changing ideas, that I hope will help you find that peace.
20 LIFE-CHANGING IDEAS
1. Life is hard, but fortunately, you get to choose your hard.
It's hard to build deep, meaningful relationships.
It's also hard to live on the surface with everyone.
It's hard to build the body you want. It's also hard to see your body atrophy from lack of use.
It's hard to build a life of purpose. It's also hard to live without one.
The great thing is, you can choose your version of hard.
2. You don't owe it to anybody else, you owe it to yourself.
You get one chance at this.
One body
One mind
One life
Take advantage of it.
Test the limits of your capability.
Do the thing that scares the hell out of you.
Get after this life.
3. No one has it all figured out.
No one knows what they want to be when they grow up.
It’s comforting as a young person to know that you aren’t really supposed to “figure it out” when it comes to your future.
Just focus on pointing your compass in the right direction, embracing every day, and getting around great people.
If you do that, good things will happen.
4. Life is more fragile than you think.
You never know when it will be the last time you get to see that friend, love your significant other, take a walk with your parents, or see that crazy family member.
Hug your people with everything you have.
Always make them let go first.
5. Someone is either holding you back or powering you forward, there is no in between.
Your environment creates your entire reality.
Surround yourself with people who are constantly talking about the past, you'll be stuck in it.
Surround yourself with people thinking big about the future, you'll build a beautiful one.
Build a community that encourages you to think bigger.
6. The word "yet" will completely change your life.
"I'm not good enough" becomes "I'm not good enough...yet."
"I don't know how to do it" becomes "I don't know how to do it...yet."
"I'm not capable of that" becomes "I'm not capable of that...yet."
"Yet" is your one word reminder that you can achieve anything that you set your mind to.
You are dynamic and capable of so much more than you realize.
Embrace the "yet" and change your life.
7. Life has seasons (and each must be embraced for the good and bad).
Most of the pain and struggle we encounter comes from wasting energy complaining about the prior season or worrying about some future season.
When we embrace the current season for its imperfections and opportunities, we find a way to thrive.
8. Identity is the real thing we're all searching for.
Everyone thinks they're looking for money, fame, or success, but what they're really looking for is identity.
Embrace it in the present, diversify to lower your risk, and seek out new perspectives to challenge yourself along the way.
9. Success always follows interest.
Most people focus too much on being interesting and not enough on being interested.
Being interested is how you become interesting.
When you pursue your genuine interests, you are prone to deep focus, which cultivates a depth that is impossible to fake.
That depth is a necessary ingredient of success.
10. Insecurity is a natural human condition.
When I was younger, I used to think that achieving some external rewards would rid me of my insecurity—that getting promoted, making more money, or winning some awards would suddenly make me feel perfectly comfortable.
But I've come to realize that the feeling is natural.
Opening up about these insecurities, rather than trying to mask them, is the key to managing their influence on our lives.
11. You really have no idea what you're capable of.
The only way to find out is to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
To take that risk. To embrace that pain.
Sometimes you'll crash and burn.
But sometimes you'll find that you were capable of much more than you ever thought possible.
13. Fall in love with the ordinary.
An amazing life is built through tiny, ordinary, boring things.
Get comfortable growing slowly and you'll build the life of your dreams.
14. Most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year.
Your entire life can change in one year.
Not ten, not five, not three. One.
One year of focused daily effort. Start today.
Do you desire rapid freedom from self-doubt?
My friend Joel created a great guide, 5 Steps to End Negative Self-Talk, that shares an innovative approach to “unlearn” any negative belief in the subconscious mind.
This approach gets to the root of the conditioned beliefs, traumas, and fears that we wire in as we navigate our experiences growing up.
Removing a belief this way results in a permanently quieter mind and permanently greater emotional freedom.
Thought leaders like Ryan Nicodemus, Scott Leese, and Azrya Bequer have all tried and approved of this method.
15. Avoid compound mistakes and you'll always find a way to win.
A compound mistake is when you follow one mistake with another one.
We can't always control the first mistake, but we are in control of how we let it impact us going forward.
If we avoid compound mistakes, we win.
16. Freedom is the real goal.
The ability to do what you want, with who you want, when you want is what everyone prizes above all else.
Conflating money and freedom is the mistake that people seem to make.
Money is a tool that can be used to gain freedom, but more often, it becomes a tool that keeps us running for more.
17. People will call you weird—and that's a good thing.
When you start living differently and transforming your life, some people won't like it.
They'll call you crazy, lame, and different.
Well, being normal is vastly overrated.
The world doesn't need more normal people. Be abnormal.
18. Optimism is not about ignoring obstacles, it's about viewing every obstacle as an opportunity rather than a roadblock.
In life, you get rewarded for the number of obstacles that you successfully navigate around.
You get rewarded even more if the solution is creative and scalable.
Remember: Pessimists sound smart, optimists get rich.
19. Unproductive walks are extremely productive.
Hot take: No one has ever changed their life listening to a podcast on 2x speed.
I've generated more life-changing ideas on silent walks without my phone than I have in all of my desk time combined.
20. There is no such thing as the "right moment" for a big decision.
Marrying your significant other, taking that professional risk, moving to a new place—these are all big, scary decisions.
The best you can hope for is to do the work to make the leap of faith as comfortable as possible.
But after that, you just need to open the door, jump out of the plane, and trust that you packed the parachute tight.
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