24 Lessons From 24 Years Of Life

My life has been full of ups and downs, like everyone.It's part of the ebbs and flows of life.I wouldn't have it any other way; it's the substance of life.

These 24 years of life have been nothing short of incredible.If I died tomorrow, I would be thankful to have been given the opportunity to live.I want to share this information with you in hopes that it helps you on your journey.

I'm also creating this because I wish I had something like this growing up.This newsletter is not a one-size-fits-all or an ideology.

I have plenty more, and this doesn't even scratch the surface. It's simply my experiences and my perspective of the truth.To find your own, you must experience life with enthusiasm and curiosity.

1. Living by choice, not by chance.

How I look at choices may be different to most; to me, they are a filter.By having these choices, what we are actually asking ourselves is:

"Will I accept this into my life or not?"

You can ask yourself this consciously, but more often, it's asked unconsciously.You must also be comfortable with saying no. It is okay to say no.

A friend says: Want to try this cigarette?Without thinking, you say: Sure, why not! You start smoking as a social thing… Before you know it, you are a full-blown smoker.

By having reference points with our vision or values, we can then ask ourselves:

"Does this align with my values and vision to achieve my dream life?"

This one concept alone takes you from living a life of chance to a life of conscious, intentional choices that ultimately lead to the life you dream of.

2. Life-long learning and self-education

Do you want to be the same at the end of your life as you are now?Clearly, you don't.Learning is a part of the process, whether we like it or not.

Here are my top 5 ways to learn:

- Non-fiction books are often problem or solution-based. Non-fiction books allow you to understand the perspective of the person who has overcome the problem.

Bonus: You can also highlight on Kindle and send it to the computer. Priceless.

- Podcasts are great; I love listening while doing other things. They often have multiple people on the show that can bring many different perspectives.

- Trial and error. Give it a go, see what happens, learn from mistakes.

- Talking to people! Who would have guessed… In all seriousness, talking to people allows for questions that open up new perspectives and enable introspection way faster than a book ever will.

- Listen to a podcast or audiobook while doing mundane tasks. This turns the boring, monotonous tasks into things that can actually help you grow. Unlike laundry…

3. Happiness from within. No specific material possession will make you happy.

For me, it was cars. It might be watches, fashion, tech, or even housing for you.I was obsessed with the next best thing. I thought, "Once I obtained it, THEN I could be happy."

This is all too common for Western societies with their consumerism-based economy.I don't blame myself or others for falling into that trap; how can I?Being surrounded by that influence, we will at some point.

Sales fundamentally at its core principles are psychology:

XYZ Problem causes you discomfort…But lucky you! Here is an XYZ solution that will make you happy.Big companies are designed to sell you something by making you think you need it!

Waiting for the "new thing" (consumerism) fosters a mindset of perpetual anticipation that undermines the current moment's contentment. "I'm not happy until I have XYZ."

This tethers happiness to future material possessions rather than cultivating an appreciation for the present moment.

Travelling helped me open my eyes; it showed me that I could be just as happy, if not happier, without all the material possessions.

Because the present moment is all we have, why not choose to be happy now?

A gratitude list daily 3+ things can reinforce this habit and allow you to switch your mindset from:

Instead of: "I can't be happy until I obtain XYZ"

Think this: "I am happy and grateful for all I have right now."

4. Lasting change comes from within; we must transform before our external world can.

Want to improve any aspect of your life? Improve yourself. Your life is 100% your making. By focusing on the external event changing, all we do is cause ourselves stress and anxiety.

Instead, we should always look at our inputs because that's all we have control over at the end of the day.

For instance, if you desire a beautiful partner and a successful business.To obtain these things is the result of an internal shift.

• You must become a high-quality person to whom a beautiful partner is attracted.

• You must improve your sales, marketing, branding, leadership and people skills to have business success.

It goes much further than that.

• If you want to be loved fully, you must do your best to be loving.

• To be a millionaire, you must do what millionaires do.

This method can be applied to almost every area of life.Having a growth mindset turns everything into a skill, and life is one big playground.

No one was born proficient in their chosen art. Everyone was once a beginner.They struggled, fought, learned, grew, persisted, and finally were exposed to success.They were on their journey and persisted until they finally found the win.You can, as well. Just start.

5. True Understanding Is Not One Perspective. It's All Perspectives.

Look at the most significant topics in the world: religion, politics, society's beliefs and ways of life. They all have many variations, claiming they have the whole truth.

We live in a world of infinite asymmetries. Everyone thinks they know the best way.It took me a long time to figure out that true wisdom is understanding all perspectives.

I like to think of truth like this:

Picture you and me standing opposite each other and a 3D Sphere between us.

From each perspective, we seem to see the whole circle, the whole truth.

We both are adamant that our way is the "right" or "best".

We should have realised that there are infinite angles and countless perspectives to examine the seemingly whole truth. We cannot fully understand life itself; the nature of the world is infinite, ever-changing and evolving.

Our conscious mind can only handle 40-50 pieces of information per second. Good luck chasing the universe with that processing power...

By being exposed to more perspectives, we better understand the topic as a whole. Never claim you know it all. Doing so shuts you off to new perspectives.

Embrace the new ways of thinking, welcome them and ask the questions you need to validate the ideas for yourself. Experience them; you will only understand if you try them.

Compare new knowledge to previous knowledge and never be attached to one ideology or belief. Including this one.

6. Direct Experience Is King

How do you know something is true if you never experienced it?

The truth is you don't; thinking you do is naive.

Listening to others takes out your direct experience. How do we know their bias or beliefs aren't warping their truth? We can take in information, but to truly understand it, we must have experience.

All we can ever do is take information and experiment ourselves to find the true results. Learn, act, reflect, iterate, replace, evolve, repeat.

I couldn't be the best cyclist in the world without having once rode a bike…

When I was a child, I couldn't learn to ride a bike without actually trying.Inevitably, I fall over, crashing into a tree, a fence and the next-door neighbour.But I can assure you, you won’t learn to ride one without riding one.

It’s the failures, the slight tweaks, and the subconscious actions that add up to complete the skill.

Previously, we said the conscious mind processes 40-50 pieces of information a second.

Well, the subconscious mind is incredibly powerful.It processes a whopping 11 million pieces of information per second!

Life isn’t all theory. Direct experience is king.

7. Own assets or be owned by people who own assets

Assets, to me, put money into your pocket.

Money is tokenised value - a placeholder for a value transaction.

Value is the regard that something is held to deserve: the importance, worth, or usefulness.

Everything trades in value whether we recognise it or not:

• A word of appreciation could be valuable to the neglected.

• A dollar for a poor kid could be valuable to buy food or water.

• An idea could be valuable for a student writing a project.

Every relationship, business and conversation is all a trade.By contributing to society, we are rewarded in value (dollars)

Businesses are value creators for society at scale because they use leverage.

Lesson?

Put your money to work; let it earn while you sleep.

Life is a constant trade; ensure you contribute more than you consume.

If you don't provide something independently to society, you will be controlled by people who do.

8. All we have is now - Credit to "The Power of Now by Echart Tolle."

The Power of Now shows you that every minute you spend worrying about the future or regretting the past is lost because the only place you can truly live in is the present; the now is all you have.

When you think about it, the past is nothing more than all present moments that have gone by, and the future is just the collection of present moments waiting to arrive.

Stoicism links in quite well with this. (Another one of my passions)

Their philosophy includes the idea that the only pain you suffer is the one you create yourself. Echart Tolle would agree since he argues that pain is nothing more than the result of resisting all the things you cannot change.

The ego loves to think a lot about the future and the past, but we can live only in the present and have no means to change many things from the other two that we're unhappy about.

Thank you for reading! If you have any takeaways, thoughts or preferences of what to cover next, I would love to hear them in the comments section below!

Please like and follow, your support is greatly appreciated.

Until next time,Leigh.