It’s been a while since I last wrote here. Given that I finally entered the 4th decade of my life here on earth, I figured it’s the perfect excuse to share some things I learned along the way. Rather than boring you with a list of 40 items, I’ll just share 4 insights that have served me well throughout the years.
1. Consistency is Everything
Practically every sort of meaningful achievements, notable successes or worthwhile endeavours in my life were the results of being consistent. It’s about showing up every single day whether you feel like it or not. It’s a cliche but it works.
Whether it’s about losing weight, accumulating wealth or just mastering a skill, the one true way up the treacherous mountain to reach the elusive summit is through the endless torture of repeatedly putting one foot in front of the other even when there’s a unrelenting fog concealing the path forward.
And of course it works the other way round too. Since I have not been consistently writing here, there’s probably not many of you who will be reading these words. You reap what you sow.
2. Learning never stops
Learning is a big part of my life given that I work for a edu-tech company (Mindvalley) and I have written some thoughts about it in the past. I don’t have any mind-shattering insights other than the fact we should continue to learn and up-level all aspects of our lives.
There are many ways to learn. You could read a book, experiencing something novel, watch a YouTube video or while grabbing a coffee with a friend. The act of reading this article itself could be a form of learning, which I hope there’s a gem or two here for you to learn from.
Try to cast a wide net for the topics you wish to be enlighten in. Put yourself in unfamiliar settings to benefit from serendipitous encounters. The best type of learning in life are those unexpected revelations gained from seemingly unrelated circumstances.
3. Say NO more often
When you are young, your parents, family or friends may have told you that you can do anything as long as you put in the effort and pay your dues. They left out one very important detail. You can only really realize a handful of your ambitions due to limited time and resources.
This means you actually have to say no to things way more than you would like to. I’m not talking about rejecting things you didn’t want to do anyway but rather really prioritizing and accept you can only realistically pursue a limited amount of goals.
There are stories of people who seem to be able to find success in drastically different fields and expertise but I would argue they actually focus on their core strengths and skilfully leverage them across many disciplines.
4. Balance is hard, really really hard
Trying to strike a balance between consistently going to gym few times a week, eating well most of the time, being there for my family and providing for them is really really hard. I strive to live a balanced life which requires constant effort and attention to keep things in check.
It may seem like I’m trying to have my cake and eat it too by balancing between various aspects of my life. The truth is that I have to learn to sometimes accept a smaller cake and not every piece of it will be palatable.
A balanced life isn’t a goal that you achieve after putting a lot of hard work and sacrifice. Rather it’s a state that you need to actively and continuously maintain like how you need to constantly shift your body weight and arms to stay upright on a unicycle. It also serves as a constant reminder that I shouldn’t go overboard pursuing something else I risk affecting other parts of my life.
I hope you found these 4 insights useful in some ways and if you would like more of them, subscribe to my blog. If you wait 10 years, you might even get 5 more insights that hopefully is way more profound than what you read today.