To end the year, I want to share some of my favorite, most beneficial lessons I’ve learned in the past year. In 2022, I wrote 155 blogs on various topics. I learned a lot, tried a lot of new habits and methods, and discovered more about myself and others.
Of the many lessons learned, here are my top 22 from 2022.
1. Be Glad You Learned When You Did
It sucks to discover you’ve been doing something incorrectly, especially if it’s been a long time coming. However, you have to realize there’s nothing you can do about that now and all you can do is do it correctly now. Don’t focus on the past, just be glad you learned the lesson now instead of even later.
2. Fishtank Perspective
Consider how much it took for you to be here right now. Not just the X amount of years you’ve been alive, but the billions of years leading up to this point. Do you really want to waste all the evolution, chemical reactions, world events, and interactions by sitting around looking at your phone? You’re not stuck where you are, doing the same things day in and day out. Get out there and explore everything the world has to offer!
3. Lottery In Babylon
Without chance, life would grow boring. If every business venture would automatically succeed, every hobby and skill you pursued would be easy to master, each relationship was without contention, and so on, you’d grow bored. What point would you have for doing anything or trying anything new if you knew it’d be simple? Enjoy the ups and downs, love chance, and keep trying new things.
4. Is This Worth My Time?
There are a lot of trivial matters in our day to day lives – drama, errands, minor inconveniences, etc. You have to be able to distinguish between what requires your attention and what doesn’t. The first step is developing your vision your your future and the immediate steps you can take to start working towards it. Once you understand where your time and effort should go, you can brush aside all the shit that does nothing but steal your time and energy.
5. Other People’s Decisions Don’t Affect You
We each make choices we believe will benefit our life. We often fail to consider the impact on others because we’re too busy focusing on what’s best for us. For the self-aware, highly considerate person, it can suck when someone else makes a decision they’d never make. You have to realize that person did what their mind and body felt was right for them. You can’t let their decisions affect you solely because you would’ve acted differently
6. One Hit Wonder
You only have to be right once to be set for life. You cannot expect every decision to be perfect, but know that one really good decision can be the one that makes everything worth it. One investment can set you up financially, one business venture can determine your life path, one hobby can be the factor that makes you happy. Focus on the here and now and make decisions you feel are right in the moment.
7. The “Double Bowl Sink” Philosophy
Minor differences in a person’s life can lead to alternate methods of performing tasks. Something as simple as being raised in a home with a double bowl sink can lead to someone not running the water while they wash dishes. We all think our methods are correct until we see someone do it differently. Instead of growing upset when someone acts counter to how you would, consider the simple things that could’ve lead to that choice.
8. Asking The Right Questions
Your brain loves finding answers, so make sure you ask it questions you want answers to. If you ask yourself shitty questions, “What’s wrong with me?”, “Why am I so stupid?”, your brain will tell you. If you ask more productive questions, “What did I learn from this?” “How can I improve from here?”, your brain will tell you. Ask yourself questions that illicit productive responses.
9. Life Is A Workout
The pain you feel during a workout sucks, but it eventually fades and your body is stronger because of it. It’s the same with the obstacles you face. Life will throw shit at you and it’ll suck, it’ll hurt, and it’ll test you, but in the end you’ll come out on top. If you stick it out, you’ll be a better person.
10. Moment To Moment
You can choose how you feel in each moment if you focus on the present. You know what every emotion feels like and since your brain can’t decipher between real and fake, you can recreate any emotion. Think of the emotion you want to feel, consider a time you felt it, place yourself in that memory, bring the feeling into the present.
11. No One Is Doing This
No one has your brain or shares your unique experience. Just because someone before you has written a blog on the same topic, shared a video on the same idea, painted a similar landscape, or done anything you’r trying to do, it’s not the same. You are unique and the things you produce come from that unique mind. Share your ideas and produce beautiful work. Don’t worry about what anyone else is doing.
12. Add “Yet” To Your Vocabulary
When starting a new hobby or learning something new, you’ll likely find yourself growing frustrated with your progress. I often catch myself saying phrases like “I can’t play piano.”, “I can’t learn a language.”, or “I can’t figure this out.” But I realized how many times I’ve said those in the past and eventually it turned out well. So instead of stopping your phrases with a period, add “yet” to the end of it. Saying “I can’t do this yet” leaves your mind and body open to learning and rowing.
13. Predict, Plan, Act
Negative emotions resulting from common occurrences should not be accepted. Anything that happens to you on a regular basis can be planned for and thus have less of an impact on your emotions. You have the ability to predict what’s likely to occur, plan ways you can productively work around those things, then act on those plans when the moment inevitably rises.
14. More Important Things
There are a ton of things we can focus on, but there are only a few things that are actually important. Your goals, habits, and vision for your future should be the main focus of every single day. Do not let trivial matters interrupt your flow. Forget about flashy clothes if choosing what to wear steals your time. Who cares what your neighbors are doing if it doesn’t affect you. Focus on yourself and let all other stimuli fall aside.
15. Do What You’re Supposed To Do
I believe we all know how to be a good person. We all know how a good person would respond and act, but we often fail to do those things. We do so out of spite, tiredness, stress, and many other emotional stimuli that interrupt our logical brain. You know what you should do in each situation you face, but you have to prevent your emotional brain from acting before your logical brain kicks in.
16. Loss Of Passion
The possibility of failure or loss of passion/interest, should not prevent you from pursuing a current passion. If you love what you’re doing right now, keep doing it. It doesn’t matter what decisions your future self makes in regards to your hobbies and passions. Focus on the present and try your best not to create future scenarios.
17. Reminder Of Infancy
We all start with little knowledge and skills, but that shouldn’t stop us from pursuing new things. If you’re frustrated because you believe you’re not making progress, remind yourself of your infancy. Think of how far you’ve com since you first started and consider how far you can go if you stay consistent. You’re not dumb, unskilled, or a failure, you’re just early in the process.
18. What Did You Learn?
Life is constantly teaching us lessons, but we often fail to recognize them until way later. If you want to learn lessons more immediately and progress more quickly, start asking yourself “What did I learn?” Whenever something shitty happens or you make a mistake, figure out what lif was trying to teach you. There’s no need to wait for hindsight to kick in years from now, you can learn your lesson and improve right away.
19. Wait And See
If you have a problem, do something to fix it. Do not wait and see if it fixes itself! You have a lot more power and control than you believe. Your health and mindset are determined by many small choices you make each day. From proper sleep, diet, exercise, supplementation, meditation, and phone usage, your habits determine your life. If you’re struggling with anxiety, stress, depression, etc. do not sit around hoping it’ll resolve itself. Change your habits and make moves towards better health.
20. Being Misunderstood – There’s No Misinterpretation, Only Unique Interpretation
No one will ever comprehend something in the exact same way as you. When you share your thoughts with the world, someone will inevitably disagree or “misinterpret” Your thoughts. The thing is, their interpretation isn’t wrong, it’s simply unique – not the same as yours. We each experience the world in our own ways so share your experience and be open to hearing the ways others experience the same things.
21. Do The Bare Minimum – How To Make Progress Every Day
If you want to build a consistent habit and improve your life, do the bare minimum every day. It doesn’t take leaps and bounds to improve, it takes small, incremental change and progress. Set your bare minimums for each habit – minimums you will accomplish every day. Read 10 pages, do 10 pushups, write one blog idea, eat one healthy meal, etc. Set these minimums and never stray. You can always choose to do more today, but you’re not allowed to do less.
22. Letting Go Feels Better – Trust The Process And Reduce Stress
No matter whether you’re stressed as fuck or calm as hell, the job will get done. Wouldn’t you rather feel good? You can go through your day freaking out about all that you have to accomplish or you can take it step by step and even enjoy the entire process. No matter which you choose to do, the job always gets done. Take life on a moment to moment basis and try your best to stay calm.
December 30, 2022
