Over the years I’ve made many mistakes, and as a result I’ve found myself developing a peculiar habit – an annual review of my life. I’m a strong advocate of not regretting the past, and the truth-be-told I wouldn’t know most of what I do now without some of these mistakes.
Having said that, if I could go back in time then I would tell a few things to the younger me. Of course this isn’t an exhaustive list but rather just some things I feel are the most important to me.
Photo by nattu
1. Failing is not the end of the world: In fact failing is one of best awful things in the world. During most of my life, especially whilst I was studying, I had been convinced by pretty much everyone that if I fail then the world would end! One day I failed a test and you know what the world didn’t end – instead I received some very helpful feedback on which areas I needed to work on most.
Lesson: Accept failure with grace and learn whatever is on offer as a result.
2. Multi-tasking is overrated: Most of my female friends and colleagues have been bragging about their astounding ability to multi-task, among other things. Well I’m sorry to say multi-tasking is counterproductive (see also NY Times.com). All multi-tasking does is bring about a lot of stress (more things to worry about) and can even reduce the quality of your work (your attention is spread across a multitude of things).
Lesson: Focus on one thing at a time, finish that and then move on to the next. I use a wonderfully brilliant (and free) tool to do this – Now do this.
3. Junk food catches up on you. During my student years and when workings with short snappy breaks, I got a bit too accustomed to the burgers, pizza and the other “I’m sure it’s not that bad” category food. Getting out of shape, or dare I say it – Fat – was never really a concern for me. I always thought that I would worry about those things when I was in the 40’s. Its only now that the results are showing.
Lesson: Think about what you eat and what effect it will have on you five years down the line.
4. Financial planning is important: I’ve never been the best at financial planning. I suppose my biggest pitfall was impulse buying, and being a tech-lover this always cost me big. Buying the next big thing, ordering this-and-that online and just basically throwing away money on things that were great but I didn’t really need. I never really tracked my expenses as I believed in living in the now.
Lesson: Living in the now is great, but it doesn’t have to mean no money. Planning is distinguishing between what you need and want. I set aside a percentage of my income each month for this, and it allows me to still have what I want without too much worry.
5. Make time what for your passions: I hear “I don’t have time to do what I love” a lot, and I used to repeat this too. I used to have a few hobbies I really enjoyed doing, but I always complained I had too much to do – and as a result I wasn’t the happiest I could be. The main problem, I thought, was that I wouldn’t get to spend as much time with my friends and family as I would’ve liked.
Lesson: I decided to put some time aside each week on things I really loved doing, I didn’t let anything or anyone interfere with this time – my friends and family were not only understanding but oftentimes supportive and it resulted in me being much, much happier.
6. Everything problem is relative: When I look back at the kind of problems I used to worry about 5 or 10 years ago, and compare them to things I worry about today it all seems so irrelevant and unimportant. I can say with near-enough absolute certainty that this will be the case when I look back to today, 10 years down the line.
Lesson: Try and work on your problems but remember what seems like the biggest worry in the world today, will most probably be something laughable tomorrow. Develop some perspective.
7. Think big: If you want great things to happen in your life then aim for them. Of course you want to set realistic goals but there is absolutely nothing stopping you achieving those mountain sized goals in a couple of year’s time. Don’t be discouraged by the size of the goal, instead set milestones that will help you achieve those goals with ease.
Lesson: Develop a vision for the future and don’t let anything stop you. Break the really big stuff down to small, manageable milestones that you can work on straight away.
8. Keep a Journal: I’m not sure who said it but it certainly seems true “everyone has a perfect memory, but imperfect recall”. I actually realised this a long time ago but never actually took any action on it. How stupid of me. Keeping a journal of you and your partner’s (for some extra brownie points) lives will pay dividends later in life.
Lesson: Keep a tab on at least the major happenings in your and your partner’s life. You will be grateful when in 30 years time you still have a recollection of it all. Additionally if you ever write a autobiography this will be invaluable. I personally use Google docs for this, though I want to start using moleskin notebooks soon.
9. Read as much as you can, and never ever stop: Let’s face it – there is no way anyone of us can do everything there is to do. But, but we can share the experiences of millions of people who have done those things. Get in to the habit or reading every single day, and do so for the rest of your life. This isn’t school – there are no set texts. I read mostly on the subjects that interest me, but as a result of that I find that I become in interested in an even wider range of subjects!
Lesson: In the words of Will Smith “there is no new problem you can have, that someone hasn’t already solved and wrote about it in a book”.
I hope is of some help (or even entertainment). Would you add anything else to the list, share them in the comments below.
No related posts.