It's not that we have very short time to live, but we waste a lot of time. — Seneca
I spent most of my early 20's what any reasonable 20 year old would do.
And no, it wan't drugs. Or mindlessly partying.
I was lost in work. And spent most of my free time binge watching netflix series, mindlessly scrolling social media posts, and other meaningless pursuits.
In short, I don't remember many meaningful moments in the last 8 years of my life. Most of the time was lost in unwanted distractions. Trial and error to make more money. And being lost in the imagination of a better future.
As Seneca said, it is not that life is short but we waste a lot of time on trivial matters. Pointless arguments. Inessential pursuits of pleasures.
Then we regret the time we have lost when it is too late.
People wait to live happily once they have worked hard for their entire life → after their retirement.
But why should you wait for 60 years to live happily?
Maybe it takes a lifetime to learn how to live. It takes a lot of mistakes to become wise. It takes suffering to become strong.
Invest in Yourself: Buyback Your Time
Most people invest most of their time and money in things. They feel good by buying costly gadgets, cool cars, bigger houses.( I am guilty of doing all these things.)
Even if they are not spending their money on these things, they have dreams of doing it.
Today, when someone says they want to become a millionaire, they don't mean that they want to have one million dollar in their account. What they mean is that they want to spend one million dollar on things. Things that will make their life more meaningful.
But meaningful moments comes from meaningful pursuits. Not just costly things. They are an incentive for meaningful work.
Few people dream about investing one million dollar on themselves. On buying back their time →if you have one million dollar in your account, you are free to do anything. You have all the time in the world. You just don't have to buy things. But where's the fun in that.
Opportunities wait for the consistent people
I have a simple theory. If you are not finding new opportunities in your life, you should try something new. Because if you try something new daily, you will have 365 new opportunities to succeed in a year.
And you don't need all of the 365 ideas to work, only 3-5 of them. Even one good idea will change the course of your life.
For example, people who make videos, just need one viral video. The other 364 are for practice and to improve their skill set.
No matter what you want to do, or what you want to achieve, it's your ability to learn new things and experiment with new things that will get you there.
Make consistent efforts to produce consistent good results
All the small decisions you make daily. All the tiny investments you make on yourself over time, it's hard to see the result instantly. The results will compound over the years.
For example:
If you write 1,000 words daily for 5 years, writing become easy for you. You can write a book.
If you code for 2 hours a day for 5 years, coding becomes easy for you. You can code an app, make a software.
If you invest 10% of your income every month for 5 years, you will build a strong portfolio and a passive income.
In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell points out that in order to become world class at something, you have to practice 10,000 hours. Or roughly 10 decades of consistent practice.
But everyone want results in 3 months. Everyone want shortcuts, tips, tricks.
The only thing that happens quickly is self doubt. If you want quick results, you will fail, doubt yourself and quit.
Practice actively: The more you perform, the better you become
It's important to be consistent. You have to spend time daily on improving yourself. No matter how bad you perform initially.
If you know how to learn and improve in a new skill, it's a skill in itself. Life becomes more meaningful the more skills you have. At least for the most people unless you are truly broken.
But reading about how to swim won't help you to become a better swimmer. It's when you apply that knowledge that will improve your skills.
Patience and consistency build things. Impatience breaks them.
The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. — Seneca
But most people fail to do so because they rely on tomorrow to start. They wait for the things to become perfect before starting.
In short:
- The more you practice something, the better you get at it
- Each day, you will have a chance to get a small win and be happy about it
- More opportunities means you can try more, fail more, learn more, grow more
- The more you will fail, the more you will understand what works and what doesn't. Focus on what works
Great post loftee! I should try partying even once in my life, hmmm :D
After I headed back to my hometown, I felt that I had wasted 5 years of my life. Though I enjoyed my stay in the industry, I was competitive there, but it seemed that I wasn't ready for the outside world.
I seemed lost too, for a few months, before I accepted it. This time, I needed to buy back time too, I failed myself to enrol in postgraduate courses when I had the financial capacity and favorable distance in accredited universities.
Though I have improved my coding skills in almost a decade of pursuing different programming projects, I still needed to get MSIT/CS (then possibly a Doctorate degree) to remain relevant in my field. It's true that coding doesn't require formal education to learn, but to work here in my country, diplomas and certificates, sadly, are also in high importance aside from expertise.
Yepp, maybe to work for someone, you need degrees/certificate. My focus was to create something of your own. You don't need anything for that.
I talked to a successful entrepreneur in the tech industry. He suggested me to learn coding so that I can understand it. And one day when I create something, I will understand what's going on.
Similarly, like writing, I won't end up a journalist something. But I write a lot. And from writing 0 words a few years ago to writing 500-1000 words almost daily, my skills are improving.
And I will be able to take advantage of this skill in some part of my life.
I keep learning different skills to understand the basics. Like graphic design, coding, copywriting. Some of them will come handy. And I will get a basic understanding of how it all works.
Internet has made a lot of things easy.
Anyways, hope you can make something interesting on blockchain, maybe on hive. A lot of people are creating games, services etc.
Though I cannot build them, I can understand a part of them now.😀
Putting so much expectation ones neck is like putting a pressure that might bring you down,the best thing is to tackle life the way it comes and put your best into whatever you are doing, procrastination can be very deadly also,so it is needful that you put your priority on the needful than on the minors
True!😃