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This year, I'll turn 45.

Here's a list of what I wish I'd known at 25:
1. Meditate daily
2. Wake up earlier
3. Do cardio exercise
4. Never stop learning
5. Lift something heavy
6. Your thinking is flawed. Fix it
7. Read widely & challenge your thinking
8. EQ > IQ, though IQ is relevant
9. Be disciplined and remain flexible
10. Approach life as if you are a student
11. Learn to see around the corners of the road
12. Depth and breadth --> Know which one is important and when
13. Plan your life → Live to your plan
14. Know your values and your purpose → Live Them
15. Understand needs versus wants. Focus on your needs
16. Live your life as if you're being audited → Every minute. Every day
17. Hard work beats talent, when talent fails to work hard
18. Persistence cannot be overstated
19. Consistency is your greatest friend. It compounds
20. Compounding is the greatest driver of personal, professional and financial Growth
21. Small smart decisions + consistency + time = exponential results
22. Make more money + spend less money + invest the rest = Financial Freedom
23. Work-life balance should be rephrased to focus on a holistic life approach
24. Don't stay on the Sideline → PLAY the GAME
25. Learn to articulate thoughts → written and verbal
26. Control your mind → Don't let it control you
27. Question your thoughts before you accept them
28. Teach yourself how to think clearly → study CBT to refine your thought process
29. Learn how to communicate effectively → Focus on needs, feelings and empathy
30. Take Life less personally
31. Know the hills you're willing to die on
32. Do the hard things first → Eat the frog
33. Dare to be different → The world will want you to conform, DON'T
34. If you're surprised by 360-degree feedback you're not exercising self-awareness
35. Be compassionate without being soft
36. Understand the why behind your wants
37. Hire people that are better than you - always
38. Believe In Yourself more than other people believe in you
39. Get in touch with your inner child → protect and love him or her
40. "I don't know" is acceptable
41. Do not be afraid to ask for help
42. "I made a mistake" is a valued statement
43. Make yourself redundant and indispensable
44. You will fall down. Make mistakes. Get back up. Get after it
45. "What is on your mind" and "what else" will be two of the best questions you can ever ask
46. Surround yourself with people that will challenge you in ways you want to be challenged
47. Sometimes the power of What Not To Do is more valuable than What To Do
48. Spend time figuring out what you want and why you want it (the Vision)
49. Create a plan on how to achieve your vision. Understand the obstacles in your way and how to overcome them (the Plan)
50. Do the work to achieve the Plan. Day in. Day out. (the Work)
51. Find people who've achieved what you want to achieve and learn from them, study them, copy them
52. Copy until you aren't copying. Until you've embodied the desired traits and behaviors you seek and then copy something new --> never stop copying
53. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. We don't all use the same 24 hours as effectively nor efficiently
54. Smart goals can be your greatest tool when used properly
55. Always know what your goals are and what you are trying to achieve
56. Focus on results. Always. Not what you think. Not what you try to do. Focus on what you DO
57. Invest in people, the rewards are exponential
58. Learn how to increase the gap between a stimulus and your response
59. Believe in people more than they believe in themselves → they will surprise you
60. Never ask someone to do something you wouldn't be willing to do
61. Personal, professional and financial growth → If you provide people with these, they will stay with you
62. Sometimes people will leave → that's okay
63. Say what you mean. Do what you say. Always
64. Find as many sink-or-swim situations as you can and swim. Swim, baby, swim
65. Always start with Yes and then figure it out
66. Do something regularly that challenges you. Scares you
67. Learn the importance of healthy boundaries → personally and professionally
68. Do something regularly that challenges you. Scares you
69. You are not who you were and will not be who you are. Always know who you are right now and who you want to become
70. Your past shapes you → often you don't even know it → it does not have to
71. Learn how to manage your finances:

- Budget
- Cashflow
- Net worth forecasts

72. Recognize how Self Improvement can improve your personal, professional and financial life
73. Learn how to invest:

- reduce fees
- minimize decisions
- invest in what you know
- utilize a set-it-and-forget-it approach

74. If you are emotionally impacted by increases or decreases in the value of your investments, you are invested in the wrong things
75. Recognize the pain behind your anger, often guilt or shame, and learn how to address it
76. Anger, expressed in a healthy way, can be appropriate → Agression is never appropriate
77. No Ask → No Get
78. Know what you are worth → Ask for it. Ask the right way
79. You can't do the work for others in your life. They need to choose to do their own work
80. Sometimes, they won't do the work. That's okay unless it isn't. You may need to make a hard call
81. I Should or I Need To = nothing will happen. I Choose To ____, because = buy-in
82. Box breathing → understand it, practice it and watch the stress wash away
83. Be obsessive → if there's something you want, be obsessive about your pursuit of it
84. Tenacity, relentlessness, stubbornness → You'll be surprised at what you achieve when you don't give up
85. Understand the importance of a good story and the ability to tell one to sell anything and gain alignment
86. What some may describe as a mental challenge may be your greatest source of strength
87. Humor. Its importance can never be overstated
88. Your life's determined by your choices. Always. Make the right choices
89. Play the long game → focus on the long-term and be consistent
90. Do the work needed to hold the opinions you hold
91. Challenge your thinking more than you challenge the thinking of others
92. Avoid ideological thinking. Logic and reason need to drive your actions. In certain situations, be left. In other situations, be right.
93. Figure out how to know those around you. It will make life much easier
94. Platinum Rule: do unto others as they would be done unto
95. You can't resolve an emotional issue with an appeal to logic and vice versa
96. Know yourself as deeply as you can. Do the work to know who you are:

- personality tests
- psychoanalysis
- shadow work
97. Make whoever you are talking to feel like they are the most important person in the room
98. You won't get rich quick. By doing everything above, you can get rich and, more importantly, you will truly recognize what being rich means
99. Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things. Be effective first, efficient second and do it while being the hardest worker in the room

100. Know when to stop
Thanks for reading this far.

Next steps, Team:

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