🌼The Most Powerful Lessons People Often Learn Too Late in Life(MUST READ)

🌼The Most Powerful Lessons People Often Learn Too Late in Life(MUST READ)

Imagine having one life to live, yet fucking it up.

Imagine you’re in the waning hours of your life.

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You’re reflecting on the life you’ve lived. You’ve been alive long enough to be considered to have had enough time on this earth — maybe 80 years old.

Yet, for some reason, you feel like the time was wasted. You wish you could have done more…been more.

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When you reflect on the life you’ve lived, here are the things you’re NOT going to care about. As well as some of the things you should care about.

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Read also: 19 life lessons in 7 minutes: How to make your life better (very interesting)

How safe and practical you were

You’re not going to look back and say:

“You know what, my pragmatism was unparalleled. I could have done something more exciting with my life — like starting a business I love, traveling the world, or opening a non-profit organization — but I’m truly proud of the sound judgment I used in deciding to become an accountant with a steady salary. I paid my loans back in an adequate time frame. My 401k developed steadily and yielded a seven percent return year-over-year. Other options would have posed more risk and I am glad I chose the most predictable and certain route.”

Now, does this mean never saving any of your money, ever? No. Does it mean that you should live by the motto YOLO every single day and never take any pragmatic actions in your life? No.

But it does mean that you might overestimate the importance of concepts like safety and pragmatism. Often, we use these words to mask our fear. We want a little adventure, some risk, and some pursuits that aren’t guaranteed but provide a sense of meaning.

I get emails and messages from middle-aged and older people telling me how much they regret playing it safe their whole life and doing the “right thing” instead of the things they really wanted to do.

How much embarrassment you avoided

Again, you’re not going to look back and think

“Gee, the comfort of knowing I never risked being laughed at for having an out-of-the-box idea clearly outweighs how great it would have felt to give the idea a shot.” Sure, my time on earth is finite, but at least I didn’t have to feel butterflies in my stomach briefly.”

And that’s all that gets in your way, in our way, in all of our ways. It’s so annoying. The feeling of rejection and embarrassment are nothing more than little physiological feelings you feel momentarily.

But, they do feel bad. So bad that you want to avoid them at all costs. I don’t have a perfect remedy for this, but I always try to remind myself that none of this matters so much that I should care so deeply about what others think.

How much you kept up with the Jones’s

Speaking of opinions, at the end of your life, you’re not going to care much about the opinions of people you didn’t even like in the first place. You won’t be elated that you too bought a Lexus, which you earned by your thrilling job as a “B2B sales analyst” or whatever, and showed Jim across the street that not only do you have an equivalent car, but an even more impressive LinkedIn profile than he does.

I’m not pointing my nose up at you. I’m a slave to consumerism just like you. I’m writing this on a brand new Macbook Pro — I could’ve bought a cheaper model without the prestigious Apple logo. I’m wearing designer boots. I have way too much Nike Apparel. But I try to keep it at bay.

I drive a normal car even though I can afford to buy a brand-new Benz. I live in a decent apartment when I could buy a half-million-dollar home. I’m a lot wealthier than I look. And I want to keep it that way because I realize that the desire to look wealthy comes from a place of insecurity. Don’t waste your life doing things you don’t want to do just because you can buy nice things.

Do Things You Enjoy & Be Creative

I love to write. It’s the only thing I do where I feel like I shouldn’t be doing anything else. This is something I try to remember now that I’ve turned it into a full-time career.

I get caught in the desire trap, too. Even now. I have all these plans to keep growing the business and expand my audience, but then I remember how much fun I had when I was dead broke writing for pure joy. I remember the reason I started in the first place.

You have to pay the bills. Making money is nice. But creative energy makes you feel alive. You don’t have to be an ‘artist’ to feel creative and alive. You just have to do things that make you feel creative and alive.

You never regret doing something that puts you in a flow state, gets you deep in the zone, and makes you lose yourself for a little while — the chaos of life fading into the background.

Read also: 6 deep questions that help you find your life purpose (must read)

Make an Impact and Leave a Legacy

So many people have reached out to me and told me that my words have helped them do what they’ve always wanted to do. I can’t change the world, but I can use whatever talent I do have to a useful end. And that end is you.

I won’t lie. I’m self-interested. I get a kick out of inspiring you. There’s nothing wrong with that. In your life, do things that make you feel like you’re having an impact on the world, no matter how big or small. You can make an impact doing damn near anything. You provided the context to the things you do day in and day out.

As far as legacy goes, I don’t have this deep need to be remembered by future generations. I used to. But not anymore. I’ll be dead, so who cares? But I do love the idea that my great-grandkids will be able to read my books even after I’m gone. I like the idea that the work I do can act as a time capsule.

I’ll likely keep writing until the day I die, so hopefully, there’s a ton of runway left to keep making an impact, but I’m going to make that impact by not relying on the possibility of that long run away.

Be a good person

It’s been interesting to watch my motivations change over the years. I used to be driven heavily by ambition, a chip on my shoulder, the sense that I needed to prove something. I wanted it all — wealth, power, status. I won’t lie and say I still don’t want these things, But I’ve shifted much more to the mindset that if I just chill out and focus on giving and helping, life will turn out just fine.

I just want to leave a positive vibe around everyone I come across. My goal is to be a great father, son, friend, leader, etc. Worldly success with a rotten hardened heart means you’ve failed — a wall street banker who’s paranoid and miserable has failed, even if he’s worth $100 million because it cost him his soul.

I do the things I’d be proud of if I was forced to look back on my life and question how I lived it. I’m not perfect, but I’m aware, and that’s the first step.

Contributed by Ayodeji Awosika

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