23 life lessons from a 29-year old

This is what life has taught me so far. I am a 29-year-old corporate guy stuck in 9–5 like a million others. These are my observations of little things that might help you achieve some clarity. In no particular order, here you go:

Following a healthy lifestyle saves a ton of money.
Health is wealth. You only realize this when you’re sick. With a healthy lifestyle, you eat more at home and less outside. You spend less money on liquor parties. And you spend lesser money on medicines as well.

Taste is extremely overrated.
Most things which are poisonous for health taste delicious. Most of which are good are bland. You decide. Few minutes of taste or a lifetime of happiness of internal organs.

No one cares about you.
And that’s the best thing. Think of it as the freedom to do whatever you like.

Exploit the renting culture, and invest everything else.
5 years down the line you’ll have much more money than your peers. Consumerism will ensure goods becoming cheaper as time progresses.

Have more relationships.
Every person you meet and spend 2 weeks and more with, helps you explore some part of your hidden personality.

Be emotional about your parents.
They can’t wrong you. It’s a beautiful feeling to try and give them back 100 times more than what they did for you. Trust me, ask someone who doesn’t have them.

Practice 10 mins of happy thoughts a day.
1st thing in the morning or the last thing at night. Force yourself to think about happy things. Visualize your achievements, think of yourself as The Batman, or about making love with Alexandra Daddario. Just 10 mins. Super Happy. You’ll be a happy person slowly.

Be light-weighted.
No- It’s not about aspiring for a 6 pack. Just try to be the lightest version of yourself. Eat less. Move more. You can do just about everything more with a lighter body. Slim is King.

Skip the dinner.
You just don’t burn many calories after you sleep. Again, overrated. No-one died skipping dinner.

Play Chess.
Suck at it. Still, It’s better than a lot of other nonsense video games. You learn to think from other’s perspectives. If you have the time, spend it on learning youtube tutorials.

Own Less.
Buy less of the stuff. Buying power is extremely important which comes with spending less. Always have a great purchasing power and less of stuff that everyone has. Remember Point 4. Rent and Save. True power is having more invested income at your disposal.

Don’t hate your 9–5.
Being an entrepreneur is tough and not everyone can afford it. Use point 4 and plan for early retirement. But, try to keep switching and find that 9–5 which you don’t actually hate. Also, hustle to move to mid-senior to senior level. These people have fatter cheques and lesser working hours.

Learn Public Speaking:
Good communication skills are the rarest of skills to have. And they help you rise to the very top of the corporate ladder. This needs practice. Assume you’re addressing a crowd and spend 20 mins practicing. Helps more than any course on Coursera.

Let it go:
Nothing and I repeat, nothing is as grave as our negative minds project them to be. So, you need to reprimand your mind every time it tries and scare you by projecting a grim picture of any situation. Just let it go and things will be fine.

Don’t travel by compulsion.
Traveling is a lot of planning and pain in the ass. Too many people do it to tell the social peers that they’re in the game as well. The idea is to relax. If sipping a beer at your backyard with your dog relaxes you, there’s no need for an Instagram worthy vacation.

Have 3 real people around you.
They needn’t be friends or family. They can be office colleagues, football mates, or a neighbor. Most people are fake and present a likable mask in public. You need to have 3 people who know you as you know yourself.

Know the minimum operating money (MOM).
MOM is the minimum possible money per month required to take care of your basics and lead a normal life. Keep working towards reducing it or keeping it constant. Helps you at most critical junctures of your life.

Have a hobby.
Could be chess, walking in a park or painting, or making a voodoo doll. Something qualifies as a hobby if you’re planning to take time out to do that. Eventually, you’ll be great at it.

Laugh at yourself, and more
Most unhappy people have high egos. If you can laugh at yourself with friends or when alone, perhaps you’ll take life easily.

1000 hours is the new 10000 hours.
With the ever-expanding consumer-focused world, any skill practiced for 1000 hours will make it highly monetizable. That’s 1.5 years of 2 hours a day. You’ll be rich if this also happens to be your hobby.

Financial Freedom = MOM*120.

Being happy or sad is a choice.
Most of the time, the repetition of the situation in various forms in your mind makes you sad. Learn to stop that repetition. Again, most of it doesn’t matter for 3 months hence.

Love is not the same it is depicted on TV.
Love is an intense feeling of care for someone where your ego doesn’t have a place. This is rare and thus only a few are in love. If you’re lucky, you find one. Else, be happy as everyone teaches you something.

Hope some of it resonated with you. I have just started my writing journey on Medium. Would be great if I receive feedback in any form.