30 Things I know at 30 that I wish I knew at 209 min read

I just turned 30, and there are things I absolutely wish someone had told me 10 years ago. Apparently, turning 30 is a big milestone. No more 20s. Am I an adult now?

I wanted to reflect on every unique life lesson I’ve been taught in the past 10 years regarding personal growth, money, health and wellness, and time management.

These are more than just words. They are principles learned through mostly failure but also success that have guided and fueled me to grow as an individual and a professional:

#1 Personal Growth

• Many, many, many people will dislike you, especially if you are doing something unusual. This is usually a reflection of the other person’s feelings about themselves. Ignore them. Seriously, ignore them. Don’t hesitate to bring authorities or legal in if anything gets too real. Life’s too short to deal with dickheads. When people you care about and have known you for years and normally don’t comment on your life, provide constructive comments on your life, imagine how hard it was for them to take that initial step; this is a vital distinction from the dickheads.
• Everything passes—your opinions, your possessions, your goals, your emotions, your body, and your life. Enjoy the good, notice the bad, and realize both will pass.
• Your 20s matter
• Don’t date people you don’t have a future with
• Travel intentionally and for >2 months, have friends or family join you at some point, but be alone for most of it. You should spend <1 hour a day of non-sleep time in the Airbnb, apartment, or hotel.
• Creating ideas is a dramatically different act and easier than executing them. Thinking of 3,000 ideas is less effective for growth and development than executing one simple idea, such as writing one blog post or creating one video.
• It’s been said over and over and over again, but stop complaining. No one wants to hear it. Seriously. I have two Post-its on my computer: “Stop Complaining” and “Be a Human.”
• Junk in, Junk out. This applies to media, food, daylight, and sleep. There’s no need for cold turkey; just pay attention.

#2 Money and Work

• Avoid debt at all costs, understand taxes (and how to pay less), understand insurance, and understand fees.
• If you are safe, fed, sheltered, and not in debt, take at least 50% of your savings at one, two, or three times in your 20s and go for the big win: the product, the YouTube channel, and the business. If the index grows 10% yearly on average, it will take your $2,000 in savings seven years to get to $4,000, assuming things go perfectly. That money would be much better spent on the big risk. Even if you fail, you have learned much more while trying and are still young.
• Create something that can scale. Be ready to scale. Your life can change very quickly.
• Marketing and sales are fairly simple: figure out who your ideal audience is, and their common problem or where they want to be → educate them on ways to solve their problem or get to that place (not on the specific features of your product) → buying your product or service becomes a byproduct (get it?)
• In business, some people simply have it, and some people don’t. You can teach a lot to someone, but you can’t change who they are. Let the winners run free in your business, let the losers run free, well, elsewhere.
• 99% of people can identify a fire, and only 1% of people identify the fire, devise a way to put it out, and, most importantly, put it out. Be that 1% and watch a new world open up to you. If you are always reaching out for professional help and can’t ever solve problems on your own, you are a liability.
• Understanding why things are created and successful will change how you look at the world. The coffee cup is a business. The white lines in parking lots are a business. Shampoo is a business. Why is the shampoo bottle white? Why is it placed on the middle shelf instead of the top shelf? Why do they say “might improve hair health” instead of “Dramatically improves the length and amount of your hair?” Is it legal? Marketing? Cost-savings? What’s the incentive for CVS to stock this shampoo at this shelf level?

#3 Health and Wellness

• Fire people from your life and work that consistently create drama. It is absolutely not worth the hassle. It goes the other way too, don’t create drama, and don’t burn bridges.
• Alcohol can be fun, but it ruins 2-3 days. Seriously evaluate for yourself if it’s worth it. I have had about one drink a month for the past 6 years.
• Sleep is one the easiest levers to fix everything: energy, muscle growth, mental fog, creativity. Simply going to sleep one hour later than normal dramatically reduces the amount of growth hormone released.¹ Optimize your sleep and keep your bedroom colder than 70, pitch black, and whisper quiet or with white noise. Have light exposure within the first hour of waking up, and stop consuming caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol. Exercise during the day, have a morning and nighttime routine and stick to it.
• No one has any idea what the F*** they are doing, and no one cares what the F*** you are doing. Say yes to most work or growth opportunities that excite you, even if you have no idea how to do what you are asked; you’ll figure it out and learn ridiculous amounts in the process.
• The paradox of selfishness is that when you are selfish for your own wellness, saying “no,” having clear personal rules, or taking time for yourself, it’s often the selfless thing to do because you will have better and clearer interactions in business, family, and friends.
• The science is iffy, but I love cold plunges and hot saunas. 5 minutes of movement followed by 5 minutes of cold in the morning and 20 minutes of hot at night, followed by a shower, help me wake and sleep like nothing I’ve ever tried before. A cooling mattress, sleepy tea, and blackout curtains seem gimmicky, but I’ve never slept better in my entire life (blackout curtains and cooling mattress is backed by evidence).
• Meditation and Journaling are evidence-based ways to reduce stress and anxiety that can give you a toolset to get through nearly any challenge.^2-5 The hardest part is consistency. Can you commit 15 minutes a day to this (5 minutes of journaling and 10 minutes of meditation)?

#4 Productivity and Time Management

• 2-3 hours of uninterrupted time for personal projects per day, undistracted and focused, will change your life – schedule it. Usually, morning works best.
• Scheduling always beats a to-do list.
• Any piece of information you are hunting for or asking for, ask yourself, “how does this change my management?” If it won’t, regardless of the result, don’t waste your time or energy on finding that piece of information unless it’s simply because you are curious.
• You are ignoring your health too much. Your physical health especially. It plays a major role on how effective you can be. One week of great sleep, food, and exercise (assuming you aren’t catching up on a heavy sleep debt) will resoundingly prove it to you.
• Seriously, introspect and figure out at what time of day you do the best work. For example, I do my best creative and hard work from early in the morning to midday. After lunch, I do the best meetings/conversations, non-creative analytical work, or grunt work. Protect that time at all costs. If you don’t protect it, no one else will.
• We are exposed to too many life hacks, productivity techniques, people, places, and things. Figure out the 3-5 things that are actually important to you, and then work slowly and deliberately on emphasizing those things in your life (while eliminating, delegating, or shelving the rest)
• Do not waste your time, your employer’s time, your family’s time, or your friend’s time by working on things that don’t matter to you. Start the side project, work on it as much as you can when not working the day job, once you hit enough salary to live on, and I mean at a very basic level, and if you actually like the side project, commit to it full time. You will be amazed at the extra income you get from that 40+ hours a week on the project. At least 2x, often 10x.
• Delegation changed my life. It is the best way to free up time. I used to think it would be impossible to outsource anything because no one could do it as well as me. What I was hoping for was an 80% quality rate to free up some much needed time. What I found, after hard searching, was a 150% quality rate. They were much better than me at editing videos, finding sponsors, drawing, negotiating contracts, cleaning my house, and much, much more.

Sources:

1. Pietrowsky R., Meyrer R., Kern W., Born J., Fehm H. L. Effects of diurnal sleep on secretion of cortisol, luteinizing hormone, and growth hormone in man. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 1994;78(3):683–687. doi: 10.1210/jc.78.3.683. [PubMed] [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
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4. Peterson, Linda Gay, and Lori Pbert. “Effectiveness of a meditation-based stress reduction program in the treatment of anxiety disorders.” Am J Psychiatry 149.7 (1992): 936-943.
5. Davidson RJ, Kabat-Zinn J, Schumacher J, Rosenkranz M, Muller D, Santorelli SF, Urbanowski F, Harrington A, Bonus K, Sheridan JF. Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosom Med. 2003 Jul-Aug;65(4):564-70. doi: 10.1097/01.psy.0000077505.67574.e3. PMID: 12883106.