40 Lessons Learned By 40
I am not perfect —
But I am progress.
In my decades on this rock, I made many mistakes, made many memories, had vices, had victories, suffered losses, and sustained wins…
Here’s a small slice of what I learned from it all:
1. Act early, act often. Avoidance births anxiety. Action kills it.
2. The tighter you hold onto what you have, the less you will receive. Give first, give often, give without remembering. Outflow.
3. You will die. So will those you love. It’s inevitable — but you can die without regrets, and so can they. Make moments matter.
4. Say no. Do nothing that compromises your healthy mind, body, and sprit.
5. Do not be useless. And don’t aim to simply be happy. The goal of life is not happiness; it’s purposefulness and usefulness. Both are built best through pain, not pleasure.
6. Pointing your finger is useless, unless you point it at yourself. Blame yourself and take ownership.
7. People can change. They just change for themselves — not you.
8. Life is a battleground, not a playground. Have a daily attack plan. Execute it ruthlessly.
9. Tell people that you’re proud of them. Tell them you love them. Before it’s too late.
10. Do shit. Do not talk shit. To yourself or anyone else. It’s a waste of time, and time is your most valuable asset.
11. Do not borrow credibility from material things. Make yourself credible with an undeniable work ethic.
12. You are not your past mistakes. You are your present choices. Set yourself free by working hard on yourself.
13. Think for yourself. Turn off the news. Sheep get slaughtered.
14. Before you manage your time, manage your energy. Create high frequency energy in yourself and charge up others with it. This is how you impact the world.
15. Don’t tell people what you’re going to do. Tell them how you’re going to do it. Then fucking do it — and more. Overdeliver for yourself and others.
16. Do not pursue. Imbue. When you chase, things run from you. When you choose, things run to you. Choose to experience joy in your pain, sunshine in your rain.
17. If you are curious, confident, and courageous, you can’t lose at anything in the long run.
18. What you fear is your path to freedom. Walk tall toward the darkness, plow through it, and live in your light. Everybody is just as afraid as you, show them the fear they feel is not real.
19. Wake up before the world and do your hardest work. This makes you superhuman.
20. Healing your past trauma unlocks your future triumph. Heal yourself, then serve others in their healing.
21. Build your best self and then give it away to the world.
22. It will take twice as long as you think. Act with gun-to-your-head urgency.
23. Your full human potential is found at the intersection of self-mastery and self-reliance.
24. Spend less time in your local bar, and more time traveling the world. Be a thinker, not a drinker.
25. Read at least 1 book per month. Take notes. Apply at least 1 learning to your life immediately.
26. No one is perfect. Including you. Everybody knows this. Stop fooling yourself. Perfect doesn’t even exist. People, plans, progress — they’re all imperfect. Stop waiting, start working.
27. As soon as you think you know everything, you know nothing. Every day is day one. Treat every project like your first project. Students of life succeed at life.
28. Attention to detail is the entry point to building any skill. Pair it with repetition and the world is yours.
29. Curiosity is the gateway trait. It births every trait you desire — discipline, motivation, focus, consistency, creativity, composure… the list goes on.
30. Everything won’t start well, but everything will end well with effort… so never quit.
31. Evil exists. Have the capacity for violence and the capability to control it. Use it to protect the innocent and those you love. Be extremely dangerous and extremely disciplined.
32. To achieve big dreams, you must have delusional self-belief, and an irrefutable work ethic.
33. Clear communication is the key to success in all relationships, especially the one with yourself. Talk to yourself. With others, always listen first, then speak mindfully, openly, and honestly.
34. Your circumstances will never change unless you change yourself.
35. Life is full of dichotomies. For every rule, an opposite rule exists. The world is rarely black or white. Stay gray. Be firm, yet flexible. Rules are meant to be broken.
36. If you risk nothing, you risk everything. Everything you were meant to be and more is on the other side of risk. Risk more than you ever thought possible, and risk it now.
37. Name your inner critic. Don’t just listen to it, talk to it. Know that, most of the time, it’s wrong.
38. Before you do anything, ask yourself: Is this going to hurt me or help me? Self-awareness and intention are your secret weapons.
39. There is always a solution to your problem. Clearly visualize your desired outcome and be relentlessly resourceful in achieving it.
40. Bad luck doesn’t exist, but bad, self-fulfilling, prophecies do. Think about what you think about. Think good thoughts. Think about what you want to happen. Thoughts become things.
41, because I overdeliver:
Live for growth and die growing. Real growth is unlocked by real hard work. And real hard work always follow this equation:
Expel comfort (Comfort is a slow death, prefer pain)
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Exhibit ownership (It’s your fault, you save you)
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Exercise discipline (Consistently plan and execute… or don’t bother at all)
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Extinguish ego (What you don’t know far outweighs what you know, it’s not all about you)
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Expect success (It can turn out better than you can imagine, believe in yourself)
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Examine failure (Success is simply a chain of lessons learned, don’t quit)
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Experience growth
Thank you for reading this—
More learning, more life to you and The Few!
Joey
P.S.
I truly hope that my lessons create change in your life.
I believe your time is the most valuable thing that you can give someone, so I am grateful that you set aside yours to read this.
To say “I appreciate you!”, here’s the gift of gear for your growth:
Buy 2, Get 1 Free
Code: FREETEE or FREERASHGUARD
