Just turned 30 years old and wanted to share my 30 lessons learned during this decade. Highly biased by my own experience, but hope they can help someone to navigate these years.
- Do sport regularly: It took me a while to get into it. Exercise at least 3 days a week. Do not fall into having sport taking your life, spending hundreds of euros a month on protein shakes and shit. You don’t think the same way about a problem after doing sport. Cardio over weight lifting. If you can’t find the time during the day, wake up early and do it. If your knees allow it, run a half-marathon once.
- Be patient: In this world of instant gratification, the long-term is neglected. Plant a tree, start a side project, build a relationship, and watch patiently how it grows. Don’t try to cut corners. From time to time, look back and see what you have accomplished.
- Strive in your 20s: Most likely you will have fewer “real life” responsibilities during this decade. Use it as an opportunity to build knowledge, make friends, live experiences, and don’t forget to work hard on what matters to you. The goal is to position yourself for your 30s. Closer to your 20s it would be just “work hard” but aiming to add the “what matters to you” by the end of the decade.
- Understand human bias: We humans are full of biases that affect how we think and the decisions we make. Study the most common biases and use them when making decisions, but leave some room for your gut. Stay alert when other people try to control you using any of these biases, and once you understand them, don’t use them against other people. Read some Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman books.
- Save up some money: With the current economic situation, it's hard to save up in your 20s, but try to build up a financial buffer that allows you to get out of a job you hate, or an emergency. Android phone over being handcuffed of an iPhone loan. You don’t need the latest thing. Experiences over things. Don’t be too cheap. Quoting Tubau, a thousand euros are better spent on a trip with friends than sitting in the bank. I can relate to that with my trip to China, Thailand, and Malaysia. The memories are priceless.
- Eat properly: 90% of what supermarket sells is garbage: candies, chocolate, chips, soda, pre-cooked meals, pre-packed meat, and hyper-processed food. Don’t buy those. If the other 10% is also garbage, make the effort to buy somewhere else. Some people, especially in wealthy countries (ironically) don’t know what real bread, meat, or vegetables are. Don’t order delivery every day. Don’t be too strict, life does not always allow it. And as Don Quijote said to Sancho, “Come poco y cena más poco, que la salud de todo el cuerpo se fragua en la oficina del estómago”, meaning, dinner frugally.
- Drink wisely: There is nothing wrong with drinking alcohol socially, but learn your limits as soon as possible. Never use it as an escape from your problems. Quoting Don Quijote again “Sé templado en el beber, considerando que el vino demasiado ni guarda secreto ni cumple palabra”. And besides alcohol, don’t drink Coke every day. Drink water.
- Try different things: This applies to jobs, but also to hobbies and anything in life. Try different things, don’t mind resetting a few times and jumping into new fields. Follow curiosity. As Richard Feynman said, “Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent, and original manner possible”. Start today reading about the thing you always wanted to.
- Be careful with the new cool thing: The new programming language if you are an engineer. The new teaching methodology if you are a teacher. The new cool tech product. The new cool trend. Asses it properly to see if it’s what you need, and don’t get blinded by the hype.
- Deliver your promises: If you commit to something, do it, no matter what. Even with minor things, be a reliable person. This can be at work, but also with friends or family. Think twice before committing.
- Solve your problems: Never expect that someone else is going to solve your problems. Take full responsibility. Fix it. People love placebos and hopium in different forms, but they are just temporal anesthesia. Don’t blame others. Ask for help when needed.
- Don’t always rely on technology: Technology makes our lives better. But makes us dumber. Learn how to read a map, handwrite often, cook instead of ordering food with an app, meet a girl at a bar instead of in an app, send a postcard to a friend instead of using an app, and read books on paper instead of in an app. Go write a postcard to a friend living far away.
- Enjoy the path: Define goals and work towards them, but don’t expect that if you are unhappy, happiness will come after the goal completion. Hitting goals is temporal, but following a path is a constant in life.
- Learn English: From my Spanish-born and raised point of view, this was life-changing. It opens you up to the world. Go read a book in English.
- Beware of social media: We are bombarded daily with notifications on our devices. Disable the ones that are not relevant. Handle them asynchronously. Don’t use the phone right after waking up. Mute your phone, but not important calls from friends and family. Clean notification sources from time to time. Avoid dumb scrolling. Don’t let them mess with your attention span. Soon movies will be short reels that you can skip if boring. Curate often the people you follow, you are exposed to them daily. Go mute that spammy notifications now.
- Develop empathy: Never forget about less lucky people. The starting point in life is quite random. Realize that not all success is due to hard work, and not all poverty is due to laziness.
- Learn from others: Everyone can teach you important lessons. Listen to your family. Listen to strangers on the Internet. Listen to your boss. Listen to your employees. Listen to your customer. Listen to your partner.
- Avoid echo chambers: Both physically and online, avoid places that just echo your ideas and beliefs. Share your ideas with people on the opposite side of the spectrum. Get your idea challenged.
- Detect burnout: You will eventually burn out, either at work or in any other situation. Detect it and take a break, change the environment, do sport, keep your routine, eat healthy, and use this time to get perspective. The problem won’t look the same after. Once rested, decide and wait. This circuit breaker can save you. As Don Quijote said “Confía en el tiempo, que suele dar dulces salidas a muchas amargas dificultades”, read eloquently by Antonio Banderas.
- Have a hobby: Find that hobby or activity that evades you from your daily life and problems, ideally with a community around and involving social activities. The social part of it is important, because the closer to the 30s, the more difficult is to create connections. Unsure if this trend of drinking wine while painting some shit is a hobby.
- Learn how the world works: Always aim for the “complex but right” answer instead of the “simple but wrong”. Understand humans and what drives them. We haven’t changed much psychologically from primates. Understand power. Understand the implications of every action.
- Start from scratch if needed: If you are living in an environment that is not for you, don’t be afraid of starting from scratch somewhere else. This applies to the city/neighborhood you were born, a job, or even a relationship. Sometimes is needed.
- No excuses: The moment is now. Have a 5 minute task? Do it now. Starting with what’s easy to get you in the mood. Routines help with recurrent tasks. In 3 weeks you can establish any routine. Then what feels odd is not following it.
- Define your success: Ignore what society considers as success, and define yours. Whether it’s to live a peaceful life close to nature, climb the corporate ladder, or have 10 kids, do it because it matters to you. There is nothing sadder than playing a game where the prize is not what you want. Always be aware of the trade-off you are making. You can’t have it all.
- Prioritize: Not every problem needs a solution. Sometimes an imperfect solution is enough. Be careful when focusing on the least important things that don’t make any difference. As Pareto said “80% of consequences, come from 20% of causes”, meaning that 20% of your time, you can get 80% of the things done. Always start with that 20%.
- Only actions matter: People talk a lot. About what they are. About what they want. About what they do. Only actions matter. The rest is pure speculation. Don’t be fooled by empty words and promises.
- Develop critical thinking: If you do something, do it for a reason. Challenge the status quo if needed. Be careful with fallacies. No one wants to be this girl, standing up when the beep sounds without understanding why.
- Write often: Writing organizes your ideas. It serves for future reference. Other people can read it. Do it private or public, handwritten or on the computer, but do it.
- Go to university: Erasmus, friends, parties, and studying hard is a great life experience. High grades are nice but there is more. Reach out to that professor you admire and ask for tips. Don’t fucking think that this title makes you better. It doesn’t give you any rights. There is skill and talent. University helps you with skill, but not with talent.
- Random tips:
- Order some custom noise earplugs, and use them.
- Use dental floss daily.
- Always return the shopping trolley to its place.
- Have a plan b for everything, like slides in pdf.
- Don’t turn around a corner with no visibility, you don’t know what’s there.
- If you bike often, use a helmet.