A Teenagers Guide To Life.
According to most adults, I am not experienced enough to talk about life, on the contrary, I think I have a lot of experience. Seventeen years is a long time on this planet and I have learnt loads of valuable lessons along the way, here are a few that I will share with you today.
Know What You Want.
I believe that all of us are like cars on a highway, we are all going fast, all of us think we are in control and all of us are going somewhere. If you know where you are going then you can say that your chances of success are much higher than someone that is going nowhere fast.
What is it that you desire? Money? That’s good, money made wisely will give you a lot of freedom and enjoyment, you will not have to worry about bills or your mortgage, I have no problem with money. Recognition? It is good to have a certain level of notoriety, people will know you and appreciate you for what you have given to the world, some people may hate you or spread rumours about you, but if you can handle it, awesome.
Knowing what you want gives you a target, some people call it a purpose. Having a purpose is great because it answers the most important question, why am I doing what I do? Once you know about your why answering every other question is easy.
For a good portion of my life, I did not know what I wanted, I would just do whatever the adults told me, nothing wrong with that, it’s just that adults make mistakes too. Now I know what I want out of life, this gives me confidence and clarity.
Take Action.
Nobody gets success with wishful thinking, successful people take action, they may make mistakes but they always learn from their mistakes, you cannot learn or get better if you sit around doing nothing. I have often heard about people who have a meteoric rise to success, while others take forever to become successful, here is my theory on why that happens.
Let us say that every year you put forty inputs of value towards your goals, and your goal will be accomplished when you put in four hundred inputs of value, so according to the above in ten years you shall achieve your goal. If you want to achieve your goals in five years you will have to put in eighty inputs of value, how quickly and how much success you get is the product of how many inputs of value you put in per year.
You always learn best by doing, over the years I have realised that you do not have to be the smartest or the most athletic, you have to be the person that shows up every day and takes action, over time you will become the best at what you do.
Focus On The Process.
We live in a world where we see results everywhere, famous people regularly post photos where they are wearing flashy watches and driving expensive cars, while this may motivate us, I believe that they are showing the wrong image.
To be successful in any endeavour you have to focus on a process. Most pro athletes have a process, some golfers like to waggle before they take a swing, some, like Gary Player used to kick in his right knee others, cock their heads to the left like Jack Nicklaus, they then take a swing and repeat that process, without it they just won’t be able to play golf successfully.
If you do the process correctly, the result will take care of itself, my coach used to tell me to focus on the process and detach yourself from the result, he used to tell me that no one can control the result, we can only control the process.
When we focus on the result we get stressed and worried, stress takes our focus away and eventually, it leads to sadness and pain.
Learn To Let Go.
I used to think that the number of likes or followers that we have defined us, or whether we wore flashy clothes and expensive shoes. After a while, I realised that those shoes will go out of fashion in a year, you will forget about what you posted on Instagram and the stuff that goes on in Travis Scott’s life probably won’t affect you.
“No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.” -Chuck Palahniuk.
Just let go, if your girlfriend broke up with you, don’t lament, just go on living your life, it is okay that you two are not gonna get married, I don’t remember my elementary school best friend, to be honest, it doesn’t matter they moved on and so did I. If you missed the season finale of your favourite show, that’s alright, you can watch it again. Learn to realise that some of the activities you do are not so important, life is a game, give your best while you are on the field, let go of all the stuff that is not on the field.
People Need People.
If you want to build a business, you will need customers, if you want to sing at a sold-out Madison Square Garden, you will need fans, if you want to become a famous politician you will need people who believe in your cause. I realised this when I was in boarding school, at first, I was sad and lonely because it was so different from what I was used to, but as the days went by, I made friends, I can still count on them today.
Whoever you hang around with, you will eventually become like them, you may see it most schools, the athletes hang around with each other, the science stream exclusively talks with people who are studying science, and then there are other types, like the loner, the class clown and the guy that can fit in any group.
College can be tough sometimes, you need your mates to pick you up when you are down, and most activities are made more enjoyable when you have your friends around.
In A Nutshell.
To conclude here are the takeaways from today's article:
- Know what you want, you won’t get your dream life without having an idea of what your dream life looks like.
- Take action. Wishful thinking is stupid, pay the price if you want to achieve, there are no free lunches in life.
- Focus on the process. Do the basics right, keep your head in the game and you will win.
- Learn to let go. Just because we have luxuries available in life does not mean we have to indulge in them.
- People need people. We live in an interdependent society, go and collaborate with people better than you, grow together.
