37 One Sentence Life Lessons I realised at 37

Build Fundamental Skills - Skills that uplift every aspect of your life -

1. Metacognition - how your brain thinks/works

2. Emotional Intelligence and Empathy - how humans function

3. Communication - Verbal, Visual, Written - all forms - you should always have the ability to explain your ideas to a 5 year old as well to an 80 year old

4. Critical Thinking - The ability to break apart and put back any situation/thing/concept/problem/decision purely based on rationale and with 100% emotional detachment

5. First Principles Thinking - Question things in the wild, and build your understanding of them from the ground up purely using unbreakable laws of Physics and Math. Don’t believe anything you can’t go to the root of yourself.

6. Build Taste - The only “human” thing left in an otherwise AI world

7. The well of knowledge can never be full. Be eternally curious.

Money

1. True wealth can’t be bought, has to be earned - a healthy body, a calm mind and a house full of love

2. Don’t buy things you don’t need on debt you can’t afford to impress people you don’ like

3. The most valuable things in life are free, recognise and value them.

4. The 2nd most valuable things in life are very expensive, only buy them if you really need them

5. The only reason to earn more money than you need is to give it away to people less privileged than you.

6. In 2025, the only point of employment is to learn the skills and earn the money necessary to become self employed one day. If you’re not on that path then you’re just a modern day slave.

7. Nothing is as expensive and as priceless as freedom. Give up everything if you need to, just to breathe freely

Health

1. Lift weights. You can replace cardio with a sport. But there’s no replacement to strength training. You’re hard wired to lift heavy things.

2. Walk regularly. Not for your body, but for your mind

3. Never compromise on sleep. Sleep deeply, but don’t be a lazy ass, get out of bed and get moving if you’re not sleeping

4. Therapy is great to make sense of your past traumas that lead to your current behaviours. But don’t use it to justify being an asshole. Get your mental health right and be a good person. Move on from your past.

Life

1. Love unconditionally and passionately - only then can you feel truly alive

2. Be deeply interested in things/people that matter to you. Ignore everything else.

3. Treat life like a game. A game where YOU control the points system. Sometimes a promotion can win you 1000 points, and other times just an afternoon nap can get 10,000

4. Everything is meaningless.. or meaningful. Everything has as much meaning as you assign to it. You get to control what matters in your life and what doesn’t. Never lose that control.

5. Don’t be a pushover. Stand firmly for what you believe in.

6. But have the intellectual honesty to change your mind and your beliefs when the facts change.

7. Don’t be a midwit. Don’t try to be over smart with life. Either have the passion of the beginner, or the intensity of the expert in everything you do.

8. Judge people based on stuff that can’t be bought with money - wit, humour, charm, honour, character, grit, physical and mental health

9. It’s better to be a gentle idiot than to be a rude genius. Be kind to people (but rude to assholes)

10. There’s no “work life balance”. Your life IS your work. You are the product or service that you offer. You’re YOU 24/7. So keep growing your skills and protect your energy so that you can function optimally for a long period of time

11. Your gut is a better judge of people than your mind can ever be. Listen to it

12. You're just a never ending, never stopping, never tiring self fulfilling prophecy. You become what you think and do regularly

13. Make genuine friends - not colleagues, not college mates, not room mates. Take the effort to make genuine friends

14. Pain + Reflection = Progress. If you’re not in pain, you can’t grow. If you don’t reflect, you cant’ grow. Do both regularly

15. The things that you own end up owning you. Don't grab on to anything too tightly - not people, not possessions, not your past.

16. Avoid all material addictions. Drugs, Alcohol, Nicotine, Sugar, Caffeine, Social Media - all are designed to make you lose control of your own life. They make you weak

17. Avoid all psychological addictions. Anger, Fear, Hate, Envy, Greed, Pride - all are designed to protect your ego and lose control of your mind. They make you weak

18. Have a daily spiritual practice - meditation, Yoga, worship, anything.. - something that reminds you of how insignificant you are in the grander cosmos

19. Make peace with your mortality. You’re going to die one day, and the world will move on, and that’s okay.