As Mark Manson was turning 30, he sent an email out to his subscribers asking his readers (37 years and older) what advice and life lessons they would give their 30-year-old selves.
He wanted to crowdsource the life experiences of his older readership and share their collective wisdom with younger readers.
Mark received over 600 responses, it took him three days to read through them and make a summary.
Mark summed up the most common life lessons appearing throughout all of the 600 emails. Here are the most common ones that resonated with almost everyone:
- Saving & Investing
Get your financial house in order as soon as you start working. It is not too late to start saving for retirement. Start today.
You can achieve this by:
- Pay all your debts as soon as possible. Debts grow interest over time.
- Keep an “emergency fund” to cater to financial health issues, lawsuits, divorces, bad business deals, etc.
- Maintain at least one savings account.
- Avoid a mortgage unless it has good rates or you can comfortably pay it.
- Don’t invest in anything you don’t understand. Don’t trust stockbrokers.
2. Take Care of Your Health
As the adage goes, “Health is wealth”. The most common terminal illnesses start at this point and start showing symptoms of cancer, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, joint issues, and chronic pain.
Exercise should be an integral part of your lifestyle.
The effects we suffer from a poor lifestyle are cumulative. The body doesn’t suddenly break down one day. It’s a slow burn process and the effects take longer to correct once suffered.
Boost your immunity with multivitamins and collagen to support body structure.
3. Surround Yourself With People Who Uplift You
In our 20s, we cling to the people we meet, even if they’ve done nothing to earn our love and trust. We are afraid of being alone.
But our 30s are “lonely” for the most part because everyone is chasing their dream or settling down with one partner. We appreciate late that good relationships are earned and hard to come by.
Depression is a major highlight of life at this stage. There’s a need to build solid friendships with people we can be vulnerable. There’s no reason to waste our time with people who don’t help us on our life’s path.
4. Focus On One Thing
In our 20s we have a lot of dreams and ideas. We believe in our own hype and are ready to take on the world. The only problem is we think we have time.
Focus on one or two things and work towards being excellent at them. Don’t get distracted.
You have to accept that you can’t do everything. It takes lots of sacrifice and time to achieve anything substantial in life.
5. Don’t Stop Taking Risks
Society tells us that by 30 we should have things “figured out”. According to many respondents, their career, dating/ marriage and financial situations were still works in progress.
Social expectations of “being an adult” deter you from taking some major risks and starting over.
If you can still change in your 30s — please take the leap. One should continue to change in their 30s.
Work to improve yourself and always have a fresh start. Here are some chances many readers took which improved their lives significantly:
- Going back to school and getting their degrees
- Taking extra seminars and courses
- Starting their first businesses
- Moving to a new country
- Checking themselves into therapy
- Starting meditation practice.