15 Decisions You WONT Regret 20 Years From Now
Hey there, my friend. Now, this is the second part of a video we did a couple of weeks ago where we talked about the decisions you will regret 20 years from now. Just like it's hard to see how these bad decisions will play out in the long term, the reverse can also be true. It can be difficult to understand what a decade's decision looks like. So, here are 15 to look for. Welcome to Alux.
Number one: Spending time when you can to spend money. If you were born poor, you have around a 5 to 10% chance to end up living a good life. According to studies, it varies between countries, but for the US, for example, you're looking at around 7.5%. When most people are born, they've got exactly Z to their name, and it stays the same for the next 20 years or so. Or worse, it goes into the negative if you take student debt into account. After that, it takes around a full decade to stabilize yourself financially. That's a whole lot of time on your hands with a very little amount of disposable income. The most important decision you can make during this period is how you use your time because it can set you up for the rest of your life. The best way to use your time in this period is to trade it for skill, knowledge, and expertise. The more you make this trade, the better your chances are to get into that 5 to 10%.
Number two: Figuring out who you are and being that person. Nobody expects you to have it all figured out at a certain point, but that doesn't change the fact that the sooner it happens, the better. Knowing who you are and fully embracing it shields you from things that make you unhappy down the road. If you know you are not a certain type of person and you act like it, you simply won't do things that are out of character because you've shown no interest in it. It takes a lot of courage and self-awareness to be fully who you are. A lot of people assume that being hard-headed is a personality, but it's not. Okay, it's just a way to mask the insecurity of not knowing who you are or being afraid to show it. Now, there are three elements that you need in order to figure out who you are: people, places, and things to do. The more variations of these three elements you experience, the better your character gets fleshed out. That's why people who travel a lot seem to have a stronger character than anyone else. They've experienced hundreds of variations of people, places, and things to do. They've seen a lot of scenarios, and the way they react to them has shaped their character.
Number three: Getting a hard skill over a soft skill. Gender studies majors are going to hate this all they want, but the reality is some skills have more value in the world than others, and in turn, they translate into a higher earning power. We like to split the skills into three different categories: One, core skills - you make this thing work. These are your engineers, programmers, entrepreneurs, architects, and so on. In general, their skills create something palpable. Two, admin skills - you keep the thing working. These are your managers, coordinators, leaders, and so on. They don't make the thing; instead, they make sure the thing doesn't break and runs smoothly. And three, personnel - these are everyone from gas station employees to the Starbucks barista. The lowest paid and the easiest to replace. Now all of these people have their purpose, and they all must exist in one way or another. But realistically speaking, you're not here because you want to make sure the whole world runs smoothly. The best skill to get is the one that has the highest return for you.
Number four: Living closer to the uncomfortable line. Look, here's the thing, okay? Palpable growth only happens at the very edge of discomfort. You need a tiny bit of pressure. Think back to your past times. None of them were a walk in the park, right? You managed to pull through because you tolerated the pressure. That's why hard-fought victories feel so good. For most people, that tiny bit of pressure is a bit too much. They want to feel safe and protected; they're afraid of anything that disturbs their linear mundane lives. And here's the reality: you cannot out-comfort the uncomfortable. Things will always feel a bit shaky. The secret is to be comfortable with a little, a little bit of uncertainty. People build things even though they might not work, not because they're 100% sure they will work.
Number five: Finding your strengths and doubling down on them. Now, you surely have heard the saying "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard enough," right? You've heard that. But have you ever wondered, what if talent does indeed work hard enough? Yeah, we know. Okay, mind-blowing when you think about it that way. It's impossible to outwork someone who bets on their strength because they have a competitive advantage. They're already good at it. We keep hearing people say, "Oh, I'll just work hard at this thing I've got zero inclination for until it becomes good," and we keep asking ourselves, but why though? I mean, it's admirable but pretty pointless nonetheless. You can only get good at so many things in life, so why choose the ones that are naturally harder for you? Unless you've got a burning passion for it, it just doesn't really make sense.
Number six: Moving to a place with more opportunities. People think that the internet solved location problems, but it's not entirely true because connections are made face-to-face, not screen-to-screen. It always pays out to be physically in the place where things are happening, at least until you get to a point where you make things happen. Social media is not for connecting people; it's for ego display most of the time. Moving to a better place opens your mind up to a new way of living and a new way of thinking, something you can't really achieve from the comfort of your bedroom.
Number seven: Building legacy over trends. True craftsmanship comes from doing something for a really long time. There's no other way around it. A good foundation translates into different industries, and when things keep changing every year, the only ones that remain thriving are the ones who focus on getting better at what they're doing, not the ones chasing whatever is popular right now. Things go out of style because there's no one good at it left.
Number eight: Choosing the right person. This is a decision that theoretically lasts a lifetime. It'll have one of the biggest impacts on your life, whether you realize it or not. Who you hang out with 24/7 shapes the way you live your life day by day. You become a slightly different person without realizing it. With the right choice, though, you can become a better one, and this only becomes apparent after a couple of years pass you by.
Number nine: Getting rid of any kind of debt because debt is modern-day slavery, my friend. Somebody else owns your future money. Most people should stay away from debt as much as they can, and if you're in a position where that's not a possibility for you, well, the next best thing you can do is to focus all of your energy on clearing your debt as soon as you can.
Number 10: Solving money early. The best time to start solving money is yesterday because, well, solving money takes a lot of time, and it gets harder as you get older. If you haven't started working toward it just yet, now we might be biased about this, obviously, but for us, solving money was always the number one priority for the longest time.
Number 11: Doing things you think you're not capable of. You have two limits: the one you hold yourself to and the actual one, and there's usually a really big gap between these limits. You see, something seems impossible until somebody does it. You won't know what your limits truly are until you test them. And the great thing about limits is they're not fixed.
Number 12: Sacrificing the right things. Look, okay, you can do anything but not everything. Something has to give: you can't be everywhere all at once. And you get to think of everything every time. Every day you wake up, you're faced with a couple of decisions and thousands of opportunity costs. What if you start learning programming today? What if you started going to the gym every night instead of out to the pub? What if you started investing $100 each week for the next 10 years? What if you quit your job and went to go volunteer somewhere? What if you do none of the above? All of these decisions send you in totally opposite directions. Everything you do means thousands of things you don't get to do. A trade must be made. The best decision is to trade the things that don't hold value for you for the things that do.
Number 13: Recharging when your whole body tells you to. Maybe this is something that we're just more aware of now that most of us are past 30, but it becomes clearer and clearer. The energy that gets put into something needs to be replenished somehow. You can't expect for yourself to be creative, motivated, disciplined, and hardworking every single day without a way to sustain this massive energy output. Some find it through balance; others take time off, but the point is the decision to recharge when needed is the thing that allows you to keep on going.
Number 14: Looking forward rather than looking back. From our experience, one of the biggest factors that dictates how well you'll do in life from a personal perspective is how you position yourself mentally. If you trust yourself and believe in your own skills, you're statistically more likely to make it. Setbacks won't hurt as much; you'll be able to be more resilient and play the game long enough to see the finish line. People with a great outlook on life usually live great lives.
And finally, number 15: Getting stupid good at something. We kept this one for last because, unfortunately, not many people manage to get into this position, and it's such a rewarding experience. Something unlocks in your brain when you, with your very own little hands, make something great. You get this sense of calm and stillness when you look at something that you've made that's extremely good. It's like the universe acknowledging you or something. And of course, we've saved a bonus for those always sticking with us until the very end. That bonus is betting everything on yourself. There is a difference between trying to do everything alone and betting everything on yourself. The first one means believing that you alone have everything you need—false. The second one means believing you're able to get everything you need. There's a subtle factual difference there.
We'll see you back here next time, Aluxers. Until then, take care.