Today marks 27 years of my mortal existence! Yay 🙂

I cannot deny that it feels great to receive gifts from the people I care about. However, the greatest gift I could ever wish for is to be able to serve my reason for existence.

That reason is to be a catalyst for someone to live a greater life.

So on my designated day, I’d like to give you 27 lessons it took me 27 years to learn. Enjoy 🙂

1. Nothing is Missing

Everything in your life is there for a reason. Everything that isn’t there also isn’t there for a reason.

Each time you use what you have or don’t have as an excuse, you surrender full control of that outcome.

Steve Jobs said in his commencement speech “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

2. Live with Intent

You can’t “make the most” out of your life if you don’t know what you’re making.

The best art pieces aren’t created by calculating each brush stroke before starting or throwing a bunch of paint together in hopes to create something.

The best art pieces are created when the artist has an intention of the emotion to create or the message it will portray. How it comes together is the surprise.

Approach life the same way. Know the intended outcome and let life’s surprises fill in the gap of how you’ll get there.

3. Know Thyself

To live a life without knowing why you do what you do, why you think what you think, and why you are who you are is like playing street fighter and pressing random buttons hoping to win.

Trust me, it only works .01% of the time.

4. Be Thyself

When you choose to be someone other than yourself is to say your true self is not worthy of love.

Even if someone loves you, they love the idea of who you think you are and not for who you actually are.

I’d rather have the whole world against me than my own soul.

5. Love Thyself

Have you ever came across a salesman who doesn’t use his own product? It’s obvious to everyone except for him.

If you don’t love yourself, how do you expect anyone else to?

Don’t be that BMW sales guy that drives an Audi…

6. Know that you know nothing

No one knows everything, but everyone knows something.

This philosophy has kept me in check to prevent me from being a know it all and to always be learning.

7. Question Everything

If Google represents the ether of knowledge, asking well “refined” questions will unlock well “refined” answers.

I truly believe we all have the ability to learn anything at anytime if we ask the right question to the right source.

The quality of your life is based on the quality of questions you ask. When John Demartini told me this, I realized that I don’t need to know everything. I just need to know how to ask the right questions!

8. Self Worth comes before Net Worth

Pay yourself FIRST. I learned this one the hard way. I noticed when I paid myself before anyone else, I made more money.

I noticed when I gave time to myself first before others, I had more time.

I noticed when I set my own standards before conforming to others, I had more respect.

Any moment I put others first, I felt undervalued and not respected. Crazy.

9. Wherever you are, be there 100%

Tricky SAT question: If Jane is thinking of vacations while at work and thinks of work while on vacation, where is she?

Answer: NO WHERE

Although she’s physically at work, she’s mentally on vacation. When she finally is on her vacation, she’s thinking of all the work she needs to do when she gets back.

Being 100% present is like watching a movie in IMAX 3D. When you’re not present, it’s like watching a bootleg movie with russian subtitles and a silhouette of the guy who forgot to use the washroom before the movie.

If both were asked if they saw the movie, they would both say yes. But we can both agree that IT’S NOT THE SAME EXPERIENCE!

10. Failing to plan is planning to fail

This one makes sense logically but you won’t really get it until you planned on something you didn’t believe was possible and actually achieved it.

I’ll say this. I’ve NEVER met a successful business that didn’t plan. Is it necessary? No. But it is the most efficient and effective way to maximize limited resources to create a desired outcome. Period.

11. Be your own authority

This one is painful. Authority is all we know as we grow up. We’ve been conditioned to believe that the authority has the “right” answers and we fear being “wrong” because it results to punishment.

My logic was pretty straight forward. All my authority figures have a predetermined idea of how I should live my life. They impose their own values onto me and punish me if I don’t abide.

If I lived my life based on other people’s ideas, when do I get to live mine? When I work all my life to become an authority and impose my values on others?

Nah, I’m good. I’ll live my life on my terms now, thank you.

12. Learn like you’ll live forever, Live like you’ll die tomorrow

This one has helped me keep centered to live life without a scarcity mindset while keeping procrastination at a distance.

13. Do you boo boo, do you

Someone has something to say about EVERYTHING. Don’t occupy your mind with other people’s opinions.

The only thoughts that really matter are the ones you have of yourself.

14. Start your day early

I read an article that the most successful people’s daily routine starts with waking up at 6 am or earlier everyday.

That’s when I realized they have twice as much time to do things that move the needle in their life, it’s no wonder they’re successful!

Please don’t accept the bullshit of “I’m not a morning person”. If you got paid $1000 to wake up early every day, you’d become a “morning person” real quick.

Truth is, you don’t have thousand dollar reasons to wake up.

15. Be honest over nice

Obviously if you can have both, that would be best. But if you had to sacrifice one, be honest over nice.

Nice will get you likes. Honesty will get you respect.

16. Time is the only commodity that matters

I used to think money was the most valuable commodity. Then I realized time can make money, but money can’t make time.

17. Use all the life “power-ups”

In MarioKart, there are awesome power ups you can use to make the game more fun.

In real life, I think there are power ups just like this:

• Meditation
• Having a mentor
• Reading books
• Outsourcing/Delegating

Life power ups won’t win you the race, but it can give you that boost that could close the gap between first and second.

18. Your mind is your greatest asset

Your mind is a printer for ideas.

You can either be this old printer… and spend all your time peeling off those annoying holes on the side.

Or invest into your mind and be a 3D printer of ideas. Invest in skills like problem solving, critical thinking, brainstorming, etc.

19. Your body is the gatekeeper

So many people neglect this part. Jim Rohn says it best “take care of your body, it’s the only place you got to live”.

Eating well and being active is something we all know we “should” do. But doing it to feel better about yourself isn’t enough to be sustainable.

The only way to sustain a healthy lifestyle is to receive direct benefits from it.

Since I’ve been vegetarian, I sleep 4-5 hours a night. Would I give up extra 4 hours of me time in exchange for 30 minutes of a dopamine rush from eating Wagyu beef? Nah I’m good.

20. Your soul is the best leader

There is your primal self = seek pleasure and avoid pain

There is your conscious self = logic and reason

There is your telos = intuition and purpose

Which of these are in your driver seat most of the time?

There is proper time and place for each of them. I’ve seen regret come from the primal and conscious self, but never from the telos.

So enjoy your primal and conscious self, but let your telos have the ultimate authority 🙂

21. Creativity isn’t a gift, it’s a more like a muscle

No human is incapable of physically being strong. They just haven’t built enough muscles to be able to do certain things.

No human is incapable of being creative. They just haven’t built enough creativity muscles to be able to do certain things.

22. There’s nothing you cannot do, only things you have not done

This lesson has kept me in check from importing limiting beliefs. Imagine this scenario… you have two people looking at the same painting.

One guy thinks “wow, this is incredible. I could never create something like this.”

The other guy thinks “wow, this is incredible. If I lived a life like Van Gogh and put in the same hours as he did, I’d be able to create this. But I don’t want to cut off my ear so I’ll just admire it.”

What’s the difference? It’s the perception of self.

There’s great power and love that comes when you truly believe you’re capable of anything but choose to be your true self.

23. All perception is a choice

I think how fast you speed through life is proportional to your ability to manage your expectations.

Imagine these two scenarios: Your boss gives you a raise…

Scenario 1: You expected that raise a year ago
Scenario 2: You thought he was going to fire you

As you can see, a single event can be perceived 2 completely different ways based on the pre-existing expectation.

Manage your expectations and you’ll manage your perceptions

24. Don’t forget to be human

I’ve learned there are 2 desires that every single human yearns for at the core:

• Acknowledgement of existence
• Being loved for their true self

Give anyone those 2 things and everything else they desire won’t matter as much

25. Don’t take things personal, take them as feedback

• A girl rejects you – you can be insecure about yourself or take it as feedback that your approach can be improved
• You get fired from your job – you can feel useless or take it as feedback that you weren’t yielding a strong ROI
• Your boyfriend of 3 years dump you – you can feel unworthy of love or take it as feedback that you weren’t fulfilling his needs

Taking things personal will only emotionally weigh you down. Taking it as feedback is using that baggage as stepping stones to grow.

26. Maximum growth occurs at the border of support and challenge

When my mentor told me this, I’ve approached life as if I was on a tightrope.

Too much support you become complacent. Too much challenge you burn out.

Only the balance of both is sustainable, consistent, and maximize personal growth.

27. Love has no limits

We don’t have a shortage on how often and how deeply we can love. So why approach with such a scarcity mindset?

If you’ve ever been “heartbroken”, you know it sucks. Your natural reaction is to protect yourself by never allowing anyone to get that close again.

Be aware that is your primal self seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.

The way I see it, discovering love is like discovering the cosmos…

It’s hard as hell. You could die. It’s beautiful. It’s infinite. It’s magical. It’s incomprehensible. It’s worth it.