Over the last 40 years I have met some truly remarkable people and some real duds. We’re all a bit of both. I certainly am!
Here on my 40th birthday week I want to publish the list of life lessons I often ponder. I keep them in a Notes file on my phone. I've learned many of these the hard way and I’m still learning / internalizing many with varying degrees of success! By God’s grace I am forgiven, growing, and just getting started.
40 Life Lessons I’m Learning from My First 40 Years
"Wasteful ways make woeful wants." The most iconic phrase that my maternal great grandmother (Nora Inez Knowles Ward) said repeatedly — born from her experience, hard country living, two world wars, and the Great Depression.
An air of self-importance is a thick fog that blinds everybody and slows progress.
Power can be simply defined as having the ability to accomplish what you want.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. – Mark Twain
I am not my thoughts. I am my actions.
Beloved leaders aren’t remembered by history for their thoughts, feelings, or intentions — only their actions.
Most powerful people quickly forget how it felt to be broke and lack resources.
Most people enjoy and seek proximity to power.
An escalated adult can't deescalate an escalated child.
Striving for goodness is far more fulfilling than striving for greatness.
The graveyard is full of irreplaceable people.
Consistent and effective people are rare. Inconsistent creative types are everywhere.
Great employees don’t always make good business partners.
Be prolific. It’s the best way to challenge and perfect your skills.
Average work accomplished consistently is often more valuable than great work accomplished sporadically.
Remember HASSLE: Never make big decisions when you’re Hungry, Angry, Sad, Stressed, Lonely, or Ecstatic
Invest in the process not the outcome.
Don’t underestimate what you don’t know.
Communication is confirmation. Unless you receive confirmation that someone understands what you’re communicating, you haven’t communicated effectively.
Be curious about everything. Welcome challenges to your beliefs and ideas.
Death and decay surround us equally as new life and growth.
Warmth and Light will eventually dispel the cold and darkness.
When someone tells you their reality: how they’ve decided to feel and think about a situation — don’t try to convince them otherwise. Deal with their reality on their terms.
Never invest in yourself less than you invest in others — or you’ll risk running dry.
Take decisive action by taking the next right step. Don’t worry about the “master plan” as much as next the small move.
People don’t really care to hear your perspectives. They care that you understand their perspectives.
Compound interest and arbitrage are the keys to creating great wealth. Start early.
Be a welcoming and judgement-free neighbor. Worry about what you can control on your side of the fence.
When we remove the “neighbor” from the “neighborhood”…all you have left is the “hood.”
Try to reach out to your closest allies in some way every two weeks.
Walk down the roads presented to you. The world is only small and sad when we don’t keep exploring open roads.
No is a complete sentence.
Sometimes the best thing you can do with death is ride off from it.
Common language and traditions are powerful tools to bring people together — but they don’t happen without effort and leadership.
Never argue over email or text. One never wins because tone and context are lost. Talk through challenges and use email to simply confirm decisions afterward.
Good contracts make great friends. Never rush hastily into agreements no matter how appealing. Involve a legal expert no matter how costly or time consuming.
Speak less. Do more.
Everyone's favorite people are masters of humor, quips, and great questions.
Sometimes us country folks just like the freedom to pee off the back porch.
God’s will humbles us. The work of evil feeds ego and exalts one person over the other. The “calling of God” will never require you to act in a superior way to your neighbor.
Which 'life lesson' is your favorite? Share yours with me and I may just add it to my next list when I'm 80! Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from you.
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