1 The decision to do anything good is always the hardest part.
People don’t do things they want to; go on adventures, quit the job they hate etc., because they are anxious about the unknown, but you can now research to such a deep extent that you can actually take all the adventure out of a new adventure. All you need to know is life is the same around the world as it is around the corner. There is always someone who thinks like you, there is always someone there to help.
2 Sharing, not screens, leads to the best life.
Elon Musk said that having access to always-on, AI fuelled, information on our phones means that we are already 50% robot. Being on a screen too much means we miss the shared human experiences of joy, laughter, tears and love. Live 95% human and save human nature!
3 The best moments in life only ever happen when you go out your way.
The world wants us to believe that buying convenience will make us happier – everything delivered straight to our door or us delivered straight to someone else’s door. But the best moments in life only happen by us making an effort and going out of our way – a good life is inconvenient.
4 Invest in your life, as much as your career.
We all learn to do our jobs better and faster. But having a best friend is worth more than having the best job. Make sure you spend as much time on hobbies, friends, family, and passions. Having positive mental health is more valuable than a positive report at work.
5 Believe what you see, not what you read.
Despite what the media would like us to believe and what social media feels like, we have more in common, than that which divides us. If I’ve needed help, every single person I’ve ever asked (in whatever language, sign language or app) from England to Everest, has helped me. You only truly get to see the best of the world via the kindness of strangers.
6 Nothing you buy can ever make you feel or look perfect.
We all grow up with insecurities. Brands prey on these by informing us that by buying them, we will feel or look perfect. That is a lie and really, they should be stopped. The people we are anxious about what they think of us - friends, family and peers, are the only ones that can, and will, make us feel better about ourselves. A good sign that you are living a good life is that you can happily rid yourself of stuff you bought, because you wanted it, rather than needed it.
7 Enjoy being a connoisseur of simple pleasures
Don’t allow yourself to get trapped by any trappings of success. You get more pleasure from sharing a ride on the front seat of the top deck of a bus, laughing over the softest ice cream or chatting over the best coffee in town, as you can from buying the biggest house or the fastest car.
8 ‘A little bit of everything’ is the healthiest lifestyle
Overdoing or underdoing anything will eventually cause you problems. No diet in history has ever worked long-term, otherwise we’d all still be on it and wouldn’t have a new one every few years. A little bit of everything is good for both the body and the mind. And occasionally a little bit too much is good for the soul.
9 Life is for spending on a journey, not a treadmill.
A happy life is about enjoying our short journey here on earth, not about reaching any destination or level of success. Don’t waste time on an expensive treadmill of a life, repeating the same thing every day. A rich life is full of ups and downs, reinvention, learning, and enthusiasm. Time to get started!
10 No amount of money will ever make you happier than being able to pay your bills without worry.
Buying more stuff will not make you happier. Being able to pay your bills without worrying about them will. Reducing the money you spend at home, rather than increasing the hours you spend at work can often be the healthy route to achieving that.
11 For the most entertaining life, GO BIG.
To be successful in business you have to be the cheapest or the best. The cheapest has to compete on minimum price and the best has to compete on maximum hours. There is a third way though - be the biggest. It takes as much work to sell a dozen as a million, and there’s even less competition to sell ten million.
12 How you spend your time is more important than how you spend your money
The biggest lie is that every job takes 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for 40 years. That’s way too much of a coincidence. So, we fill in the time doomscrolling. Work when it’s raining, or when you are in the flow. When the sun is out or you need a break, start strolling away from your desk. You only get to spend time once, so make sure you spend it how you want.
13 Your purpose in life always starts at home
It’s so ingrained in us to go out to the world and succeed that even to find our midlife purpose we often look to help on the other side of the world, but people in our own home, in our own town, need just as much help. Play a role in making the world better for those around you. Living your best life is often best achieved by helping others live theirs.
14 The best guide to life is your own failures.
I’ve learnt more about the world, my body and the kindness of strangers by making the wrong decision or falling off my bike, than by anything I learnt at school. I learnt how to not repeat failures and how to succeed. You may fail lots, but you only have to succeed once.
15 To live a good life, learn to accept yourself first.
You can only really love another person or even the world around you, and your passion can’t ever stop being just an escape from daily life, until you learn to love and accept yourself. We are all human; we all have weaknesses but in childhood many of us learnt to believe these were unacceptable. Talk to someone about reducing any anxiety about yourself and increasing your love for the world around you.
16 The earlier you start living life, the better it is.
The famous saying is ‘tomorrow never comes’. Today is yesterday’s tomorrow, are you doing what you promised yourself yesterday? The facts convinced me – the average age your health stops you living a fully active life is only 70. Live life now!
When you next go to a funeral, listen to the eulogy. It won’t be about how much the person earnt, how big their house was or how fast their car went. It will be about what they did with their life, the impact they had on their relatives, friends, and community. The small moments that made up their life.
Live simply, Live happy.
