Turning 30

I just turned 30. I wanted to share 30 things I’ve learned in the past 30 years. Or at least the things I wrote down over the past 8 months.

Don’t rely on school to give you an education.

Always write things down, and always carry something to do so.

You get what you pay for, especially when it’s free.

Showing respect for someone is the easiest way to show you love them.

Love should not expect recognition.

Find a way to track what you do and stick to it.

It’s not that the grass is greener; it’s just that the weeds are less visible.

For the first 30 years of your life, you make your habits. For the last 30 years, your habits make you. (Still waiting to see if this is true)

Being physically prepared is not enough for what lies ahead.

Needlessly endangering lives speaks volumes for how much you care.

Always return something in better condition than when you borrowed it.

Figuring out what you love is the easy part. Discovering where and for whom to do it are often compromises.

Words cannot open another’s mind. — Mumon’s poem about the koan

If you don’t have time to do it right the first time, when are you going to have time to do it again?

Worrying is the biggest waste of time.

Where your look, you will go.

It is better to make money than save money.

Don’t expect other people to understand how you feel. Even when you tell them.

Do not be wise in your own eyes. — Prov 3:7

If you want to spend more time in something, then make more time for something. — source

Knowledge should be sought not ‘for superiority [over] others, or for profit, or fame, or power…but for the benefit and use of life’ — Francis Bacon

People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it — source

“We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.” — Lloyd Alexander

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

Don’t sulk over unfinished business.

Originally published at 1n73r.net on September 27, 2013.