50 Ways to Avoid Ruining Your Life

I spend a lot of time writing about sales, but it's important to remember that your mindset and well-being are the most important factors in your personal and professional success. I submit the following for your consideration: 

1. Take care of your own health first. It's your number one priority.
2. Invest time and energy in the important relationships in your life. They are everything. Remember that your parents have less time than you.
3. Avoid drugs, alcohol, and people who would have you abuse them.
4. Keep a small circle of friends who have very high standards and who are motivated to reach their goals.
5. Never concern yourself with the opinions of people who will not be at your funeral.
6. Don't go into debt to buy something with zero return on investment.
7. Refuse to interpret negative events as catastrophic. Your life will continue, and your future will be what you make of it.
8. Don't talk poorly about people behind their backs. By doing so, you make it difficult for anyone to trust you to speak well of them.
9. Start working as early as you can and build a work ethic you can apply to every area of your life.
10. Start saving money as soon as you collect a paycheck, and invest as much as you can as early as possible.
11. Liberate yourself as early as possible by deciding to do whatever you want with your one life. It’s not too late to start.
12. Avoid people who would have you lower your standards.
13. Know that your parents love you even if you don’t follow the path they chose for you. Your life is your own, free from any obligation.
14. Never follow the crowd. Make your path your own.
15. Read books and other deep, long-form content. Avoid what is shallow and ephemeral.
16. Put down that God-forsaken phone.
17. Pull people up and stop others from pulling them back down.
18. Don't let anyone feed you their fears. Don't feed anybody yours either.
19. Avoid the mainstream media and any other source that insists your neighbors are somehow your enemy.
20. Whether it is prayer, meditation, or walking in nature, do the work to figure out who you are through introspection.
21. Don't make politics your religion.
22. Love may mean pain. Love anyway.
23. Never stop learning. No matter what you are learning, it will improve every area of your life and your work.
24. Make sure you have friends with different experiences, beliefs, and perspectives.
25. Give money to those in need without any intention of changing their behavior.
26. If you want unconditional love, get a dog.
27. Don't worry about the things outside your control. Do what you can when you can make a difference.
28. Even if it is a hobby, spend time on your passion.
29. The more uncomfortable an idea makes you, the more you should explore it.
30. The first person you should forgive completely is yourself. From there, you can forgive everybody else.
31. Accept that a lot of what looks like success is luck. The rest of it is mostly patience and persistence.
32. Right now, you are the before picture. You get to decide what the after picture looks like.
33. Don't want something for another person that they don't want for themselves.
34. You can make your parents happy by calling them as often as you can.
35. Never compromise your integrity. Not for money. Not for anything else.
36. Sleep at least seven hours a night, so you can start the day with a good attitude and outlook.
37. Be who you are without apology. It's not important that everyone loves you.
38. Don't try to impress anyone outside of yourself.
39. Never regret the past, but always remember the lessons.
40. Slow down.
41. You will be a different person in 10 years and another 10 years later. Decide who you want that person to be.
42. Wake up early in the morning and reserve that time for yourself.
43. What seems important to you at one time won't even register in the future.
44. Get the best education you can, but know that self-education pays greater dividends over time.
45. If you are not happy doing what you are doing now, stop doing it and do something else instead.
46. Prioritize becoming the person that comes after the person you are now.
47. The way to make a good decision is to be able to articulate all the reasons you shouldn’t make it.
48. Accept people as they are, not as you would prefer them to be.
49. Never go to bed angry.
50. If you feel down or sorry for yourself, go help someone else and notice how fast you feel better.