30 Life Lessons I Learned by 30

Guys, can you believe it? I'm 30. Where did those years go? Like, I swear to God, I swear to God, yesterday we were cooking protein oats with George the Cat in that weird place that I used to live. I could only describe my 20s as a worldwide adventure. I've lived a very different life than a lot of people, but it's been an amazing life. I'm very grateful, and I'm here to share with you the wisdom that I've learned over the past couple of years. The funny thing is like I only feel like I'm getting started. I'm 30 now. I'm sure when I'm 40, if I make it that far, please God, I'm sure when I'm 40 I will look back on this list and it'll be completely different. But anyways, here are 30 life lessons that I learned by 30. Let's get into it. Number 1 is build an amazing network. Do as much as you can to meet new people. Try and meet new people every single week. The world runs on relationships. And who you know is so important in today's day and age. And one of my proudest achievements, I guess you could say, is my network, my friend group. They're all a bunch of amazing guys killing it. I take inspiration from them. If I ever need a favor, there's always someone I know that can help me with it. They're ride or die. We travel the world together. All the guys that I'm friends with are killing it in their respectful field. So that's number one anyways, is build a network that you're really proud of. Your network is your net worth. I'm sure you've heard that a lot of motivational quotes before. Number 2 is, good things don't come to those who wait. I'm a very impatient person, and that's one of my favorite qualities about myself. There's people out there— impatience is good. There's people that are too patient, they wait around, they let people walk all over them, and they end up getting nothing done. And they'll look back on maybe the last year of their life, or even the last 5 years, and they say, you know, I haven't actually done as much as I could have. So I'm a very impatient person. I think it's a great quality to have. I move fast, get things done, and that's a trait of successful people as well. So good things do not come to those who wait. Good things come to those who get up off their ass and make it happen. Number 3 is document as much as possible. And now I'm someone who has probably documented more than the average person, okay? I've put my whole life on YouTube, Instagram, everything, and I wish I did more of it. Yes, you heard me right. I wish I posted more. I wish I especially recorded more. Being able to go back 5, 6 years and see a HD video of what you were up to that day, what you looked like that day, who you were with that day— it is absolutely amazing. I often watch some of my old videos and they really bring a smile to my face. And not only that, I've built a career out of doing this as well. I think even if you don't want to be a YouTuber, for example, I think everyone should document as much as possible. Even when I'm on a plane, I I love looking back on my camera roll, even just of the previous year, never mind 5 years, and seeing what I was up to and kind of reflecting a little bit. So I've never regretted going somewhere and taking loads of photos and videos. Number 4 is ball out but save some money too. Now there's a happy medium between being frugal and also living a good life. There's a lot of things that I wanted to do and I did do in my 20s, like travel to these crazy destinations, go to these crazy festivals, eating nice restaurants that I really won't care about doing when I'm 60 or 70. And then at the same time, you do always want to be thinking about your future, planning ahead, and making sure that your future is bright, that it looks good, investing and saving. So there's a brilliant quote that's going around at the moment, and it is spend 50% of your income like you're gonna die in 50 days, and then spend 50% like you're gonna live for another 50 years, something like that. There's a lot of people that will say YOLO, and then there's people that say, you know, completely save. For the future. I think there is a fine balance and you want to get as close to the middle as possible. Is that number 5? Going off that is travel. I have never regretted spending money on travel whatsoever. There's probably— I would say if I was to call them possessions, those memories, I'd say that is my greatest possession. All the places that I've traveled to and the people that I've traveled with and the memories and experiences that I've created. So travel as much as possible. And it's also very different traveling when you're young, like when you just don't really what you're doing in your life. You're starting out, maybe it's your first lads trip, maybe you're backpacking, Interrailing, whatever it is. There's only a certain time you can do that when you're very young, you know. When again, when you're older, travel will be very different. So do it when you don't have much responsibilities, you don't have kids to look out for, and have fun and enjoy. So definitely take the flight, go on that trip. I've never ever regretted any money I've spent on travel. Number 6: make your health and your physique a number one priority. If this list was in order, that would be number one, okay? If your health and your body and your physique, if it's not in working condition, if you can't move pain-free, if you're ill, you know, you have some illness, a disease, you don't look after your health, that's it. Life's, life's done, okay? You can't travel, you can't do any of this fun stuff, you know. You will just be in hospital, you'll have complications throughout your whole life. It'll be miserable. Health is number one, and the older I get, the more I realize that. Go to the gym, watch what you eat. It is so important. I'm not saying you need to look like a cover model. You just need to be healthy and feel good. It's so important. So seriously, make your health a number one priority. Number 7: Your parents are just like big kids, and they all have problems of their own. If you are in a bad position with your parents, maybe you don't talk to them, maybe you have your disagreements, and just make friends with them, okay? You know, you'll regret it when you get older that you said, oh, I could have actually spent more time with them, I could be nice to them. And we kind of look at our parents like they have the answers to everything, but when you get older, you just have different problems. So be nice to your parents and understand that they're going through some stuff too. Number 8 is start a business. It doesn't even matter if it fails. By doing this, you will learn more about yourself than anything else. Okay, it will teach you so much. You will learn what you'd like to do. You'll learn what you're made of. You'll learn about your strengths. You'll learn about your weaknesses. You will just learn so much. So just start a little side hustle, or even like do something grandiose with big plans. Just start some sort of a business. And again, your 20s is a perfect time to do that. I remember actually when I dropped out of college I was in college for 2 years before I dropped out, and then I started a business, online coaching business, and I learned more about just general business, accounting, insurance, dealing with people, communication, sales, marketing. I learned more about that in 2 to 3 months than I did in 2 years of going to college. That's just my experience, but yeah, you learn a lot about yourself. Number 9 is find something that helps your creativity, that gets that creative part of your brain flowing. It doesn't have to make you money, but if it does, that's amazing as well. What gets my creative juices flowing is actually making videos and speaking on camera like this, and then the editing process afterwards, and even taking photos, and also kind of planning maybe a launch for a product or making a product. Business is a very creative thing, and that would be my outlet. Then also the content production side of things is something I find very creative as well. Like, even like I had to create this list, I had to curate it as well, and I really enjoyed doing it. And then speaking on camera, making it come to life, and then editing it afterwards. And then YouTube is kind of like my art gallery where I'll put it. If it's a video that I upload, I'm really proud of it, I like it, and so I'm hanging it in the art gallery. And that's how I look at it. So that's the creative thing I do. Number 10 is never talk negatively about people in a group setting. There's nothing more embarrassing that when someone is going off, just, just being a hater, okay, being a hater in public, talking down on other people. And if you talk down on someone, that means they're above you, okay? No one who is successful and doing well is bitching about other people. And another one, take note of the people in a group setting badmouthing other people, because as soon as you leave that group setting, they're going to talk shit about you. So watch out for those people and don't be a shit talker. Number 11 is remove all negative self-talk. You You are essentially your best friend. You're with yourself 24/7. Be kind to yourself. Speak to yourself nicely. Sometimes you're the only person you've got in some situations. So if you find yourself talking down upon yourself, and I do it as well, you know, I get these negative moves and say, oh Rob, you know, you suck, you know, you shouldn't be doing this, you should be doing that. You need to just zip it out and go back to default. Look in the mirror, give yourself a big smile, say, you got this. I know that sounds crazy, but it actually works. I saw a funny quote as well recently, and it's like, look in the mirror and smile at yourself for 1 minute like a madman and see if it improves mood. I haven't actually tried that one yet, but, but maybe I will. Number 12 is never regret staying in. I don't think I've ever stayed in on a Saturday night. I'm actually recording this on Sunday morning. I've never regretted staying in on a Saturday night, getting a huge sleep and waking up fresh, making a nice breakfast, and doing a little bit of work. I've never regretted that. And then when you do that, you're so ahead on Monday that your level of anxiety come Monday morning, it's, it's so low. Like, you just— it takes off so much pressure. So, you know, of course I've got on many crazy Saturday nights as well, but I never regret staying in. And the, the bars, the pub down the road, the people, the DJ it's all the same and they're not going anywhere. So another little bonus point on that is remove all FOMO, okay? Get rid of FOMO. It's completely all in your head. Confidence is everything, and everyone notices how confident you are when you're speaking on camera, when you walk into a room, the way you carry yourself when going for a job interview. It's so important, and it is a skill to master. If I was to give one tip on improving confidence, it would be to set yourself small little goals that you kind of know you can achieve, but you got to challenge yourself a little bit to achieve them, and then slowly push the boat out a little bit until you're accomplishing great things and that you're proud of what you've achieved. That's how you give yourself a little bit of confidence. And you also gain confidence by staying true to your word. So if you set yourself a goal and you don't achieve it and you don't go after it, you'll feel shame and you'll feel really bad about yourself. But if you're true to your word You stick it out, you do it, you'll feel amazing about yourself. So confidence, very important, and it'll get you very far in life. Number 14: Be wary of staying in a relationship longer than you should. Guilty. I think we're all guilty of that. And this comes from the sunken cost fallacy. So when we've been in a relationship for maybe a couple of years, should be ended, it's become toxic. You should leave the relationship, but you say, I've been in this relationship for so many years. Let me just, let me just keep trying. You know, I've put in so many years and effort and energy into this person, let me just keep trying, see if they'll change, to see if it works. And 9 times out of 10, it doesn't. So that is number 14: beware of staying in a relationship longer than you should. And something that we all do. You just got to be real with yourself and say, hey, look, it's time to cut ties. Number 15: money solves most problems, and don't let people tell you it doesn't. And I know that can be kind of depressing. And people like to say money doesn't matter. Oh, you know, be happy. Any like problem that I've encountered, be it like a business problem, like buying stock, or even like any problem I've— when I was building this house, any problem that came up, it would all just be solved with money. And even like if you've got a sickness in the family, you can pay to get the best doctors. Again, money solves a lot of problems. But of course, as a disclaimer, It does not solve all problems, but get that money and don't let people tell you that it doesn't matter. That is, this is childish stuff. Those people that say that aren't living in the real world. Like, those people say that, like, don't have— must not have bills to pay or something. It's crazy. Number 16 is sleep is a superpower. I remember I watched a podcast on Joe Rogan with Matthew Walker, and it kind of went over all the impact sleep has on our life, and it kind of just changed everything for me. And then I started watching, you know, more stuff from Andrew Huberman. I started implementing this stuff. I'd say improving your sleep and your sleep hygiene has had one of the biggest impacts on me. And I'm actually a really bad sleeper. I have a lot of energy. My head hits the pillow at night, I look up at the ceiling and I'm like, oh God, you know, I have this idea, I want to get started on it now, but I have to wait 8 hours. So sleep is very difficult for me, but learning how to become a better sleeper has made me so much more productive. It helps with virtually everything, like pretty much every single thing in your life will be impacted by getting better sleep. I'm also very against now the people that are like, you know, No Sleep Club, grind 24/7. You'll be able to grind so much harder if you are strict with your sleeping schedule. Number 17 is wake up early and become a morning person. So we spoke about sleep, and one of the best things that I've done is waking up at the same time and going to bed at the same time each day. If I ever have a lie-in, my anxiety triples. I wake up at 11, I look at my to-do list, and I'm like, oh my God, the day is pretty much done. How am I going to get all this done? When I wake up at 5 or 6, I take my time in the morning. I get a nice coffee, I sit down at my desk, I open my to-do list, I say, oh, this needs to be done, perfect, we got hours, you know. Oh, this needs to be done, this is the first thing I'm doing today. It pretty much doubles your day, and that makes things a lot more relaxing and a lot less stressful. So become a morning person and wake up early, okay? And get used to those early mornings. Number 18 is stop complaining. No one cares. Everyone has their own problems and they don't want to hear about yours. Of course, if you've got a real big issue, you can confide in really close friends or family, but going around just complaining about everything, being a Karen, is not going to help you, and you're just going to waste your own time and energy and just be a drag to everybody that you're complaining to. And complaining can often make you weak. You're putting these, these negative emotions out into and you're kind of reinforcing something like, oh, you know, I'm so tired the whole time. Oh God, this person's doing this, so makes me can't do that. It's just like, it's like bad for you to do. So stop complaining, get on with it. Number 19 is be impressed by what people do, not what they have. So we live in a very materialistic age nowadays. Everyone sort of flex on each other. People are renting Lambos and, you know, using that to sell courses, okay? And you kind of don't know what's real or not. But what you do know is real is by the way people act, what they actually do, their actions. That will show you the true character of a man is the way they act and how they carry themselves, how nice they are to the waiter. That's someone to look out for. Number 20 is talk less and ask more questions, especially if you are in the room with successful people. We have two ears and one mouth for a reason. We should listen twice as much as we speak. So if you're in a group setting with very successful people, sit back, ask them questions, and let them do the talking. Number 21 is learn how to make money online, even a little bit. The internet is just probably the greatest invention in the history of humankind, and using that to your advantage— like, anyone, anyone can make money online. Like, even if you work like a full-time job, there's little side hustles. Actually, there's so many side hustles just on the internet that you can do to improve your life. And my favorite quote is Technology can either enslave you or set you free. So are you one of those people that are scrolling on their phone consuming content, or are using your phone, your laptop to your advantage? Number 22, make the people around you feel great. Make the people around you have a good time. And this is no selfless act. If you do that, you put good out into the world, you make people feel good, it's going to come straight back to you. So in turn, you're going to have a better time. So again, talk up everyone, Put everyone up, make them feel good, create a good atmosphere. Doing this also gonna open up so much opportunities for you. You're gonna be invited to a lot more events. People are gonna want you around. It's a very important thing to remember. Number 23 is wear clothes that fit. This is a super simple one. I just think it's an important one. Like, wear clothes that complement your physique. Uh, what you wear matters. How you present yourself matters. And don't let people tell you otherwise. I've like looked back at like some older pictures when I'm younger and like I'm just wearing the most ill-fitted clothes ever and I'm just like, why didn't anyone tell me? Okay, so now I'm here to tell you, wear clothes that fit. Number 24, don't be easily offended. You are just wasting so much of your own time. If you see something online or in person that you don't like, go on with your day. You're sidetracking yourself from your mission, you're wasting your own energy, and being offended and angry is very energy consuming. And you kind of just look like a bit of an idiot as well, especially online, you know, those people that just— the woke crowd that just get offended by everything. So don't be easily offended, just focus on yourself, do your own thing. When making important decisions, leave all your emotions at the door and be as stoic as possible. And to go a bit deeper on that, never reply when you're angry, never make a promise when you're happy, and never make a decision when you're sad. Number 26 is find a training and nutrition plan that you can stick to and be consistent with. We gotta have some fitness in here, right? It's not all just like life lessons and me trying to be a philosopher. How you train and how you eat is such a big impact of your life. It's something that you do pretty much every day, especially eating, something you do multiple times per day. So finding a diet that gets you results, that suits your lifestyle, that you enjoy, that you don't find it to be a burden is massively important. Like, it's kind of like as important as sleep, you know. Eating, sleeping, exercising— these are all basic fundamentals to human life. So finding a training and nutrition regime that you enjoy is gonna vastly improve your life. So for me, I love typical bodybuilding, hypertrophy, high rep, high volume style training, getting a good pump in the gym. That's what I love to do, and that's what been doing for like 10 years. Diet, I would say if I was to like describe my diet, it would just be like flexible dieting, tracking macros, maybe the odd month here and there when I need to tighten up and rein things in a little bit. I'm sticking to 80% whole foods, lots of vegetables, lots of meat, high protein, and then 20% for the foods that I love. Pancakes, froyo, first two to come to mind, sushi, and a little bit of pizza in there as well. Number 27, a big one: don't chase people under any circumstances. Chances you will come across desperate and needy. And if you're not invited to an event, if you're not invited to something, do not go and do not ask to go. Number 28 is do the hardest task of your day first. I think there's a quote about eating a frog that— something to do with that. Either way, if you've got something on your to-do list— every day I write out to-do lists and I write it out in order of importance of what I need to do. That day. And number 1, let's say I write out like 8 things, and number 1 is something that no matter what, I'm getting it done that day. And then if I get done 2, 3, 4, 5, that's great as well. And then let's say I have 6, 7, and 8 that I didn't complete, they roll on to the next day. So that's how I actually kind of structure my, my lists and my journaling. But the number 1 thing that you have to complete that day, just do it first. Wake up early and just knock it out. It can be a tough conversation, it can be a lot of laptop work that you need to do, It can even be go to the gym if you know you really need to sort out your health and your fitness. I know a lot of people do, that's their number one goal. You know, get and start your day off right, you know, with a workout. Make it a non-negotiable that you're gonna get that done that day. Number 29, act on what you learn, okay? Don't just watch this video, say, oh, I really like that point, uh, that point's great, I'm gonna use that at some stage. Really execute, like really act on what you learn. There's, there's actually a type of person They're the type of people that they read all the self-help books, they watch all the, the self-help videos, they watch all the productivity hacks, but they don't work. They don't execute on them. They don't actually do them. So don't be that person. If you learn something today, execute on it. And especially it's the start of the year, it's a perfect time to pick up a new habit and add it to your daily life. Number 30, finishing off with an epic quote from Theodore Roosevelt of all people. If you were to kick the person responsible for all your problems, you wouldn't sit for a week. Self-accountability, extreme ownership, it's something that will improve your life a lot. Whatever circumstance you're in right now, you are the reason. But that's great because that means you're also the person that can get you out of those circumstances. And I think that's a beautiful thing. So self-accountability, extreme ownership, it will set you free. There are 30 things, 30 life lessons that I've learned by the age of 30. I, I don't think I look too bad. Gonna be an epic year ahead. Thank you so much for watching. First video of the year, feels great. Hit that subscribe button, hit that thumbs up button, hit all the buttons. I'll see you in the next one. Keep it real.