Advice to my 16 year old self
Hello everyone, how are you doing? So IU and Napoleon did a quiz on Friday with us mental. He did ask people as well what country has the most watt per square mile out of any other country in the world and nobody picked Wales. Who was Wales the question was, let me reframe that. Wales has the most what?
Speaker 1:Per square mile than any other country in the world. Nobody picked the option of sexy men. Need it guys, you need to re evaluate that answer okay because that should have been the go to, but the real answer is castles of course because you know Wales was taken over by England and what they did was they were like right we need to stop the Welsh being rebellious so why don't we build a castle like literally every few miles put some scarves there. If there's any rebellions you know those castles will be able to withhold any attacks and we can go out take care of them come back into safety. That was the logic and it worked.
Speaker 1:Call it the iron what do they call it? It wasn't the iron curtain but it was like the what was it called? Anyway there was like a row of like the Normans just built loads of castles in a row like this, so this will do it. It did work really, it did. But anyway, enough about that, enough about Wills, enough about Napoleon.
Speaker 1:Let's get into today's voice note. So I've been writing, like I mentioned in another voice note, my present to to Giovanni Louise's little boy, this Christmas is a letter, a bunch of photos of me Louise Roy and whatever of the times right now, some books that I've read and annotated all in a little box for him to open at 16 years old. Okay, this is my idea because I think this would be the best present I ever would have had a 16. So I'm writing it as a 29 year old and he's gonna open it and I'm be 45, which is mad innit? So I've been writing this letter thinking what would I say to my 16 year old self, essentially that's what the letter is, what would I say to my 16 year old self plus put myself in his shoes, born into wealth, all this stuff, how would he need to look at life.
Speaker 1:And I think everybody should do this exercise before the year ends. Could you all write a letter to your 16 year old self or maybe 20 year old self? What would you say, what would you do? So I've got a few, I've not finished it but I'm gonna, I'm gonna, read out a few things that I've wrote down and, this is what I would have said to myself and I'm sure it would be applicable to more 16 year olds, if they want to improve their life I suppose. And look these ideas are not my ideas, like I've read about them and I've adopted them.
Speaker 1:I remember saying to someone before like when I read something like such as stoicism or any like philosophical thing like I always tend to share the sources like Epictetus Discourses but like try and see the source of everything so you guys can go and search it for yourself. But I don't truly recommend something if one is based on top end sound science or I've actually tested out its work for me and I can share that experience basically that's what I'm saying. So these things are what worked for me and I shared and I wish I would have done more of these more often but I didn't. But it's okay, not perfect but if you were give a battle plan to someone at 16 to go and smash life here's what it would be. So the first thing is I said you need to read read read and I've given you the ultimate starting list so I've given you all the books you should read to start with.
Speaker 1:That's number one, just keep reading. If I read more 16 and I made it a thing, oh my god you're miles ahead. I can't, I wouldn't, I don't even know how much further ahead. You could be five years ahead, it's actually crazy. Number two, try stuff and go bigger, bigger than you think.
Speaker 1:Don't let your friends pull you down. So I wish I did that back there's just some chances I regret not doing when I was 17, 18 that I could have gone bigger with my plans but I didn't. Control where you can and that's only your attitude and voluntary actions nothing else is inside your control. Okay. Number four, keep playing sports, keep training hard, keep running, don't stop these things.
Speaker 1:Okay if you can keep running you can keep playing sports keep training from 16 and not leave school and stop doing that. You can keep up that good level of fitness social side of things, just feel good all around you know start from a stop all the time. Keep the momentum going like a flywheel, it will keep going as you build the momentum. Number five, try new hobbies, play chess, play rugby, play football, play musical instrument, journal your journey. Your brain can take a lot out of your age, learn from the best.
Speaker 1:Okay, when I age try everything. But try them with purpose though, don't just be like I'll try for a week. You know play chess, learn from someone who's really good at chess, understand the game. There's more potential chess moves, okay, than observable atoms in the universe, think of mental eyes. Chess is a game of crazy thinking so if you can play that, get into that, rugby, don't try every week, get into it, try and look into the sport, what's it about, football, musical instrument.
Speaker 1:I wish I I was pushed to play musical instruments when I was younger. I mean it could start now of course but it's a lot easier when you're younger, you just get things, brain is like a sponge. Okay number six, learn everything you can about stoicism right now and adopt it as your operating system. Number seven, don't brag, don't complain, don't gossip, limit these things as much as possible. Number eight, learn to say no and don't let peer pressure make you do anything.
Speaker 1:Number nine, do not be narrow minded. Minded you know nothing at 16 but you think you know everything. Learn to keep two opposing ideas in your head at the same time without imploding on that. Number 10, don't hold on to what you think too rigidly. Have firm beliefs based on sound foundations but be open to changing your mind.
Speaker 1:The best people have this way of thinking. Like an example this is a Brexit, We know now that it was based on complete lies. We know it's a disaster for us. They lie to us, everything. The foundations of Brexit were lies and deceit.
Speaker 1:People still want to go ahead with it. Well, it's done now. Let's just let it go. But the analogy here is you go and build a house on a piece of land. The builders will say, look, this piece of land is awesome.
Speaker 1:It's really good. It's going to be worth while, it's gonna be lasting thirty years, it's gonna be bad for you. You build a house in there, six months later you found out that the foundations are built on really really shitty land. Do you a) say well I've made my decision I will live on shit land, or b, that's bullshit. You missold me.
Speaker 1:I want a refund and I want a change of land right now. Obviously, you'd go for b. You wouldn't carry on with a because it doesn't make sense. The foundations are not what you thought they were. Same with Brexit.
Speaker 1:Same with any ideas. If your ideas are not based on a solid foundation, you've not got much to go off. And you should always be on like there's always a reason to come out with the shakes foundations. You think of all the foundations that were shook, you know, Galilee, all these people that came out with these ideas, shaking foundations of belief. We're going to have more of those radical changes in beliefs and stuff.
Speaker 1:I'm sure the mind, we're going to find out more stuff about the psychology of our mind than we know now. We're going to find way more stuff when technology comes out and you know we have to be open to changing our mind on many things we believe now. That's true. But you know hold firm beliefs and sound foundation that's a good way to go about but be able to be flexible and change your mind when the time comes. Number 11, anger is the most dangerous emotion.
Speaker 1:If you let anger take control you will regret all those actions and you can't take them back. 12, the moment between what happens to you and your reaction is where the magic is. If you can delay your reaction and respond carefully you'll be a cool headed, rational and a man that people can turn to and trust. Always have a cool head, this is the hardest task of all at 16. Don't let your emotions get the better of you.
Speaker 1:If you do this you're no better than a wild animal. 13, please tell your parents you love them. Tell your friends you appreciate them. Be open, be vulnerable, don't be a hard ass. Life isn't forever.
Speaker 1:People will leave when you don't expect so don't delay in saying the nice stuff. Compliment someone every single day and make sure it's genuine. If you can be the bringer of smiles you'd be a top notch human being. 14, health is wealth. Nothing else matters unless you have your health in check.
Speaker 1:Ask your mother about your birth. Focus on it. Your body is the only place you have to live. Don't abuse it. Be moderate with your drinking.
Speaker 1:15, you wanna be like Hercules. He was given two paths to go down. One said this path is full of pleasure. It's easy. Parties, girls.
Speaker 1:So nice. So nice Hercules. The other said this path is hard. Struggle, you'll feel pain, but you'll be better for it. You'll learn, you'll earn your life.
Speaker 1:Luckily he went down path number two which is a struggle. Who would Hercules be if he never went through all the deadly tasks given to him? He wouldn't be Hercules at all. So if you're faced with struggles they are what make you. Trust this, you'll be nobody if you want to sit around spend money and only focus on pleasure.
Speaker 1:You'll amount to nothing. This will hit you when you realize you've wasted your life trying to be a big shot for your friends. If you get angry write out your response but never send it. Abraham Lincoln had hundreds of unsent letters in his drawer. He wrote out his anger to his generals and stuff like that but never sent them.
Speaker 1:He sent calm and rational letters instead. 17, you either rub off on someone or they rub off on you. Whoever is being the most authentic with real energy wins. You better be ready to beat the authentic energy of assholes and pricks because they will rub off on you. You must become who you wish to be not merely give it lip service.
Speaker 1:As Epic Teter says, sheep don't tell a farmer what they've eaten they simply show the results by growing quality wool. You don't need to brag about who you are you radiate it when you're authentic. Okay, that's where I'm at so far I've got more to come. Think like mentioned as well just to try and be in your still zone. Figure out what knocks you out of this zone and try and limit getting knocked out of this zone because you stay in that zone you'll be a better person, you'll feel good.
Speaker 1:But I'm just working through it guys, this is a huge letter, don't know how many pages it's gonna be. But that's just one part of the letter, a lot more, maybe I'll share more, don't know, maybe I'll keep it private, who knows. Do this exercise guys, do this exercise even if you do, you know, it's not about like trying to write down what think is the perfect answer. Like what's really helped you? Write that down.
Speaker 1:I think I've started journaling now like Marcus really has did. I started writing stuff down that I'm bad at and he'd say, Look, nothing's forever me, thinking about fame and fortune. And then you'll write out what you should be thinking about. It's kind of like that's a good way to journal. And so I'm writing down after reading more on stoicism stuff and dissecting it.
Speaker 1:A few more things like never try to impress, always stay true and rational. There's no point to impress anyone, this is a waste of time. Phone scrolling is an we need to track it and reduce it. You can't improve what you don't measure, that's important. Yeah always delete your responses.
Speaker 1:Another one I did win the morning, win the day as long as you read and don't waste the time. Sometimes you win the morning I get up early and I just read and my phone's next to me till I got my phone. And I've wasted that upper hand I got in the morning. So if you do wake up early don't waste it. Go on your phone, it's the worst thing you could do.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like you're nearly there to win the battle and then you just let them beat you, you just put your weapons down stupid. Okay let's have see if there's anything else. Yeah put one here with dogs, important to take time out and be present with such loving souls. Sometimes your dogs are there and you're kind of on your phone or you're watching TV and you're like yeah dogs are there. But if you look at dogs, genuinely know, they literally love you.
Speaker 1:If you just give them ten minutes of your time 100%, not just like thirty seconds of greeting, they're just such amazing thing creatures aren't they? Another few things I got here, work in sprints. Don't sit and do nothing. Be rational, question first impressions otherwise you are an animal. See the phone as a life drainer in a video game sense.
Speaker 1:Pick it up at a cost. Stay aware of the cost. So sucking life out of me. So every time I pick a phone sucking life out of me that's what I'm trying to think about in the future. Yeah, go more I'll share more guys but listen it's Monday, it's the week leading up to Christmas which is great Christmas is a hard time, awesome time in.
Speaker 1:I dunno what your work schedules are like now and all that but this is a real time to reset and try and chill. Don't panic over Christmas being perfect. If you've got kids, they don't care about all the perfect things, they just like Christmas day, they like up early, getting their presents, let them enjoy their presents. Nothing worse like I remember being a kid get an Xbox or get a new game and then like no you can't play it now. Well that's what I'm gonna do, that's gonna give me my maximum pleasure right now.
Speaker 1:If you force me to sit on a table with an adless top of shit, I'm not gonna like to do it. So just let the day flow how it goes. People are gonna want to eat, say you're gonna eat at a certain time, give kids time to enjoy. Look, I'm with kids, I'm talking as if I do. I'm just saying for me being a kid, trying to be a perfect Christmas, wasn't such a perfect Christmas.
Speaker 1:Adults think, I've to do this and and this. But Christmas is basically chaos, chaotic day and just let it go, control where you can. That's it. Also if you haven't got presents for people and stuff like that and you've got a new low on funds or panicking about what it buys, like presents for the right people in life, they don't mean anything much. You can get people nice presents and it's great, but be a good person most of the year that's better to those that have their lives than a present you're gonna get at the end of the year.
Speaker 1:If you think buying a present at the end of the year means you're gonna show how much you care for someone you've got it wrong, completely wrong. What shows you care is being for them all year. Being a good person, they don't need a present off you. Don't like panic and worry, mean this pressure of presents going to death and stuff like that, just to get presents for one day that people forget about the next day is gone. And why do we go into such debt and stuff for a present?
Speaker 1:I get it for kids and stuff, it's magical and presents but you don't have to get like loads and loads of stuff. You don't. Don't go into debt for things that don't really matter. Quite under Christmas, yeah, quite sad. Mean like if you want to feel better over Christmas, think is to take steps back.
Speaker 1:If you've got a family, a loving family, big Christmas table food, you're in the top 5% of people who enjoy Christmas because that's the dream for most families but a lot of people don't have that. Nice big room, big table, Christmas dinner, family around grandparents, the dream. But most people don't have it. A lot of people spend Christmas alone, sad, upset. A lot of people do.
Speaker 1:So if you've got more than half of Christmas you should be thankful for that, be grateful for what you got on the Christmas as opposed Oh, what can you do better? Because a lot people have nothing on Christmas. So maybe to feel better this Christmas, that's not what you can really do in terms of give money or buy dinner for shelters and stuff like that. But I don't know, just think of those people instead of thinking one more you can get out to Christmas financially or like you don't want to squeeze loads out of Christmas do you? If you want to squeeze, squeeze, squeeze every last drop out of Christmas.
Speaker 1:That's not the way to live for Christmas. So that's my 2p on Christmas. So I want to take the pressure off you this week. I mean if you want to buy presents, days. But think of maybe creating presents, write like letter, read this letter.
Speaker 1:Maybe just write a letter for presents, big letter to people. I'm telling you now, if I had a Christmas present and it was just a letter of three pages long explaining how the year's gone and how I've been a good friend to them and reliving some memories and thankful for me being a friend and can't wait for the 2022 and more memories is amazing. That means way more to me than us, know, Scott like I know you like, Napoleon so here's a Napoleon hat. I mean that's cool, that's actually a cool gift because I like Napoleon. But for example like here's a random hoodie for example, you know I mean?
Speaker 1:Like okay great I like that, I do like new hoodies, nice but you know just because it's worth money doesn't mean it's a better present. So if do want to change it up this year, get writing out big nice letters of someone and thank them for what they've done to your life, anything and send it to him for Christmas. Telling you bigger impact than any financial present will do. So actually task that takes the pressure of spending money, you've got a week to do it. Get right in, just write out Pomodoro Technique twenty five minutes non stop nothing else no phone nothing write for twenty five minutes five minute break write for another twenty five minutes nothing else and then that's your letter done.
Speaker 1:That's fifty minutes of work on a letter that should be plenty and, you'll get good. It'll good. But guys, let's refocus now. It's Monday. Doesn't matter Christmas is Saturday.
Speaker 1:We've got 24 ahead of us to deal with first. That's the most important thing. So what are we gonna do with today's twenty four hours? What's your one big thing? What's one thing you can do?
Speaker 1:One thing today that can make it a success? What is it? What can it be? Get that done. Happy days.
Speaker 1:Great Monday. Okay? Make sure you get your walks in. Get your steps in. Make sure you do those nice little things today.
Speaker 1:Get your one big figure done and that's enough. A lot of people are not doing anything big things in December. So if you're doing one big thing in December, you're a miles ahead if you want to think of it that way. But enjoy your day guys. Focus on today.
Speaker 1:Tomorrow will come. Christmas will come. Don't worry about it now. Well, maybe get your letter done. But enjoy your day.
Speaker 1:Make the most of it. Speak to you all tomorrow.
