henrypaget.com

“Life really does begin at forty. Up until then, you are just doing research.” – Carl Jung

Key Takeaways

1. During our youth and early adulthood, we’re bound to make mistakes. For many, it’s not until we reach the ripe age of our 30s or 40s that we have enough life experience to really know what we want out of life.
2. To begin living as early as possible, we need to become readers. Readers are leaders, and books teach us how to live and not live.
3. To not waste time and to begin living now, engage in habits that can only cause positive results in your life. For example, working out, reading, tidying your house, eating healthily, writing, having a good sleep routine, etc. If you fill your life with only positive habits, you’re more likely to get the most out of life and not waste it. Your time would have been spent effectively.

At 26, I’ve realised that no one knows what they’re doing.

Most people act out a facade to portray that they’ve got their Sh!t together.

Almost no one has.

I believe Carl Jung was right when he said life begins after 40 ( never mind 30, and there is much to gain from our life from birth to the grave).

Wisdom is an ever-moving goal. We are lucky if we ever obtain even a mere helping of it.

Also, be very careful when people claim to have things “figured out”; no one does. The same shoe pinches another, and there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

I believe our lives begin when we experiment throughout our lives, following our curiosities and passions and seeing where they take us.

As a kid, I used to think adults had it figured out. I thought they were much brighter and wiser than I was, and I needed to listen to them.

Now, as an adult myself, I know this is untrue. We’re all flawed.

Youth’s Wasted On The Young

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and looking back towards the earlier parts of our lives, we feel like we could have done things better because none of us goes through life doing things perfectly.

How Not To Waste Time And Get The Most Out Of Life

To avoid wasting your life, we first need to define a wasted life. I describe it as a life full of bad habits that aren’t helpful for you or anyone.

This includes habits such as:

Drinking, smoking, watching porn, binge-watching tv. Essentially, it is anything that causes a net negative to your life.

In contrast, if you swap these habits for things like working out, reading, tidying your house, eating healthily, writing, etc., these habits can only benefit your life.

If you stick with good habits over the course of your life, they have a synergistic effect and will help you become a productive, effective person.

Readers Are Leaders

I believe the best way to avoid wasting time is to look into the lives of others and read broadly in general. By learning about others, we can understand what to do and what not to do in our lives to live effectively.

The more we know, the more we can do, and the more we can do, the more opportunities we have to succeed in life.

The less we know, the more likely we are to repeat others’ pitfalls, whereas if we educate ourselves, we may be able to avoid the many pitfalls life has to offer.

Reading can teach you how to live and how not to live. Both are extremely important.

Takeaways

1. During our youth and early adulthood, we’re bound to make mistakes. For many, it’s not until we reach the ripe age of our 30s or 40s that we have enough life experience to really know what we want out of life.
2. To begin living as early as possible, we need to become readers. Readers are leaders, and books teach us how to live and not live.
3. To not waste time and to begin living now, engage in habits that can only cause positive results in your life. For example, working out, reading, tidying your house, eating healthily, writing, having a good sleep routine, etc. If you fill your life with only positive habits, you’re more likely to get the most out of life and not waste it. Your time would have been spent effectively.