The Most Important Skill I Acquired In My 20s
The view from 30 is different!
Today is my 30th birthday.
It feels like the first intermission in a thrilling back and forth hockey game.
Goals. Fights. Penalties. Timeouts. More goals. Holy shit.
I have gotten my ass kicked by life more times than I have fingers and toes to count.
But I’m still standing.
And have more reason to believe in myself than I ever have before.
I wanted to write an Almanack of My 20s and document how I think and see the world as I head into my 30s.
That didn’t happen.
Instead, there’s one overwhelming idea on my mind.
It’s a nugget of wisdom acquired through my survival and advancement in life.
It’s what’s allowed me to identify how I want to live, speak it into existence and accomplish things like:
return to athletic competition
start a side hustle on the internet
become an Ironman
move my family to Colorado
start an endurance coaching business
escape Corporate America
The most important skill I acquired in my 20s is:
Learning about my interests and upgrading my knowledge
All progress in my life has come from acquiring new ideas and information that was better than whatever I had before.
I see 3 character traits within my process of continued learning:
taking action toward my goals
focusing on what’s in my control
cultivating a mind that’s open to new ideas
I can do absolutely anything when these align
Most opinions I acquired growing up were completely irrelevant to the life staring me in the face.
I started to ask myself: why do I have strong opinions on global issues when I’m not fulfilled in my career, where I live and with what I’m doing in my spare time?
Dropping opinions opened up bandwidth for new knowledge and reclaimed energy needed to take action.
I needed space to learn, apply and grow.
It took me a long time to figure out how I like to learn.
Reading felt impossible. I didn’t have the patience or ability to focus.
And I was stuck ramming my head in a wall thinking I needed more will power.
Then I found 3 mediums that clicked:
The GaryVee Audio Experience Podcast
This was the first compact and actionable podcast on business that I discovered. After listening to 2 episodes, I started my first side hustle.
Before this, my goals in business were stuck lingering as “cool ideas” in my head.
The “one page per day” structure clicked for me and became my sustainable and consistent path to acquiring new ideas.
Each day, I learned something that usually made me think: “this is a much smarter way to see (and handle) life than how I’m currently doing things.”
Twitter:
I turned my feed into a “digital town square” with successful creators, entrepreneurs and industry experts.
My social media experience changed from keeping up with sports and news to receiving a slow drip of new ideas in fitness, business and mindset that empowered me to take action on my goals.
I realized I needed to brainwash myself into who I wanted to be.
Once I figured out HOW I liked to learn, my relationship with education completely changed.
It took my 7 years to graduate college.
It took me 2 years to start a side hustle and escape Corporate America.
The most important thing I’ve learned is how much I don’t know.
Each time I acquire a new idea or perspective, I’m reminded to not be emotionally attached to my current knowledge.
There are levels to life and my goal is to just keep leveling up.
I want more levels.
It’s said that your 20s are best spent figuring out what you want to do in life.
I figured that out.
On one hand, it’s triathlon, endurance coaching, internet business and mindset.
On the other, it’s the actual process of learning, applying new knowledge and making progress that hooked me on all those.
And because of that, I head into my 30s with one core belief:
I am just getting started.
Awesome perspective. Happy birthday man
Keep reaching for the stars!❤️