- Hey friends, welcome back to the channel.
In this video I'm gonna go over 21 bits of advice
that I would give to my 18 year old self,
let's get into it.
Firstly, think about the game that you're playing
and think about what are the victory conditions of that game
When you were in school, then the game was very much
a game of trying to get really good exam results
to try and get into university.
But when you go to university, that is probably
not the game that you're gonna continue to play.
And you might fall into the trap
of continuing to try and play that exam results game.
Because it's just what you've known,
but it's one of those things that
if you are gonna play that game and you know
there's nothing wrong with playing that game
but if you're gonna play it, you wanna do it intentionally
rather than accidentally.
And this question of what game am I really playing?
It's actually quite a good one to keep asking yourself
every few months, just to make sure you're still
playing the game that you thought you were playing
and that crucially, that you still want to
be playing the game that you have found yourself playing.
Because to be honest that decision that you took
when he was 16 to go to medical school,
you don't need to hold yourself to that decision
for the rest of your life
and you absolutely can and should ignore the sunk costs
and just think what's the game I'm playing right now.
And is this the game that I really wanna be playing?
Secondly, you should try and develop some skills
that you know are gonna compound over the longterm.
And this is something that you wanna appreciate when
you're 18, because you're gonna be just thinking
about the short term.
And you're gonna be thinking like everyone does
in their own like interest in the here and now
but you really wanna start doing things at 18
or even younger than that.
But you wanna start doing things at 18
that are gonna compound over time.
Firstly, please, please please
pay attention to your posture.
That is one of those things that when you're 18
you're spending hours and hours sitting
on the computer hunched over like this, because you're cool.
You won't see any problems when you're 18
you won't have any pain,
you won't have any issues like that.
But further down the line, maybe when you're 26
you might be thinking, damn,
my posture is really, really crap.
And I wish I'd corrected this eight years ago.
Point number three
you really wanna be taking a lots more photos
than you think you should.
Because again, you won't notice it at the time
and you might think it's a bit of an inconvenience
taking photos of stuff
but your university years are never gonna come again.
And in the future, you're always gonna be so glad
of the memories that you recorded
by taking photos at events and taking photos even of
your friends, as you were having chills in your room.
Point number four.
You really wanna be more of a documentarian of the stuff
that you're consuming and the stuff that you're creating.
I.e please, please, please, when you read a book
or when you read an article or when you listen to a podcast
or when you read, I don't know "The 4-Hour Work Week"
or something like that.
When you read these books
please write some notes about what your thoughts
and feelings were, as you were reading them.
Again, it's one of those things that you probably
won't appreciate at the time, because you'll think,
"Oh, I've read this book.
I just wanna go onto the next one."
But if you just take even 10 or 15 minutes to
consolidate your thoughts and to think about, okay
what did I actually learn from this?
And how have my feelings, how's my reactions
how's my behavior changed as a result of reading this thing
or listening to this podcast
then that is actually gonna help you in the present moment.
But it's also gonna be really interesting to look back on
in the future and even better if you put those things
on a public website, then that is gonna get domain value
and then own brand will start to grow much more quicker
than it actually did
because you were just taking the time to
document the things that you were learning along the way
and doing your best to try and help others.
Point number five, try and be a connector
or a hub that helps connect
to different people and different friendship groups.
You're gonna have a lot of anxiety
and insecurity going into university about making friends.
You're gonna be worried that you're not gonna make friends.
You're gonna be worried that no one's gonna like you
firstly take heart because literally everyone suffers
from those anxieties when they go to university as well.
But secondly, realize that that any friendship
group needs someone to bring them together and, and be okay
with being that person be okay with being the person to set
up a WhatsApp group for a group of friends.
Be okay with taking the first step
towards inviting people to your room, to hang out.
Be okay with organizing an event.
Be okay with all that kind of stuff.
Because everyone, when they're in that position
they want someone to take charge
and you can absolutely be that person if you want.
Point number six.
You're gonna do a pretty good job of putting yourself
out there at university.
You're gonna join all these clubs
and all these meeting lists and all these societies,
and you're gonna go to all these events
and recognize that while that's all very good.
There's always more that you could be doing.
And if, if it's a choice between sitting
in your room one night, watching "The Vampire Diaries," or
you know, making the extra effort to get dressed
and go to that event that maybe you've been putting off
please go to the event.
Again it's one of those things where the individual event
that you go to probably won't matter
but the more you expose yourself to other people
in a non weird way, the more your surface area
for serendipity will just increase.
And you're gonna find yourself, meeting people
and making friends in the unlikeliest of circumstances,
but the way that you can essentially optimize that luck
in your favor is by putting yourself out there
more than you currently are.
Point number seven, get a doorstop.
Those things are fantastic.
They wedge your door open
and keep your door wedged open at all times.
Maybe not when you're asleep, but basically every other time
and actively encourage people to come to your room
and actively encourage people to interrupt you
while you're trying to study, because you're never
gonna remember those like extra few bits
of productivity that you are out
But if someone feels comfortable enough to come
over to your room at 11 o'clock at night, just to have a bit
of a chat, those are the conversations that compound
into friendships further down the line.
And those are the things you're gonna be more grateful for
rather than the fact that maybe you got an extra 0.1%
on that essay that you're working on.
Point number eight, don't be mean to people.
You will only ever regret it.
Point number nine,
Buy some Bitcoin and absolutely do not
under any circumstances, try and sell it.
Point number 10, nothing good ever happens after 2:00 am.
You're gonna really enjoy hanging out with people
until four or five in the morning
recognize that up until 2:00 AM, those Hangouts are useful,
after 2:00 AM those like they fall off a cliff
and nothing good ever happens and you just wanna sleep.
You wanna kick people out of your room and go to bed
because then you will completely waste the next day
with this sort of effectively a hangover from staying
up until six in the morning,
and then getting two hours of sleep, that is proper grim,
nothing good ever happens after 2:00am.
Point 11, do a little bit of work
a little bit of studying every day when you're 19
you're gonna discover the magical power
of something called active recall and spaced repetition.
And the way that our memory works is
that it's like if we do a little bit of something every day
over a very long period of time
that's far more likely to end up in a long-term memory.
Whereas if you do a burst of work
and try and cram for a test or for an exam like
that stuff is absolutely not gonna stick in the longterm.
And when you get to actually being a doctor and
someone like a surgeon that you're working with
asks you a question about anatomy
you're gonna kick yourself
and you're gonna wish that damn,
I really wish I'd done a little bit of work every day.
And I would have kept up my knowledge of anatomy
or kept up my knowledge of physiology because you know
that you knew it at one point, but it's not gonna come
to you when it really counts further down the line.
So again, a little bit of work every day,
goes a very very long way, firstly towards helping you
in your exams but more importantly,
towards giving you that knowledge
that you can do that you can then have
as a foundation for the rest of your life.
Point number 12, seek forgiveness rather than permission.
At some point you might get the idea to
start a particular business or a website or even
a YouTube channel, seek forgiveness rather than permission.
Don't feel like you have to email the university to ask them
for permission to do a thing
or email your college tutor to ask.
Is it okay if I do this?
Just do it. And if they have a problem with it
you can always seek forgiveness further down the line.
Point number 13, please, please please stop worrying
about what other people think of you
because they're really not thinking of you.
You're gonna walk around.
You're gonna go to all these events
and you're gonna think people are looking at you
and judging you and caring about what you're doing.
They're really not.
Everyone has got their own anxieties.
Everyone has their own problems.
Most of the people like 30%
of the people that you're gonna meet are struggling
with their own mental health problems that you're
never gonna know about until like 10 years down the line.
So don't worry so much
about other people judging you because they're really not.
People are nice, people are friendly
people are just worried about themselves.
So you, you do you and stop worrying about it so much.
Point number 14, whenever you're really struggling
with something, ask yourself how hard should this really be?
And how hard can it be?
And something that Tim Ferriss likes to say
what would this look like if it were easy?
When you're in you're first year of medical school
at Cambridge, you're gonna think it's a big deal.
You're gonna think, "Oh my God
I'm a first year medical student at Cambridge university."
That's a big deal.
This should be really hard.
And you're gonna convince yourself that it's really hard
and you're gonna, you're gonna sabotage yourself
because you're gonna be acting in a way
as if this thing is harder than it actually is.
And then by the time you get to your second year
you're gonna realize that, "Oh, actually this isn't so bad."
And a big part of the anxieties that I had around it
in my first year, a big part of those were actually because
I just worked myself up and my mindset was approaching this
as if it's gonna be hard.
Point number 15.
It's absolutely okay to skip lectures.
Oftentimes the lecturers just read
out from the lecture notes anyway
and you'll have the lecture notes.
And if you want, you can just go
to a cafe or a coffee shop or a restaurant
and you can just go through the lecture on your own time.
That's completely chill.
Just make sure you don't like try and summarize it
because taking notes as you're gonna find out
when you've read the book, make it stick.
And when you discover the evidence-based study tips
you're gonna realize that taking notes
is a waste of time for the most part.
So don't try and summarize your lecture notes
but also don't feel like you have to go to the lectures.
Point number 16.
It's absolutely okay to fall behind
with your university work during term time.
Your terms are gonna be eight weeks long,
that is not a lot of time.
And you're gonna keep up for the first
like two or three weeks.
And then you're gonna start falling behind
and behind and behind.
And you're gonna feel really bad about this
because you're gonna think,
"Oh my God I'm such a waste, man.
Everyone else around me is keeping up.
Whereas I am like really falling behind."
Firstly, don't worry.
Like 90% of the year group is also falling behind.
They're just pretending they're not.
But secondly, your holidays are really long
and there's nothing really to do
in the holidays other than go to the local library
with your friends from school and all study together.
And that's actually quite fun.
So it's okay to fall behind during term time.
During term time, you have all these societies
you have all these fun things that you could be doing.
So don't prioritize work
over the social stuff because it's only for eight weeks.
You can prioritize work during the holidays.
Point number 17.
When you read this book,
"The Four Hour Work Week" you're gonna realize
that you can develop sources of passive income.
Please, please, please.
When you have that thought process
run with it and try and do those things.
Because further down the line, like at the start
when you're 18 and 19
you're gonna be putting so much effort
into making these like websites and these projects.
And you're not gonna see any returns for a very long time.
But eight years down the line
you're gonna be so glad that you spent a little bit
of time and your university years trying to
do these extra projects to make yourself a bit
of money on the side.
And to be honest, it's not even about the money.
It's more about the skills that you gain
during that process.
You know, try to make something and try and charge
money for it.
It's one of the best learning experiences
in life in general.
And you're gonna see this time and again,
as you try more and more projects
throughout your university years.
So when it comes to making money from this
from this sort of stuff, don't obsess over it
but also don't treat it as something evil because you know
the art of trying to monetize something will itself
teach you so many lessons.
Point number 18.
Really try your best to enjoy the journey
and not focus so much on the destination.
University is gonna be the best time of your life.
And it's only really gonna happen once.
And it would be a shame
if you look back on that time and you think, damn
I was so focused on trying to climb that, you know
the greasy pole of achievement.
I was so focused on trying to get to get to that first class
or get to slightly higher marks that I forgot to
enjoy myself while I was there.
And you know, it's totally okay to have goals.
It's totally okay to shoot for things
like I want to get a first class. I wanna go for rank one.
I wanna do all this kind of stuff
but just don't forget to, you know, as they say
smell the roses on the journey
as Brandon Sanderson would say in the Misborn Series
and The Stormlight Archive, by the way
you should read those sooner than you did.
Life before death strength, before weakness,
journey before destination.
Point number 19
share your work and yourself with your friends
without any expectation of something in return.
You're gonna realize this a few months into university
that everything becomes so much easier when
you work together with your friends and you treat the exam
as your collective enemy, rather than viewing it
as like a single-player game that you're playing
and competing with other people.
There's really no need to compete with your friends
or compete with your year group.
Instead, think of it as a collaborative endeavor.
And when you're sharing stuff
don't worry about tit for tat.
Don't worry about like I shared this essay plan
with John and then John didn't share something with me.
Just like share openly.
You're gonna look back on that time.
And you don't even remember like
what was the essay John gave you
but you'll remember the feeling of camaraderie
that you're gonna have with your medical student
colleagues when you're all of working together
and sharing resources amongst one another.
Point, number 20.
Really curve into your heart, the serenity prayer
which is, "God grant me the strength to accept that
which I can not control, the courage to change what I can
and the wisdom to know the difference."
Basically, don't worry about the stuff that it's out
that's outside of your control
because it's gonna cause you undue
stress and anxiety and worry.
Instead, focus on the things that you can control
and focus on doing what you can to make them better.
And finally, point number 21, please, please, please
learn how to study efficiently for your exams
but you're gonna waste hours, days and weeks
and even months doing it using ineffective study techniques.
You're gonna think that rereading your notes is useful.
You're gonna think that summarizing your notes is helpful.
You're gonna think the highlighting in pretty colors
is gonna be useful.
What you don't realize is that when you're a teen
what you don't realize is that there's a huge amount
of scientific evidence around what makes effective studying.
And you really wanna try and learn it sooner
rather than later
if you wanna learn this effect of studying stuff
the best thing you can do is check out my class
on Skill Share who are very kindly
sponsoring this advice video.
Now this class is absolutely fantastic
because it's like five hours worth of content.
And it piles absolutely everything that I now know
eight years later about how to study effectively
using evidence-based techniques and strategies.
If you wanna check this class out
you should be one of the first 1000 people to hit the link
in the video description
because that will give you a free trial to Skillshare.
And then during your free trial
you can watch all five hours of this class
and then you can suddenly immediately have the superpower
of being able to effectively
and productively study for your exams,
while you're there you might as well check
out the other classes that I've gotten Skillshare as well.
There were two of them, themed around productivity
and how to live a more productive life
which is something I know you're into.
And there's a really long one about
how to use flashcards, specifically the app
and key to really supercharge your medical school knowledge.
And you're gonna be really glad that you discovered inky
further down the line, but you're gonna wish
that you used it for anatomy and biochemistry and physiology
sooner rather than later.
All of those courses and thousands more
are available on Skillshare.
So be one of the first 1000 people to hit the link
in the video description.
And then after your trial ends
the annual premium subscription
to Skillshare is less than $10 a month.
You spend more than $10 a month on pointless subways
and pointless coffee and pointless takeaway.
You absolutely can.
And should spare that $10 a month
to buy a Skillshare premium subscription.
It's literally so good and going back to point number two
which is learned skills that compound over time, there's
like tons and tons of stuff that you can learn
on Skillshare that you're not gonna learn at university.
So please spend some time during your university years
investing in yourself, invest in a Skillshare subscription
and hit the link in the video description to get free access
to my class about how to study
for your exams effectively and efficiently.
Oh, and one more thing.
Another piece of advice that I forgot to give is
that you really want to get started
with investing your spare money in stocks and shares.
You're gonna make a website
and it's gonna make a bit of money
but you're gonna do the stupid thing
and just have that money sitting in your bank account
and depreciating over time.
Instead, what you need to do is start investing it
in stocks and shares as soon as you possibly can.
18 is not you're too young.
14 is not too young.
11 is not too young.
Basically the earlier you can get started
the more you leave time for that money
to compound over time.
If you want to learn how to actually get started
with investing, I know it's quite complicated.
It feels like a black box to you right now
but please click that video over there
which is my ultimate guide
to how to get started with investing and make again
that investment in your future.
Thank you so much for watching.
Have a great life and I'll see you later.
Bye-bye.