all right so I found this article by this guy named Byron Wien which I don't
really know much about him but he's 80 years old
and and he had some he created this article with a whole bunch of the life
lessons that he's learned in his first 80 years and we were reading through
this and we both thought it was really good so we're gonna pull out a few of
them because they're just really great and so even though we haven't lived 80
years even combined we haven't lived 80 years this is gonna be cool and so
anyway so we're gonna just kind of go over a few of these because there's just
some really good stuff in here so first thing he says or the first one
that we pulled out cuz it's actually a bunch more here but he said when you
meet someone new treat that person as a friend assume he or she is a winner and
will become a positive force in your life most we will wait for others to
prove their value give them the benefit I'm I boring you well we have a newborn
most people wait for others to prove their value give them the benefit of the
doubt from the start occasionally you'll be disappointed but your network will
broaden rapidly if you follow this path I love this one because ultimately
people want to feel valued they want to I don't know if you've ever been in the
position where you go someplace new and there's no one there that knows you and
you kind of feel oh boy alright you feel out of your element and
you feel kind of like hey I'm really cool but nobody here knows it it's
really awkward you have to wait for people to discover
your coolness but if if when people come up to you and they're extremely warm and kind
and it's really interested in you and what you have to offer in life you
instantly create this bond and it is I mean I just think feeling that way is
awesome and I think that what this is saying is treat everyone like they're
the person in the room that doesn't know anyone and that they have a secret cool
thing they know you get to discover yeah so a quick story over the last few years
I've gone to of conferences and kind of business
conferences and I wouldn't call them networking conferences but that's what's
happening right yeah and there was a guy there John Corcoran who made the biggest
impression to me like I in general in these settings there's this unspoken
kind of hierarchy of your level of success your little success so I'm gonna
talk to you because you're successful I might be able to get something out of
you well anyway so I was introduced to John and he didn't know me from Adam he
didn't know anything about me he had nothing to get out of me and he sat
there in like talk to me and asked me all these questions about about my life
and just like what I was interested in and you know and he's a really
successful guy in what he does and he had no reason to be interested in me and
he was asking me about Linda and about our kids and just genuinely caring and
trying to figure out and like it left such a mark on me like I couldn't
believe it and this is a guy who he worked for
um I think one or two of the presidents he I mean he has pictures of him shaking
hands with Obama and like it just had like a lot of success knows a ton of
people and yet was so good at this so good at making me feel appreciated and
valued and and you know and the reality is it's like Byron mentions sometimes
people are gonna let you down and sometimes you know they won't but it's
just a good way to live your life you know it makes other people feel loved
and how many more friendships can you gain and wouldn't Jesus do that isn't
that how Jesus would do things you know so another point he made is he said try
to think of your life in phases so you can avoid a burnout and this is really
timely for us right now because we have a newborn and not only do we have a
newborn but we also have little kids I mean we have 3 kids 5 and under and so
our life is just a swirly whirly mess can I say that of everything going on
right and it's really fun but there's a lot of aspects of simpler times in our
lives that we're missing and longing for a little bit it's very social
cuz I sing yeah yeah as any parent knows yes but this fades I think especially
I'm really hoping I'm really hoping that this that things do evolve as we get to
the next level of parenting but this is something that's been on our minds a lot
because it doesn't I think when you're in something and especially I think the
older you get the more you realize things are cyclical but yet the younger
you are you feel like this is going to last forever yeah I think that's just a
natural tendency to think that and assume that but the reality is is that
it's not it's a phase you know and I'm beginning to think of my business even
more as this and just you know you know you know and I've kind of accepted more
or less that okay for this you know a few years of my life with my business
like I just need to I'm gonna work hard but I'm not gonna be able to necessarily
have the you know the pedal to the metal or whatever the way that I might
want to and it's okay it's like I'm just gonna chill and coast a little bit more
because I want to spend time with my family in these formative years I want
to be around I want to be involved in what's going on and you know you need
help in so and to me that just seems like the best way to live a life that
when I am 80 I'll be able to look back and say I'm glad I did that I'm glad
that during that you know those formative years with the kids that I
wasn't working 60 70 hours a week and so anyway I think there's a lot of
different ways to apply this to our lives but that's I just think it's great
yeah another thing he says travel extensively try to get everywhere before
you wear out attempt to meet local interesting people where you travel and
keep in contact with them throughout your life yeah again I feel like we are
in a phase of maybe traveling west and we know yeah yeah then we'd like and
then we have in the past but we have traveled a good bit I think we took
extreme advantage of this we had nine years of being married without kids right
before the kids were born and then also even just with our first I feel like we
did know what was it five years I walked it what was it nine years
I think was eight anyone doesn't matter it was a while we had a good amount of
time to travel um and even with our first one we did a good amount of
traveling with him but we did we we have so many friendships from that phase of
our life from meeting people in different areas and I love it like I
love I view it like I'm viewing it more like collecting things and I like
collecting friends in different cities and it's because it's just kind of fun
cuz then when you go there you have somebody you know and you can somebody
you can catch up with and meet with and yeah I had some questions about what
cool to do in that city yeah anyway yeah so so that's one part of it
but the other part is this try to get everywhere before you wear out and
there's some wisdom in this because because it's just didn't dawn on me like
I'm not worn out I have energy but if I think I'm her grandparents like they're
not traveling anywhere they don't want to travel they don't want to drive their
car like yeah they it's a different phase of life that I know nothing about
and this guy's 80 years old and he's acknowledging that you know you get
tired and so you should probably try to do some of the stuff on the earlier half
of your life now obviously finances are you know different now than they are
when you're 60 or 70 hopefully better as you get older but but even still I think
that's a little bit of an argument to try to do things and not save everything
up for the last portion of your life you know great that's one of the things that
I still like about Tim Ferriss is kind of argument of doing many retirement
says don't say retirement just for the retirement years like try to find ways
to live your life and enjoy your like in the younger earlier half of your life
yeah and another thing about travel is we have some tips about how to travel
fairly cheap oh yeah yeah I mean check out the video about how we travel for
free this is like you know the other thing too we'll have a link up above and
down in a description below but that's helped immensely because even though we
haven't been in the strongest financial position for some of those years we've
been able to travel a whole bunch yeah so you can check that out so another
thing he says on Philanthropy my approach is to try to
you've pain rather than spread joy I thought that was really interesting so
well explain it a little bit more it took me a minute to understand well yeah
so what he means by that is music theater art museums have many affluent
supporters that give the best parties and they can add to your social luster
and community but they don't need you social services like hospitals
educational institutions can make the world a better place and can help the
disadvantaged make their way towards the American dream so his argument is focus
on relieving pain rather than spreading joy world hunger is something I think of
yeah I mean you know and I think yeah I think this is a really good point and I
would add to this I don't I don't know that this guy is a believer or not but I
would say you know for me my top priority is salvation is souls Proverbs
says that he who wins Souls is wise I want to be wise I want that to be my
focus I think that's something that is probably at the top of God's priority
list and so yeah all things being equal if I can give money and it can have an
impact on someone coming in and out the Lord I'm excited about that that's a win
for me well actually it does both of those things that he's talking about
yeah and it relieves pain and it gives joy yeah that's what Jesus does that's why I love Him
next one this is really relevant for me right now he says younger people are
naturally insecure and tend to overplay their accomplishments
most people don't become comfortable with who they are until they're in their
40s by that time they can under play their achievements and become a nice or
more likeable person and he says try to get to that point as soon as you can and
I've noticed that because I feel like I am just you know for whatever reason
just finally becoming a little more comfortable in my own skin feeling a
little bit less like you know the grade school like everybody comparison thing
you know and I think humans probably always deal with this comparison trap to
some extent but I'm getting a little bit more comfortable with who I am and being
okay yeah with who God made me I am who I am by the grace of God you acknowledge
it that you're okay with it yeah I mean I'm getting there I'm on my way I'm doing
saying I'm trying to get there as soon as I can I mean I think this ties back
into the first one is if you want ya treat others the way you want to
be treated really is what this is you know what I'm getting from this get
yourself to a place where you can be comfortable and you don't have to have
attention but also treat others the that way treat them like they are valued and
it'll probably come back on you too yeah and this reminds me a lot of Instagram or the problems with
Instagram as a whole is just this everybody's trying to show I'm so great
I'm so this I'm so that every you know everybody's trying to portray a perfect
picture everybody's trying to blah blah blah yeah it is nice when you run into
somebody who is just really confident and comfortable who they are and they
don't have to they're not to brag about themselves they don't have to name-drop
them I have to do all these things to feel important you know and I think as
our identity is in Christ and we really know where our true value comes from you
know this even becomes even easier yeah all right next up is when seeking a
career as you come out of school or making a job change always take the job
that looks like it will be most enjoyable he says if it pays the most
you're lucky if it doesn't take it anyway I took a severe pay cut to take
each of the two best jobs I've ever had and they both turned out to be
exceptionally rewarding financially and I think that this also goes into what
are you called to do a lot of people in ministry are not making the most money
that they could possibly make but they are called to ministry and it is a
lifestyle and it's not just this you know how am I gonna make a quick buck
yeah and I think it should be something that we enjoy doing I think I believe
that God you know would you know it does line those things up our passions
yeah our passions and our callings yeah I almost every time I see somebody walking
in there calling you know it is something as excited to be doing yeah
that just makes sense to me yeah and this ties into the next one he says a
perfect job or there is a perfect job out there for everyone most people just
never find it and you need to keep looking and yeah and that's scary it's
scary it's scary laying down a career path that you've been in for 10 or 20
years to try to find the thing that might be the perfect job for you
it's scary starting in business it's scary like taking these steps but
but I mean I can tell you that I mean I've been in jobs that I've hated that I
wasn't good at that I struggled with and I've been in you know doing some things
that I'm gifted at and that I feel joy with when I do and I feel fulfillment
and it's night and day you know and if you'vevbeen in that situation you know it's
night and day it's like just no comparison and so you should try to get
to that point you know you should pray and try to you know see get some
direction on how to get there yeah I think that's great and it reminds me of
the other one things are cyclical sometimes what you do something for a
while and then you need to switch it up or sometimes you are kind of doing the
responsible thing of I'd need to get a job and I need to pay the bills
yeah and then God leads you into the thing that you're passionate about what
you're called to that you're excited about and that gives you a lot of like
alright last one is list as he says every year try to do something you've
never done before there's totally out of your comfort zone he'll be running a
marathon attending a conference that interests you on an offbeat subject
blah-blah-blah traveling to an obscure destination alone he said this will add
to the essential process of self-discovery what I like about this is
that he says every year do something that seems very doable for everybody
he's not like do something expensive but the point is is that you're breaking
yourself out of your comfort zone because as we get older I've already
noticed this we're even 40 yet but I've already noticed this like the older we
get every single year we become more and more my world revolves around making
myself comfortable and you do that for too long and you're you're just in this
tiny little bubble and and so I think that's a really valuable exercise to
continue going outside of your comfort zone whatever that means for you and
it's gonna be different for every person but I think there's a lot of wisdom in
that yeah anyway if you found this enjoyable hit that like button down
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