Hi! My name is Benny Lewis, and I've been travelling the world for ten years,
wandering from place to place every few months,
without a fixed home anywhere.
Everything I own in the world weighs 23 kilograms, or 50 pounds.
In this time I've tried to speak the local language of each country that I go to,
and have made many friends from vastly different cultures.
In doing so, I've learned many life lessons,
a few of which I'd like to share with you today.
I hope you'll enjoy it!
Happiness has no price tag
One of the first things people say when they hear that I've been travelling for so long
is that I must be rich.
Well, not quite!
! haven't inherited any fortune and in fact,
I've earned less than $1000 a month at many stages in my travels
but have had very rich experiences despite this.
I've found that some lateral thinking can get you a lot for very little money!
You can Couchsurf for free instead of paying for accommodation,
you can hitchhike very safely in many countries,
or fly across the planet for just a couple of hundred dollars if you're flexible,
or free if you know how to "hack" the system by earning miles
you can even cook at home much cheaper instead of eating out all the time,
and it will be a lot better if you give up expensive habits that don't enrich your life
and stop buying crap you don't need.
The best experiences do not have any price tag.
Money is necessary to have a basic standard of living,
but many of us, especially in the west,
already have more than enough of it to be able to have many incredible experiences,
if only we'd realize it.
At the end of the day, time with good friends is free;
but can make you feel like the richest person alive.
Be an imperfectionist
Perfectionism is usually thought of as a good quality.
but I've found, though, that when -
whatever you're passionate about can't be appreciated until it's 100% perfect
you'll never appreciate it.
Generally, outside of mathematics, perfection is impossible.
There's always something missing, some improvement left, or someone who does it better.
Accepting that I'm not going to be "the best" is the most freeing thought I've ever had.
In fact, I go out of my way to make at least 200 mistakes a day
Making no mistakes is playing it safe, but great things were never achieved by playing it safe.
Every single failure is a stepping stone to a success
and a chance to learn something important.
The magic happens outside of your comfort zone
I once saw this image online and it's so true.
Our comfort zones are tiny,
but it's not where we learn or grow as people,
and have those incredible adventures that we can look back on proudly for the rest of our lives.
In trying to learn multiple languages,
meeting fascinating people,
travelling by myself, speaking on stage,
and many other things that I've done and seen others do,
I've found that rather than being naturally good at tthese things,
each one of us can push our boundaries to learn how to be good at them.
Your true limitations can often be how willing you are to leave your comfort zone.
where the chance of failure or embarrassment is much higher..
So you fail, you get embarrassed a bit - what's the big deal?
Dust yourself off, try again,
and this time you'll do a lot better.
until you soon realize that you have achieved something great!
The world owes you nothing
Too many of us feel this incredible sense of entitlement,
like the world owes us something.
I mean, you're a good person, right?
You deserve to meet the man or woman of your dreams,
get that book deal or have great success.
Well... not exactly.
The world doesn't owe you any of that.
Personally, I don't believe in karma, or some invisible force
that will give me what I want because I'm generally a nice guy.
I need to work for it beyond wishful thinking.
You have to do something tangible to get real results in this world.
From a certain perspective, the world is certainly an unfair place,
but rather than be an eternal pessimist about it,
why not find out why things are the way they are,
so that maybe you can follow t these rules, adapt to them
and even bend them at times.
Get busy living
We only have one life, but many of us squander it
We waste time watching TV shows, or -
doing passive things that don't enrich our lives
or we kill time alone.
The time is going to pass anyway, why kill it?
Get busy living, and do so with your own life .
Not vicariously through others,
Spend time with others,
and you can effectively live something as good as many lifetimes in one.
Every single person is fascinating and can teach you something
The reason I travel so much
is because I like to meet so many interesting and varied people.
Across the planet, we share so many things in common
from your guide in the Sahara desert,
to those taking a train in the middle of China,
to the deaf community in America,
to dancers in South America.
We can relate to all these people because at their core,
they share a lot of the same values and hopes and dreams you do.
Despite this though, when you have the chance to really get to know someone,
you'll see that our vastly different experiences can help us learn from one another.
Each person can give you something to aspire to, to emulate,
or something that they do that you can learn from
Even the bad people can show us parts of ourselves that we don't like
and make sure it don't take over.
It's OK to say "I was wrong"
These three words are so hard to utter,
but they can help you make peace with people.
Even make it four, "maybe I was wrong."
Give other points of view a chance. Let people have their say!
Really listen to these alternative points of view,
especially those that are vastly different to yours.
Even if they don't change your mind,
maybe they will help you appreciate their point of view more.
The present is what really matters
Don't defer your happiness so much.
Too many people look at life as if it was all about getting to the destination,
rather than about the journey.
Finishing school, getting that job, buying that thing you want....
The problem is when you finally do, you won't even appreciate it,
because you'll feel a huge anticlimax just after it happens,
and you'll just set your sights on the next distant target.
How about appreciating the current moment?
Spending time with those around you,
not taking the wonderful advantages you have in life right now for granted,
stopping what you are doing to just go for a walk and breathe and appreciate nature,
or spending time with people important to you.
Don't be in such a hurry. Life is happening NOW.
Be generous and kind to others
Give, without expecting something in return.
And compliment people regularly.
Show genuine gratitude.
Look a friend or loved one in the eye
and tell them they are important to you or that you love them.
Ultimately the true legacy that we can leave behind
is the interactions with the people who cross our paths.
The difference we can really make in this world is not some thing that we build or work on,
but the relationships that we help flourish.
It feels good to pay it forward..
You may just make someone's day, and get kindness back precisely when you need it.
We're all making it up as we go
This may negate a lot of what I've just said, but I have no idea what I'm talking about.
I'm just some guy with a YouTube channel
sharing some things that I think -
are the most important lessons I've learned while traveling.
But I'm just making this up as I go.
In fact, I've found that many people who run huge businesses,
or politicians, or famous actors,
or the most successful and popular people I've met...
they're just going with the flow.
You can call them an expert or look up to them,
or think they have the key to some secret,
or are blessed by some unknown force,
but they're just a normal person who's had a bit of luck to find an interesting path in life.
With slightly different circumstances
that amazing person you think is so great, could've been looking up to you.
Don't worry if you're not the cool kid right now.
If you really talked to that person that you aspire to be,
you'd find they have the same hang-ups and worries in life as you do,
and that they also aspire after others.
Just try to be the best you that you can be,
amd remember that the rest of us are, like you,
attempting to find their way
on this pale blue dot spinning through a vast universe,
in our own tiny fraction of history.
We can only try our best to make it counts.
Thanks a lot for watching this video,
and I'd appreciate it if you shared it with your friends if you liked it.
Also, two years ago I wrote an article with 29 entire life lessons,
that you might like to check out,
as it's been read by almost two million people since I wrote it.
And one thing that's really helped me discover me this vast and wonderful world
is learning other languages.
I could only speak English when I was 21,
but I decided to change my destiny.
So, watch my TEDx talk to get some language learning inspiration.
And finally, don't forget to subscribe
or check out these other interesting videos I've made.
Thanks, and good luck!