1. Forget the past, think of the future, and live in the present

This is one of the best pieces of advice that I can give to literally everyone, that’s why I placed it as #1.

Stop worrying about the past, it only takes your time that you could spend on something more productive. Anyway, you cannot change anything, so why would you even think for an infinite amount of time about it?

Thinking and imagining all your goals and dreams in the future will show you exactly what you want to achieve. That’s right, no one can do anything if he/she doesn’t understand what they want. You need to imagine who you wanna become.

If you don’t want the dreams to leave on your pillow, then you need to take action in the present. In other words, don’t always sit and think, you always need to take actions

2. Enjoy the Journey Not The Goal

If you’ve played any game that can give you everything you ever wanted to use some cheat codes, god modes, etc. Then you probably know how boring it gets when you’re in creative mode where you can access everything immediately.

That’s a pretty interesting paradox. You always wanted to drive a sports car in GTA but after spawning it through the cheat code, you didn’t get so much enjoyment from it.

To be satisfied with your goal, you should enjoy the journey itself. Don’t try to do everything as quickly as possible, try to concentrate on what is meaningful right now.

3. Look at Everything as an Opportunity

Before stopping from doing anything, think about how many opportunities it can contain. For instance, you’re scared to have a call with an HR and always want to find some issues to reschedule it.

But you focus only on your fears of talking to someone new, and nothing about the opportunities in the future that this call can give you.

Probably, by going on this call, you’ll start working on a new project, will get a bunch of new experiences, and will meet with a lot of cool guys that will transform the whole direction of your life.

4. There’s Always a Third Option

We always have decisions in our life. Even throughout the day, we always need to choose between something. Go to a new movie or have a walk with your friends, read this book or that one, eat a portion of pasta in the evening or have some sandwiches.

Decisions are following us everywhere, and not to feel overwhelmed because of them, you need to understand that there’s always a third option.

If you’re thinking about going to the university or the community college, then you need to understand that in the worst case, you won’t go anywhere. This is not the worst option at all, you can find any possibilities anywhere.

5. Stop Investing in Stocks

Don’t get me wrong. Investing in stocks or any other asset is probably one of the main goals of everyone who wants to build some wealth. However, I would highly recommend you first invest in yourself, rather than spend it on some Stocks.

I mean that you should think about learning something new, buying a new tool for your passionate work, and increasing in every possible sphere related to your career.

Even if you’re a Senior Computer Science Engineer, it still would be useful to buy a course about networking or public speech. These soft skills will give you an additional bonus for your main skill and you’ll see a lot of benefits from it!

6. Build a Personal Brand

That’s what I’m currently doing and would highly encourage all of you to do the same thing. Building a personal brand will change your life forever. It improves everything you could even imagine.

If you have a personal brand, people will recognize you more often, you’ll have a larger audience, and people will be more willing to collaborate with you.

Building your personal brand can be done through social media, starting a blog, speaking engagements, or any other activity that can help establish your name and reputation.

Even my blog on Medium is a part of my personal brand. So if you’re thinking about where to start, then Medium is probably the right choice for you!

7. Never Use Some Category as a Template for Actions

That’s one of the main failures that I’ve done. It’s like when you tell yourself that you won’t do something because you’re an introvert or something like that. You use this category as a template for your own actions, without even thinking about what you like and what not.

People often limit themselves in a bad way by telling themselves this. You need to understand that there’s no one who would be 100% introverted, materialist, Individualist, or anyone else. You can just identify yourself with one of these groups by agreeing with some of their conceptions.

It’s just a philosophy to explain a metaphoric concept, nothing more.

8. Walk Your Own Path

Never compare yourself to others, only to yourself in the past. If someone is better than you at something, then you are probably better than him at something else.

In other words, each of us is an individual and walks our own path, we should not compare ourselves to others’ paths.

Comparing yourself to others will make you either arrogant or have little self-esteem. But by looking at your past self you’ll only the progress that you’ve made and it will motivate you to go further!

9. You don’t HAVE TO do anything

That’s a pretty basic concept but many of us don’t get it seriously. You mustn’t do anything. If someone tells you that you have to do something, then it’s just his/her expectations of your actions.

You’re living your own life and as we’ve discussed previously you walk your own path. You don’t have to agree with your friend, you don’t have to loan any money, you don’t have to tell someone why you did that.

10. Choose what you love doing the most

As you can see, it’s related to walking on your path as well. You should do what you love to do, not what others tell you. It’s a pretty simple concept, in the current world of opportunities and technologies, you can make money from everything.

I even had an article explaining how you can monetize literally everything!

Also, it’s relatable to the self-development sphere as well. You don’t have to read a book if you don’t like it. You can be smart and intelligent even if you haven’t read even a single book. These are just the tools for you to achieve your goals, you should choose a tool that fits you the best!

11. Networking is More Important Than Money

Many people overate the meaning of money and underrated the impact of networking. By networking with the people you’re interested in you’ll have an enormous amount of power and a bunch of new possibilities.

By knowing lots of developers, you won’t need to spend a month searching for the right developer for you, you can just call them. It accelerates everything, starting from the Startup building and ending with the better mood itself!

12. Explore Many Other Spheres

Many professionals focus only on their sphere and that’s it. They don’t know in which country they’re living, they don’t know a second language, and they don’t anything NOT related to their profession.

If you want to understand what you’re doing in this life and want to meet with a large number of cool people, you should know some basics of many spheres. Starting from Math and ending with learning a new language.

You don’t know which skill will help you to achieve what you ever wanted, so focus on your main sphere, but don’t forget about others as well!

13. Avoid Routine as much as possible

Make your life more fulfilling. Many people notice that their life is flying up in from of their lives. It’s because most of them don’t fulfill and get bored of the same day over and over again.

If you don’t wanna be like them, then start to go somewhere, meet new people, start working out, learn something new every day, etc.

14. Filter Everything You Hear

Everyone right now is an influencer and everyone right is giving thousands of advice. Even me as well, however, you filter everything you hear. You can have an idol of someone, such as Elon Musk, and will always protect his views, even if they’re confronting your own.

Know who to listen, to and who not.

15. Regularly Step Outside of your comfort zone

Don’t sit inside your room 24/7. You’ll only get bored and have a bunch of negative effects on your body. Even if your work is related to sitting in the same place, you still can make some breaks and try to communicate with someone on the street.

I know, it’s pretty uncomfortable for many of you, and for me too. But by doing so, you’ll start to notice how easier and easier it gets!

16. Never Forget About Sharpening The Axe

“If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe” — Abraham Lincoln

This is a great quote that means that you should get ready before doing something. Before starting a copywriting journey, learn how to do it right and in the most effective way.

If you’ll try to cut the tree blunt axe then you won’t get anything and will burn out!

Furthermore, I’ve listened to a guy who has finished the whole 4-year MIT course on Data Science in just 1 year which is pretty amazing for any human being.

This is because he explored all the possible ways for learning in the most effective way. He has sharpened his axe before cutting the tree!

17. Prioritize experiences over material possessions

Don’t run for some new iPhones, expensive cars, penthouses, and other material possessions that you think will make you happy. Enjoyment from them will leave you in several weeks and you’ll be on the same level as before.

Prioritize experience with the people you love. By jumping with the parachute you’ll have some memories that won’t leave you forever!

18. Add some limit to your life

To feel happy you should add some limitations to your life. It can be anything, starting from not saying bad words or even thinking about your own philosophy of declining some negative things in your life.

Literally, everything that stops you from achieving your goals should be eliminated and you need to limit it as much as possible. It’s like a fundament for your house, if you don’t have some strong restrictions you won’t be able to build a great house.

19. Embrace change and be adaptable

The current world is highly changeable and you can’t even take one day off to look at everything you’ve got. You need to be more adaptable and learn about new things as quickly as possible.

It will help you to grow and develop as a person, and to stay relevant and competitive in a rapidly changing world. Every day new technologies came out and missing the opportunity to know about the future trends of the world is pretty stupid.

20. Read more articles from me :)

I always share some interesting stuff and tell about new spheres that are getting a lot of attention from the public. I would highly encourage you to read more articles on Medium, not only me but other authors as well.