A list of 16 most important life lessons

Following is a list of most important lessons I have learned and I'm internalizing this tumultuous year. Incidentally, it's an excerpt of a short letter to my father, who is abroad, as I wanted to update him on my life today. Undoubtedly, you will recognize some of the concepts from books of my current favorite authors namely: Tony Robbins, Tim Ferriss (4 Hour Work Week), Robert Kiyosaki, and a young, successful and wealthy hypnotist Shafin de Zane who I owe a lot for introducing me to a lot of materials for self-development and self-discovery. And yes, a few of it came from the often-scoffed-by-intellectuals "The Secret" book by Rhonda Byrne.

Ken Wilber and Osho will always remain two of my all-time favorite teachers but at this critical stage in my life, these more worldly authors and their ideas are more applicable for me.

"On the whole I have made so many huge mistakes, personal and career wise, since I graduated. But only this year painfully I am learning a lot about myself and life. Briefly, 16 important things I have recently learned from a handful of books and are slowly being validated by experience:

1.) Prioritize mastering your thoughts/emotions above all as these will affect all secondary priorities such as finances, career, creativity, relationships and even health.

2.) Life is about growth. And you can only grow when you continuously break beyond your expanding comfort zones by seeing things differently and facing problems which must always be seen as challenges. So challenges are required for growth so they must be welcomed. Staying within your comfort zones results in depression and stagnation and loss of meaning.

3.) Stay away from drama. Human beings are hardwired to simulate artificial problems (personal and professional) which just loop back and become self-sabotaging obstacles. Life has enough valid problems/challenges needed for true growth.

4.) Experiment assumptions to prove or disprove them rather than just accept assumptions. Even assumptions based on past experiences and basic logic are not always true in a particular time and place after conducting a solid experiment.

5.) What tasks you do is infinitely more important than how you do, organize or process tasks. So eliminate as many non-important, time consuming things, information, thoughts and tasks.
(Pareto principle) In the same manner, focus 20% on problem and 80% on solution. If it's not part of solution, it's part of the problem.

6.) Master money. Your financial standing is a pretty accurate report of how you deal with the world. The only way to become wealthy is to hugely create/add value to people's lives. Business is personal.

7.) Fully appreciate/have gratitude to everything that is your current situation and all that is coming. Everyday.

8.) Define what you want, believe it possible, plan, execute, adjust/adapt to results and be consistent and persistent. Stick to it. Think big, act small.

9.) Mind and body is a feedback loop. Ex.: If you want to feel great, sit, stand, smile, and breathe accordingly. A relax state is the most efficient state.

10.) Time is useless without attention. Master focus.

11.) Understand people: Beyond habits, everyone is motivated to avoid most pain and seek most pleasure as dictated by their subconscious. People associate every thing to either of the two, so you must be careful how you associate in your subconscious. Everyone wants to feel worthy and feel good about themselves. The emotion of anger is always rooted in feeling of unfairness/injustice.

12.) Delete "should" from vocabulary; replace with "must". Unwittingly, everyone is acting/behaving as they feel they must.

13.) Focus on your strengths for compounded results rather than focusing to fix weaknesses for marginal results .

14.) Have integrity, honesty, creativity and love for quality - these are all in the "invisible world" which does exist.

15.) By default the universe operates efficiently but as people we must be effective - that is to consistently act towards a chosen goal.

16.) Don't sweat the small stuff. Enjoy and have passion.

Yes, some of them are very trite and cliche but as I analyze/test these and similar concepts I am astounded by the truths in them and how they can impact my life. I even find them more important as a way to operate in the world way before navel gazing as I thought before. Goes without saying, I have a long, long way to go. I would be happy to know what you think of these ideas that are shaping my life because again I do need guidance wherever I can find it."

Have a great life, everyone.

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