EP. 142 - Avoid these MISTAKES in the future | Further Your Lifestyle Podcast

Speaker 1: 0:00

Yo yo yo. Welcome back to the further your lifestyle podcast conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris, I'm your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you episode 142 today. And look, there's been a few things on my mind over the last couple of weeks and I've been talking about them and we did an episode, probably about four or five episodes ago, where that's probably even a bit more than that, where you know there was other things on my mind and they were kind of like controversial statements or just things that were triggering me. Well, of recent, I've been thinking about some other things and the main topic of this is, you know and I have done an episode similar to this before where you know you see other people saying, oh, what I wish I knew in my 20s and I'm now 40, or things like that.

Speaker 1: 0:47

But my question that I want to start this episode off with and it's a question to you is like if you had known what you know now, 10, 20 years ago, assuming, assuming you didn't have to go back and do everything that you did to get here today, like you wouldn't have to go through it all again would you have done anything different and I want to be very frank with you. It's like you know, don't get me wrong I appreciate the journey, I appreciate everything that I've done and what I've had to do to get to where I am today. 100% fine with that. But I think when we dance with the whole concept of hindsight and hindsight can be very, you know, it can be a big stabbing point and we can see that there was all this missed opportunity, all these opportunities that we could have had by looking back through hindsight. Obviously we can't do anything about it, but there are some things which I guess you know. You look back and you think, yeah, whatever, you can start to work on those things now. But there are some things that you look back now and you think it would have made so much more sense to entertain these at the time when they were relevant or when they could have been relevant to my life, rather than learning them or rather than ignoring to learn them. And I guess that's the thing it comes down to learning, like if you don't know about it, why would you go learn it? But you think, how do you now make yourself be inquisitive to those things or curious to those things today so that you know, in the next 10, 20 years you're not having the same conversation like we're having today.

Speaker 1: 2:15

Now I'm not talking about, oh, I wish you know I went back and I invested in Google. You know I'm not talking about those things. I'm talking about things practically relevant to your life that could apply to us all. Now I've pulled out a whole different ones here that I've been just when reading things doing my own little you know, morning reads with coffee or whatever, and they're just a few notes that I've taken down for myself that might be relevant to you, they might not, but hopefully from this it can trigger something for you to go go think about it for yourself. You know what are some of the things that you wish that you had probably spent a little bit more time with, and if you have some of your own, let me know as well. I would love to continue that conversation. So that's what we're talking about today and, as I said, episode 142, can't believe we're already in December. It's just crazy, really. Do appreciate you tuning in. Let's get into it, all right.

Speaker 1: 3:07

So the first one that I jotted down was worrying about what you should be doing versus just doing it, or learning it or discovering it. This one's a bit scary, it's a bit hard, but I do realize it now more than ever, that as we grow up, we spend so much time concerned about what we should be doing based on what people have said, based on education systems, based on you know friends, family, based on you know what we read in society, all these different things. But when we actually strip back and remove all these pressures of these are the things that you should be doing and you just actually focus on figuring out what it is that you want to be doing and experiment with those areas as much as possible. I didn't do that right, I'm doing it now and it's never too late to do this. But this is why I encourage people that are a lot younger than me. You know when I say about young, like 5, 10 years, that they don't have to do the traditional norms of what everyone's telling them. Go spend some time to figure some things out.

Speaker 1: 4:13

There's people that I know that it also makes me uncomfortable because I'm not comfortable doing it because I didn't do it. I know people that have sold up everything and just gone and traveled in one way ticket to another country. That, to me is bizarre. But at the same time I look at it and like I love the fluid and the mentality and the freedom that they have of not being so relied or relying on what is the right way or what you should be doing or what people tell me I should be doing. I respect that and it takes a lot of guts. It's a lot of hard work to do that too, because you know there is we do worry about. Am I going to do this bill? But if you don't have half those things because you've just gone away and you're just living small amounts of money at a time, week by week, it's pretty chilled. It's pretty chilled.

Speaker 1: 4:57

So I think, when growing up, that's one thing that I would reflect back on is, like you know, not being so stuck on worrying about what I should be doing, meaning whatever else is suggesting you know you got to go do this to do this, to do this to get that, but actually just going out learning, discovering and exploring, even now, like this, I've created a business that I have to do things in order to get a result, but I'm also trying to create a business that means that I don't have to do those things to get a result, because you've built it in a way that other people are doing it for you and I can go spend my time doing other things and exploring other things. So, anyway, that's the first one. The next one is, then, not building lifelong connections. Question for you is how many people would you define as lifelong connections in your current circle of people or friends or network? And what I mean by this is not who you know, but who you could literally go over to and tap on the shoulder or give them a call, and they will be there, with no doubts, there to assist you if they need you or you need them at the last minute. Same thing applies you know, if they came to you, who are those people, how many people are in your circle, and I think you know.

Speaker 1: 6:11

In relevance to what I'm doing now, like going through business, I understand building long term relationships with people that are doing business, like your suppliers, your accountants, all these different people, because they're going to be very key and important for the long term. But also, when you reflect back and you think now where I am I've met so many people over the years Like even with this podcast, one of my biggest regrets is I'm not close with all my guests that I've had on this podcast. It's my own fault, right, but that's just in the last two years, three years, right. Think about going back to primary school, high school, university. That's another big regret that I have is like not spending the time, or continuing to spend the time, to build those relationships with the people that you spend so much time with, because now it's like, oh, what are they doing? Who are they? It's not relevant and it's not about that. You should do this with everyone, but I think it's important because as we grow older, we start to realize that people are a huge part of our lives and they bring value, they can challenge you, their people are wise, we can help each other, and when we don't have that connection, we will feel empty, right. So I would encourage you. It's like there's relationships to fix if there's people, you know, I mean it really comes down to having a conversation, but that's probably one. For me is not spending enough time in those areas, you know, over the last 20 years Doesn't mean I can't do it now. That's on me to do, but that's definitely one thing that I've realized that the importance of it, because you're gonna spend, you're gonna lose time anyway. So building it with people that you can grow close together is super, super important. I think I value that now.

Speaker 1: 7:56

The next one is ignoring your inclinations, like when you feel an inkling like do you ever feel curious about something Like and you think, oh, it'll be interesting about what is that? You know, or could I spend time doing this, or what would it look like if I was woodworking, or at least different things. And this kind of comes back to the first point around wiring around what you should be doing. But I think we need to give ourselves space to explore things where we think sometimes they are distractions. Right, I get that, sometimes they're little side projects that might not go anywhere. But sometimes we need to dwell in, like dabble in them, to see where do they lead, do they have opportunity? And have I had one of those moments where you feel like, oh, how cool would it be to do that? Or you've had a thought about learning a skill or creating an app or learning an instrument or something like that. Have you actually ever tried any of that Like, given it like a couple of hours a week or invested a little bit of time to see where it goes.

Speaker 1: 8:54

I think it's super important to follow our weird thoughts or our weirdness to see if there's maybe an opportunity of you know something greater, like you need to tickle that inside a little bit right, and it could be. Maybe it's your genius calling right, maybe it's something that you do not know and you don't know how well it's going to be until you give it a little bit of a entertainment. So I probably think I haven't done that enough. Again, I'm doing it more now, but I think if you've done it 10, 20 years ago, imagine what the possibilities could have been since then. They might not have changed either, but I think that's something that I just wanted to encourage. Other people is like you know the feelings that I'm talking about. Have you ever, like given them some investment of time? Just saying?

Speaker 1: 9:42

The next one kind of speaks for itself is getting into poor physical exercise habits. Now I'm a runner. I do a lot of running. If you don't know that, well, there you go. Like you know, I'm doing half marathon a month. I just finished my second ultra marathon back in September. But you know it still takes a lot of work to get here and as you get older, it gets harder to maintain that. So I think, as soon as you can do it what I mean by that is build a comfortable routine, a comfortable schedule and understand the benefits of it then you should. And it might be just be walking, it might just be running, it might be doing weights, it might be doing yoga, it might be doing stretching, it might be eating right. I don't know it's going to be different for everyone. But the sooner you can do that, and if you can just do a little bit consistently over the next 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, you'll thank me for it.

Speaker 1: 10:34

Because that is the importance of it. Because there's a period of time as we grow up that we neglect those things. We just you're growing, so your body's not necessarily showing the problems by not exercising. But then there comes a point where it's like you know point of diminishing returns, where you could do heaps of stuff and it's not going to make a big difference because your body's now already in its space of what you've created over a long period of time a lack of exercise. So it's not healthy.

Speaker 1: 11:01

So in order to get yourself into a good physical you know position, or to have good physical exercise habits. You need to be doing it constantly over a long period of time to ingrain it. So it took me jeepers I think it was when I was 21, is when I made my big change just out getting exercising, getting into running. But I still struggle with it Like it's. The running isn't necessarily the exercise. Now I need to be doing other stuff outside of running. I need to be doing weights, I need to be doing strength, I need to be doing extra. You know maintenance work and that's hard work, but if you don't put it in, you'll regret it 10 years later. I'm speaking to myself, so that's another one. The sooner you can do this, the better.

Speaker 1: 11:45

The next one was not learning about personal finance and investing as early as I would have liked. You know one of my favorite things that my, my grandpa said to me when I was jeepers. I must have been about 10 or so. He said if you're dollar that I saved, now by the time I'm 20 or 30 would be worth $5. I didn't really understand that, and whether it's exactly the same, you know. Has it actually turned out to be that? You know, big of an increase? Maybe not, but the point is, you know, if I had known what I know now 10 years earlier, it would be potentially game changing. Now I knew about personal finance because I started my investing journey 10 years ago. But if I knew what I know now after 10 years of it back then and I started 10 years earlier or I was doing those exact things 10 years ago, so basically I would have had to learn what I know now 10, 20 years ago then it would have been absolutely import like crazy of a game changer.

Speaker 1: 12:44

Now, how do we get ourselves to that position? Well, we need to be applying learnings, we need to be reading, we need to be educating ourselves, gaining knowledge, gaining experience. The only way to do that is over time. If you want to learn about investing, go read some books. There's plenty of stuff on YouTube as well, but go read some books. One of the best books that I read and I continue to talk about it now is Rich Dad, poor Dad and the Cash Flow Quadrant.

Speaker 1: 13:09

But there's elements of that which it takes a little bit of comprehension to get around like because it's not relevant to where you are in life. But you reread it, you reread it, you reread it and you start to make sense of it and then there's opportunities that become relevant to your point in time and you can start to see. This is key. If we were to realise this when we were going through high school, we would change things completely. But they don't teach this stuff in high school. They don't teach this stuff when you're younger. So I would encourage you, if you're younger like if you're below 20, even if you're below 30, start to just learn about this stuff.

Speaker 1: 13:43

Understand it, because I know it's so saturated over the internet, but it's done in a way which it's really really sugar coated or it's really really just. If you do this, you'll get that right. And, though it's true, there's a level of practical understanding and you have to take action and implementing it in your own way to help you really understand and own it. Like for me, I have a couple of investment properties. It's really good, but now that I know where I am now, I wish I would have bought more when I could have. I mean, it's hindsight, but the reality is I know more better now, based on not I'm talking about market positioning or anything like that, but just how to leverage those things. I understand it so much better now, but I don't necessarily have the ability to be able to execute on it now because of my current situations or whatever right. So the sooner you can learn this information, the better you're able to apply it over a longer period of time, which means you'll get better and bigger and longer term outcomes and results.

Speaker 1: 14:44

The next one is trying to impress others. A good little story about this is the sooner you can get out. It's kind of like the first one that we said, you know, not trying to do things that other people suggesting we should be doing. But we grow up in a peer to peer comparison world, especially even more so now because of social media and things like that. But when we're able to remove ourselves from trying to impress others I'm not talking about like a romantic part it's nice to be able to try and charm them and impress them, but I'm talking about like a group of peers friends, family living up to false expectations, societal expectations and things like that. The sooner we can drop this, the better it will be for you.

Speaker 1: 15:32

And a good example of this for me was when I started running. I was obviously insecure. I was fat, I was chubby, I didn't feel comfortable and it was embarrassing. I felt embarrassed, but you know, and what I was wearing. I wanted to look like I knew what I was doing or whatever. But then there came a point where I started to love running more than what I loved about the idea of running was going to make me look fit. I enjoyed running regardless.

Speaker 1: 16:00

I didn't care what people thought, and the moment I knew that was when I got myself a. I used to run with a drink bottle and I, you know, people said, oh, you know, you can get, like you know, a drink bottle holder or whatever. And I didn't want to do that because it looks. It doesn't look cool. But then I I finally realized I'm going to need this because I'm a big sweater and I need to hydrate. I need to be able to run with more water. So I found this little belt called Fitletic and I've been an ambassador for Fitletic and I love their products really, really good and I started wearing that.

Speaker 1: 16:33

And there came a point where, though I'm wearing it around other people, though I'm wearing it around home, like you know, running in my neighborhood. I just don't care what people think, but a year before that, if I was wearing that, I was like I can't wear that. Well, people think. But as soon as I realized that it's not about them, people and plus people aren't thinking about this stuff, people don't care, it's all on me Like I'm projecting that, thinking they're going to think that why is you wearing that? Like that's not cool. But that's my own perception, right? So once you're able to get your, a lot of the time trying to impress others is our own false projections onto them, to us, so it's our own insecurities. Right, and I've spoken about this before. But once I got past that, I was able to run freer, I was able to execute, without doubt and the supplies and anything that we do, sometimes easier said than done, easier in some areas and harder in others. But when you're able to remove the trying to impress others, you will be able to execute more effectively with less doubt and in confidence. That's my opinion.

Speaker 1: 17:42

The next one is spending your time, and I've got a couple of points behind this one. Probably keep it short and sharp when spending your time thinking about and again, I wish I had understood this earlier Investing your time, how you share your time, how you grow your time, how you leverage your time, how you're losing your time. I think once we have all those things understood, because when we spend time with other people, we're sharing time, right. So who are you sharing your time with and what is that turning into? When you invest your time, what are you doing today that's going to help you for the next year, or how are you growing your time? What are you putting in place to enable you to have more time down the line? Where are you losing time? What are you doing that you're not getting the time back? How are you leveraging time? What are you doing with time that's gaining you other things that you might have to spend more? It's kind of like growing your time and how? Yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:43

So when you think about all those things, it changes the concepts of how we actually go about, and I should probably do a podcast and all this. It changes our perspective and perception of how we look at time and how we spend time, and how we spend our time is what we're going to get out of it. So I buy identifying how you invest it, how you're sharing it, how you're growing it, how you're losing it or leveraging it. For the growing side as well, you will be surprised. You will be 100% surprised. So a little exercise you can do there is literally. Take it and split up your time you know whether it's daily, whether it's weekly or monthly and start to have a look and then jot down what are the things that you're doing to invest your time? What are you doing to share your time? How are you growing your time or leveraging your time? How are you? Where are you losing your time? So all these different areas are going to make a huge difference on how you perceive time, to then help you make better understandings or better decisions going forward with your time.

Speaker 1: 19:39

Of course, I can't go back and change in the past, but if I knew that earlier, it would have made a huge difference, like even just being a kid and saving money or just getting into good routines and I get it. We shouldn't be putting those pressures on kids. But I just, you know, I see my nephews and they say, oh, I'm bored, I've got nothing to do, and I remember saying the exact same things. But it's like if they had the same passion that I have now for me, being able to create what I want out of life, and if you could do that 20 years earlier because you just understood it when you were a kid, like it just it just would blow my mind what we would be capable of doing, just incredibly, like, yeah, anyway, so a bit of a personal one again.

Speaker 1: 20:26

I would love to hear from you, like have you done this kind of exercise before?

Speaker 1: 20:32

What are some of the things that you wish you had known 10, 20 years ago? Or what are the things that you're doing today to help you in the next 10, 20 years? Let me know. I would really really like to know. Well, let me know if any of these resonated with you. Something you know, maybe the concept around time. Or you know how you're.

Speaker 1: 20:47

How do you go about with your inklings? You know, are you spending time on your inklings or are you ignoring them? Would really love to continue the conversation with you. So reach out, drop a comment down below. If you're here on the YouTube actually talking about YouTube, if you enjoy this podcast, make sure you hit the like, make sure you hit the subscribe, share it with someone, let other people know about it, right? I hope you would actually absolutely mean the world to me, appreciate your being here. I hope you're having a wonderful time of the year. We're getting closer and closer and closer to Christmas, which is just scary, and we're also in the new year, almost in the new year, not in the new year yet so exciting times ahead. I hope you're doing well, looking forward to hearing from you, and you have a wonderful day, cheers.