The 27 Lessons
Last year, I wrote a thread called the 27 Lessons.
In the thread, I reflect on the 27 lessons that I learned that past year.
I’ll be honest, 2018 was one of the most significant years in my life.
There were good times, bad times & ugly times.
But despite a lot of the struggles & hardships, I was able to leave away with 27 lessons.
These lessons are lessons gave me much more clarity on how to approach 2019.
Take a look & see which ones you can apply to your life.
1. Chase experiences over material possessions.
Believe it or not, I used to do the complete opposite.
I used to be obsessed with jewelry, designer clothes & the latest technology.
But the more items that I stacked up, the emptier that I felt.
Why? Because I had too much clutter in my life. The clutter KILLED my clarity.
Age 27, I dumped out anything that I didn’t need & focused on experiences.
Results? The best year of my life.
More than ever, I realized experiences are where it’s at.
When you’re on your death bed, you’re not going to be thinking about your iPad from your 20s.
But zip lining in Hawaii? Absolutely.
2. Finding a life purpose will turn your life from scary & boring -> fun & challenging.
It took me years to find my life purpose.
But when I found it, my whole reality changed.
For years, I was just waking up & showing up to life.
No clue what the point of it all was. Had this internal tension eating away at me for a long time.
Until I found the north star of my life.
And that’s when I realized what success truly means.
Success = Making daily progress towards a goal/s.
When you have that, scary & boring turns to fun & challenging real quick.
3. Have more compassion towards others. Many people are fighting a silent battle that you may have no clue about.
This lesson really got hammered in when one of my really kind hearted friends was acting moody one day.
I asked him what was up, and his response? He told me to shutup.
Won’t lie, I was livid & wanted to clap back at him.
But something held me back from doing so.
After 15 minutes of silence, he began crying.
He apologized & told me that his dad had cancer & only had 2 months to live.
At that moment, I realized we are all humans fighting our own battles on this place called earth.
Having compassion allows you to have understanding for the silent battles people fight on the daily.
4. Learn the hard skills, then level up to soft skills when ready.
Learning hard skills is great, but that’s only level one.
Soft skills allow you to make the most out of your hard skills.
It’s great if you are an amazing coder for example.
But even the greatest coder needs to be able to work with others & share ideas.
That is where the interpersonal skills come in.
Soft Skills are mighty important when you want to begin sharing your message with the world.
5. The person who broke your heart did you a massive favor. A few of the most valuable life lessons will be found behind a heartbreak.
Heartbreaks have the power to produce greatness.
It is one of the biggest real world lessons that you will ever get.
But more importantly, heartbreaks build character.
Character that a book will never be able to teach you.
All you need to do is give it time & know that everything will play out.
Use the internal turmoil that you are feeling to leverage it as energy to rebuild yourself.
As you continue to rebuild yourself, you’ll learn lessons that will help you understand that the heartbreak was a gift all alone.
6. Loyalty is scarce in today’s superficial world. Snakes are abundant.
May not want to hear this, but people will switch up on you.
And it will happen more than you can possibly imagine.
But the loyal ones? They are still there.
You probably have many of them in your life now.
Those certain friends that have seen you through many stages.
They have shown you loyalty. Hold onto them close.
But most importantly, value your own loyalty.
Pulling a snake move on a friend is a sin in the social dynamics world & will have you losing yourself respect.
7. Understand that as you are growing older, so are your parents. Give them more attention & love.
I realized that I’m always in hustle mode working towards my future.
But this year I realized more than ever that my parents are getting older as I am too.
There is 24 hours in a day, therefore there is little to no excuse to hit them up.
Especially because they view your small wins as their big wins.
8. A small well vetted circle who supports you is better than a big circle that brings in drama.
Lesson learned the fucking hard way! I was the ‘popular kid’ in college for many years.
Was the person who threw parties for my fraternity, so made friends with tons of people in the process.
But with all those friends came different intentions & a boat load of drama. I’ve really embraced the small quality friendships over having a big ass squad.
Life’s been better.
9. Meditation & journaling connects you to your internal universe.
I literally spend the past 6 months leading up to my birthday meditating& journaling EVERYDAY.
If there was anything that I could swear by to show results, it would be these 2 acts.
So damn powerful & does so much for you.
Happiness, wisdom, confidence are just scratching the surface. 10/10 would recommend.
10. Take care of your body by working out,eating well & doing yoga.
Your mind & emotions are on your side when your body is.
Working out,eating well, doing yoga should be done so often that you stop even thinking about it.
Those are habits that you do on autopilot & incorporated into your schedule.
Surprisingly, by doing these 3, you are ahead of the curve.
11. Do not get so caught up in work that you neglect your loved ones.
Not going to lie, I’ve had a problem with this growing up.
I was always a shitty test taker, so I would work my ass off to get a passing grade.
That hard work from an early age relayed over to my life in general.
This year I realized that hard work does not mean sacrifice quality time with the loved ones.
12. Anyone is prone to switching up on you.Therefore, you must learn to become your best friend. Always have your back.
Only you are capable understanding your good AND bad.
Most people do not have a clue about what you think on a daily basis.
Plus, people are legit capable of switching up on you.
This isn’t me being paranoid, this is me being real.
If you can learn to become best friends with yourself, you will feel more fulfilled that you ever would be seeking best friend companionship from someone else.
13. You need to feel very lost in life before stuff eventually begins to click.
100%.
A few years back, I was leading a failed amazon white label business, shitty niche websites & god awful marketing campaigns to now having personal brand that has impacted the lives of many.
Funny thing is that it was never my goal to build any kind of a brand.
I just opened a twitter as a journal& recorded my wins & the failures from my past.
And here we are.
14. When learning a new skill, practice it slowly. You need to do it mindfully before you can do it mindlessly.
Holy shit is this one important.
I used to rush everything thinking that I would figure it out quicker.
WRONG.
All I did was fuck it up from the beginning & now had to practice to UNLEARN the sloppiness.
The best way to learn something is to do it slow as hell & fine tune the movements.
When you do this consistently, your neural pathways will solidify & the speed will pick up on it’s own.
15. Call people more often to just catch up.
Our social media age has made face to face interactions a rare occurrence.
Don’t even get me started on phone conversations.
One thing that really stood out to me this year was the importance of calling people to catch up with people.
We are so busy growing up, that we often neglect our social bonds.
But the power of technology in today’s world makes it easier than ever to keep in touch!
Isn’t it sad that past generations were better at keeping touch than we are today, even though we have all the resources in the world?
I sure as hell thought so.
The era of phone calls are coming back to style in my world.
16. Once you have reached the bar you set for yourself, raise it even higher, then reach it again. Do this forever.
I realized how my younger self used to think so small.
I thought leveling up was finite.
But nowadays?
I know that leveling up is infinite.
You can do it as long as your heart desires.
Your milestones were meant to be broken.
And who better to break them than you?
17. Mastering your emotions is the true sign of intelligence. Not some man made test.
I used to think that tests defined my intelligence.
And your boy was an awful test taker.
Results? I thought I was dumb as shit.
But the older I grew, I learned the proper principles in studying for exams properly.
I began to get A’s in most of my Master’s classes.
But what was it really showing me?
It was showing me that I could take tests to pass an exam.
But that’snot indicative of life.
This year, I realized more than ever that controlling your emotions is the true sign of intelligence.
Being able to overcome anxiety, turn anger into energy & sadness into soul searching shows brilliance.
Brilliance that an exam will never be able to measure.
18. Watch more interviews of legendary figures.Hear their blueprint.
At age 27, I had a very tough time watching TV.
Not hating on people that do watch it.
But for some reason, my mind would keep drifting off to something that was helping me level up.
Shows like: Stranger Things, Law & Order, 13 Reasons Why seemed interesting to the old school me.
But now? Interviews.
I watched interviews from Bob Proctor, Jay Z, Kobe Bryant & much more.
My mind stays laser locked when I hear them speak.
Guess it was not a TV problems. But what I watched on TV that was the issue.
‘But Armani you should unwind!
That’s the thing.
I’m at that stage where I actually like learning. It’s fun to me. And these interviews are not all boring information. It’s information presented in a way to help you level up!!
19. Forgive & remember. Forgive so you can move on. Remember so you don’t fall for the same trap again.
This rule applies to yourself & those around you.
The phrase ‘Forgive& Forget’ is awful advice.
Why? Because you are more prone to making the same mistake over & over!
Forgive & remember has been working like a charm this year.
When I apply it to myself, I am much more willing to embrace failures rather than be cripple by it.
When I apply it to others, I am much better in filtering my social circle.
Win-win.
20. Debating is a waste of time if you are to chasing a legacy.
I realized more than ever, what a big waste of time debating was.
And this is coming from a dude that would spend HOURS debating before.
But why? Debating is a logical act that rarely works on emotional beings.
Plus it’s draining as fuck. It’s fine on CERTAIN occasions.
But for the most part?
You got bigger things to worry about if you’re chasing a legacy.
21. Do not attack back at your haters, instead MASTER the art of ignoring.
Attacking back at your haters allows you to give them what they crave. ATTENTION.
Ignoring your haters takes away what the crave. ATTENTION.
Plus, they don’t hate you. They hate what you’re becoming. Why? Because they secretly they could have the same in their lives.
Plus, ignoring toughens your skin & prevents you from straying off your path.
22. It often takes a loss of a life to truly appreciate the value of a life. But do not let this be the case. Show love to the loved ones.
Sad truth.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t come with more perspective& wisdom after a funeral than I did entering one.
I lost a lot of loved ones too soon this year. And it gave me the wake up call that I needed in order to get my priorities straight.
Showing love to loved ones >>
23. Be more selfish & invest in yourself,so one day you can be selfless & give back.
I used to think that being selfish was a bad thing.
But this year? I realized it was necessary.
How can I possibly help the world when I have yet to help myself.
I realized that the level up journey requires you to be selfish.
While you are selfish, you are able to self improve to insurmountable levels.
Once you reach that stage, anything that you touch will have value.
That’show you give back with grace.
24. Embrace your pain & use it to fuel the ambition.
I used to think that pain was a bad thing. Honest truth? I would run away from it.
But nowadays, I run towards it. Pain gives you wisdom & desire to make some significant changes.
You can’t grow muscles without putting your body thru pain.
You can’t grow as a person without putting your heart thru pain.
But what awaits on the other side is pure beauty.
25. Always make time to travel & try new cuisines.
This year I traveled to Hawaii, Mexico, Dubai & much more.
I learned that there is a reason why older more successful people always say to travel more.
It’s because that shit helps you mature & bring you a strong sense of clarity.
Plus, trying new cuisines gives you more perspective & joy.
26. Miracles are possible for everyone. You just need to be consistent long enough.
I truly do view this to be the case.
Anyone is capable of miracles if they stick with something for long enough.
You also know it as ‘figuring it out.’
The human brain is more powerful than we give it credit for.
In order to get from ‘wishes’ to reality, it’s all about discipline.
Discipline bridges the 2 together & allows you to get miracles that you never dream possible.
27. It is never too late to turn your life around for the best. You are a few good habits away from being reborn.
We are creatures of habits, not circumstances.
I grew up as a broke kid,got in a lot of trouble, fights, suspended etc.
Genuinely thought my life was going to be one of a loser.
Until one day? I had enough of my own bullshit& decided to do something about it.
And that’s exactly what I did. I replaced my bad habits with good ones& just continued to do it day in & day out.
Soon, the results began to pile up & I became different.
I can confidently say I am much different now than 1,2,5,10 years ago.
Closing Thoughts
When I was younger, I was always focusing on asking other people for their wisdom.
Which is a viable tactic, don’t get me wrong.
But I realized that every human has their own specialized wisdom as well.
It’s called making sense of our past.
Each day of my 27 years have carried something that I could learn from.
Which is why I designed this page in the first place.
It was meant to be a journal.
It was meant to be a platform where I could record my life so one day my future generations can learn from it.
But in the process, I discovered a lot of people were able to relate to my experiences as well.
My life helped others level up their life.
Perfect. That’s what leveling up is all about.
If you think someone can find value in the 27 lessons, go on and give it a share below!
– ArmaniTalks ????️????
