Lessons learned in life

Life is a ‘go-figure it out yourself’ project. However, we do not have the time and the resources to make all the mistakes ourselves. As a personal development author, speaker and coach, I have also seen a lot of people I interact with at the professional level making the same mistakes and sometimes even repeating them. Let me share some rules that I live by and see if you can transform your life.

Have goals and start side hustle: Have wealth, health and relationship goals in life. Use your weekends to work only for yourself. A lot of people waste their precious weekends sleeping and partying. See if you can do something more productive with your time. It does not matter if you are a full-time employee, do something on the weekends that helps you escape the rat race.

Create something you can sell: We have all been programmed for consuming by society and businesses. Think about how you can develop a product or a skill that you can encash in the future. Find some business idea. Start small but do not stay small.

Get global education and work in a strong economy: If possible, get global education and always work in a country where the currency is strong and the government is concerned about the financial future of its citizens. Do not give up unless you are old and uneducated and absolutely stuck in a bad economy. You can live outside your country and still love your country.

Look your best and talk sense: No matter how harsh it may sound, the world is nice to people who look great. Thus always work on your personality. How you speak and how well you groom yourself determines your professional future. You do not have to choose between brain and beauty, if you are willing to practise discipline. Feed your brain with highest quality video content, expert inputs and books. Exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes every day and eat healthy. Join a public speaking course to gain oratory skills. And if you cannot afford one, speak and record yourself for five minutes every day on your cellphone camera.

Know the decision makers: Life becomes easy if you know the top people. Get access to the decision makers — country heads and the global leaders of your company. Your top bosses must know your name and always go the extra mile to help them solve their problems.

(Siddhartha is the bestselling author of Love Your Mondays and retire young, 60 Keys to Success with NLP and many other books)