30 Life & Money Habits to Master Before 30
The Hyperfocused Entrepreneur
May 15, 2023
Read time: 16 minutes
50% of success is WHAT you do.
The other 50% is how LONG you do what you do.
Habits are the cheat code to success.
Plug in the right habits and success is simply a matter of repetition.
But the opposite is also true…
Stack the wrong habits and… well… best be prepared for a life filled with frustration, discontent, and regret.
Truth is…
Your life at this very moment is the culmination of the habits and routines you’ve hardwired into your programming.
Ten years ago, as I was nearing 30 years old, I looked around at what my life had become, at the van I called home, at the $80,000 of debt looming over my head, at my poor relationships, and realized I wasn’t living up to the potential I felt I had inside.
From that rock bottom place, I made a decision to change… to upgrade my Habits and Skills and become something more.
But there was one glaring problem…
I didn’t have a clue what Habits or Skills were worth pursuing.
So I set off blindly and hoped for the best.
In this week’s article, I’m going to save you countless hours, days, and months of trial and error and I’m going to give you the 30 Life & Money Habits to Master Before 30 so you can start realizing your greatness.
Let’s get to it.
1. First Impressions
It took me way too long to learn this lesson, so listen up…
You only get ONE chance to make a killer first impression so you’d best make it a damn good one.
But here’s the thing most people don’t realize… psychological studies show that people make snap decisions about others within the first second of seeing them.
Not meeting them, but seeing them.
That means you’ve got to be on your A-game the moment you walk through the door whether that’s meeting the potential woman of your dreams on a first date, meeting a business partner that could change your life at a networking event, or closing that big client worth a million dollars of future revenue.
So, with this in mind you’ve got to always be aware of messages your body language is sending.
If you walk through doors staring down at your cell phone, for example, what message are you sending?
Well to me, I might think you’re busy or aloof or distracted.
On the other hand, if you walk through the door head held high with great posture and a warm smile on your face, chances are people are going to be attracted to you as a confident and inviting person.
And because you just NEVER know when a chance encounter could lead to something extraordinary, you must always be aware of the message you send when you walk into a room.
2. Conversation
Conversation is a bit of a lost art.
Most people, whether it’s talking to a stranger in the elevator, an acquaintance at a networking event, or even a friend at the bar, suck at engaging in memorable conversation.
The reason for this is because most people never think to practice.
So, if you want to stand out from the crowd and leave people with a positive impression of you long after the interaction has ended, you must hone your skill as a conversationalist.
And to become a great conversationalist all you’ve really got to do is master these three things:
- How to ask great questions
- How to LISTEN
- How to tell a great story
The most important thing you’ve got to understand is that most people don’t care what you have to say. They care about what THEY have to say.
So, the way you elevate yourself in people’s minds is by giving THEM space to talk. Problem is, most people simply don’t know what to talk about… Your role in the conversation, therefore, is to ASK great questions that get people to open up and share.
From there, your job is to shut up and listen. Find the opportunity to ask the next killer follow up question, and then again, shut up and listen.
Okay, so the trick to being perceived as a good conversationalist is to only do 20% of the talking, but eventually you will have to share something of yourself…
And this is where knowing how to tell a great story is gonna come in handy. Seriously, just learning the basics of story structure, delivery, and body language will put you in the upper echelon of conversationalists.
3. Listening
Again, people love being heard.
The trick is to be present and attentive. Give the other person your full and undivided attention.
So put the cell phone away, stop staring off into the distance, or rehearsing in your mind what YOU plan to say next.
Be IN the conversation. Focus on the speaker, cut distractions, and avoid jumping to conclusions..
Whenever possible, ask clarifying questions and try your damndest to empathize with the other person.
Developing top-notch listening skills will lead not only to better relationships, but killer insights as you will inevitably learn more.
4. Writing
Writing is a superpower.
Why?
Because writing is thought made physical.
The people who are able to clarify, organize, and communicate their thoughts through the written word are simply in a different league from those who cannot.
To become a better writer, you just need to do two things:
- Read
- Write
Reading is valuable because it gives you insights into how OTHERS have organized their thoughts. Pay attention to the words they use and the structure of their arguments.
Next, just sit down and start writing. Don’t overthink this. Just get a notebook or open Google docs, pick a topic, and then just start writing.
If you’re like most people, you will find this incredibly difficult.
Don’t despair. That’s just how it is.
Truth is, thinking ain’t easy. Which is why most people simply don’t do it.
5. Public Speaking
Most people are deathly afraid of public speaking, which is a shame because it’s one of the most powerful skills you can acquire.
And no, I’m not just talking about getting up on a stage in front of 100,000. Public speaking can take many forms, including small team meetings at work or in your business.
The ability to confidently get up in front of a group of people and deliver a message with impact immediately elevates your authority and influence in all areas of life.
And the truth is, becoming an above average public speaker isn’t all that difficult because the bar is set so damn low. So, put in the time and the effort now, and then thank me later.
6. Fitness
There is potentially no better investment you can make than in your health.
As Seneca said:
“The healthy man wants 1,000 things. The sick man wants but one.”
It’s imperative you create rituals around maintaining a high level of fitness. Whether that’s lifting weights, running, swimming, or playing tennis…find a way to stay fit.
Not only will prioritizing your fitness help you look and feel fantastic, it’ll also boost your energy, productivity, and overall happiness.
7. Nutrition
If your body is the vehicle carrying you through life, than the food you eat is the fuel.
The reason most people experience brain fog, low energy, and an inability to focus is because they are putting garbage fuel into their body.
As software engineers say, “Junk in, Junk out.”
On the other hand, if you put high quality fuel into your tank you’ll experience heightened levels of energy, mental clarity, and an insane boost to your mood.
So, treat your body like the high-perfomance machine it is and feed it the best fuel possible. Your future-self will thank you.
8. Sleep
The Hustle Porn culture has villainized sleep for decades with its claims that you can “sleep when you’re dead” or that “sleep is for the weak”.
This is complete crap.
Studies repeatedly show there is nothing you can do that’ll have a bigger impact on your physical and mental health than getting a good night’s sleep.
Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night. The key for me is to prioritize going to bed at the same time every night AND going through a nightly shut down ritual.
Seriously, sleep is not a luxury or for the lazy – it’s a necessity. Don’t skimp.
9. Investing
Warren Buffet said:
“If you can’t find a way to make money in your sleep, then you will work until you die.”
This is why you must learn the investing game.
You don’t need a master’s degree in money to do well. You just need to know the rules and then find one or two strategies you can master.
To learn more about the rules and strategy of money, check out this video:
I read 100 books on money… here’s what I learned.
10. Energy Management
Energy is your most important resource.
The quality of your life takes a nosedive when you’re drained, exhausted, and running on fumes.
This is why it’s so damn important you master your 3 Levers of Energy (Sleep, Nutrition, and Exercise).
Additionally, become a student of your energy levels. Observe where they are throughout the day and then schedule tasks accordingly.
Tackle high-priority activities when you’re at your peak and save low-energy taks for the inevitable lulls.
11. Discipline
If there is one skill or habit I could point to as the reason I am no longer up to my eyeballs in debt and living in the back of a van, it would be discipline.
The ability to force yourself to do the hard thing, even in the absence of motivation, is what separates professionals from amateurs.
The key is to recognize that if you can’t discipline yourself, the world will have to do it for you.
Which is why throughout my 20s I was constantly in-and-out of relationships, getting fired, and just barely getting by.
If you want to change the trajectory of your life, develop Discipline. To learn how, watch this video:
Learning THIS about discipline changed my life…
12. Learning
The ability to learn, to improve, and to grow beyond your current limitations is a gift from the gods that only humans possess.
Think of a baby horse. Within minutes of being born it is up and running around, eating and jumping and more or less doing all the things an adult horse can…
Compare that to a human baby who within minutes of being born is…practically useless.
Most of us continue in that state of uselessness for the next couple decades.
BUT, because of our capacity to learn, it’s only a matter of time until we become world-changers.
To unlock your limitless potential, it’s imperative you learn how to learn, and then use that ability as much as humanly possible.
13. Focus
Attention is the new oil.
Every single day trillions of dollars are being spent trying to separate you from your attention.
Whenever they succeed, they get paid.
Whenever you succeed in staying focused, you get paid.
So stay focused, my friend.
To learn how, check out the Hyperfocus Masterclass.
Speaking of Focus…
Are you easily distracted?
Do you struggle to overcome procrastination?
Do you feel like you have this great big ball of potential lurking within and that if you could just tap into it and FOCUS, you’d be absolutely unstoppable?
Well… you’re not alone.
I’ve struggled with distraction, procrastination, and focus for my entire life.
But, despite this struggle, I’ve managed to create some habits, frameworks, and systems that’ve enabled me to get out of my own way to tap into my inner-greatness and get shit done.
I’ve gathered everything I’ve learned over the years about developing supercharged focus into one place called the Hyperfocus Masterclass.
If you’re ready to kick butt and conquer, then you can join over 1,700+ other students currently enrolled in The Hyperfocus Masterclass.
14. Relaxation
A life lived in constant pursuit of the next accomplishment, the next goal, the next milestone is an exhausting existence.
Also, not a terribly fulfilling one.
As with all things in life, balance is the key.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t work hard towards your goals. Simply realize that all you really have in life is this very moment.
So embrace it.
Don’t be afraid to switch off and unwind every now and then. Not only will you be more productive in the long run, you’ll live longer and have more fun along the way.
15. Personal Finance
By the time I turned 30, I knew embarassingly little about personal finance.
It just wasn’t a topic my family grew up talking about. That, coupled with the fact I was $80,000 in debt, meant I felt a lot of shame whenever I thought about money.
So I stuck my head in the sand and pretended like it didn’t matter.
But that didn’t change the fact that it DID matter.
A truth which eventually caught up with me when a loved one was dying and I didn’t have the money to help save their life.
As they say:
“Winning the money game doesn’t solve all your problems, but it does solve all your money problems… and many of life’s problems are money problems.”
So learn the money game, conduct regular financial audits, create a budget, live below your means, build an emergency fund, and invest in your money making potential.
If you do all that, you’ll probably be doing alright in the long run.
16. Making Money
Speaking of personal finance…
If your goal is to achieve financial freedom, you must develop high value skills you can leverage to create either larger or additional income streams.
By the time I’d turned 30, I had very few valuable skills, which is why I wasn’t making very much money.
It was only once I started creating daily routines around learning, honing, and deploying high value money making skills, that the numbers in my bank account started changing for the better.
Curious what are some high value money making skills worth acquiring?
Check out this video:
The 6 Skills That Made Me a Millionaire in 3 Years.
17. Journal
Aristotle once said:
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Truthfully, I think a lot of the discontent I experienced throughout my twenties stemmed from a stunning lack of self-awareness and introspection.
I attribute much of the success I’ve had over the past decade to my regular journaling practice as its helped me unlock powerful insights, clarify thoughts, process emotions, and set intentions.
In my experience, there is no right or wrong way to journal. Just pick up a pen or sit down at the keyboard and start writing whatever is in your head at the moment.
Don’t censor or critique what’s coming out. Just gush.
18. Self-Defense
Despite the progress we’ve made as a society over the past 100 years, the truth is, the world is still a very dangerous place.
Learning self-defense and regularly training a martial art like jiu jitsu, boxing, or muy thai is one of the most practical ways I know to simultaneously develop increased confidence, self-control, and the ability to protect yourself.
Bonus points for the fact that you’ll also get in fantastic shape in the process.
19. Self-Care
An interesting study a few years ago showed that people were more likely to take their pet to the vet when it became ill or injured than they were to take themselves to the doctor when they were ill or injured.
Think about that…
People take better care of their pets than they take care of themselves.
That simply won’t do. You’re worth more than you give yourself credit for.
So make a point of developing a self-care routine that prioritizes nourishing your mind, body, and soul. Because here’s the thing… if ya don’t, nobody else will.
Something interesting occurs when you take better care of yourself:
Suddenly your ability to support others increases.
So, ya see… taking care of yourself is actually a selfless act because it’s from your overflowing cup that you can help others fill theirs.
20. Vulnerability
Truthfully, I didn’t start to figure this one out until a few years ago at the ripe old age of 37(!).
I am by no means an expert at being vulnerable, but I’ve learned a few things over the past couple years that I wish, wish, wish somebody could’ve beaten into my thick skull sooner.
See, for the first three and a half decades of my life, I wore a mask. I pretended to be the guy who had it all figured out, who was self-reliant, and had his shit together.
I was so afraid that people would see the truth (that I was struggling through life) and judge me as unworthy that I just kept my true feelings, fears, and dreams locked up inside.
The result?
My relationships were shit and I hated myself.
One of the biggest transformations in my life has been the realization that vulnerability is a sign of strength, not weakness, and that the only way to foster truly deep connections, is by showing up as your most authentic and vulnerable self.
I hope you figure this one out quicker than me!
21. Integrity
I used to ask all new hires in my businesses, “Do you have integrity?”
Not a single one ever said no.
That’s not surprising, but the way they answered the next questions was.
“How do you define integrity?”
Interestingly, no two people ever came up with the precisely the same definition. This is why it’s so important that we define terms before engaging in conversation on a topic.
For me, I define Integrity as you do what you say.
That is, your actions and your words are in alignment.
Again, I struggled with Integrity throughout my 20s because I often said things that were incongruent with my actions.
In fact, I was terrible at keeping the commitments I made both to myself and to others.
I believe your self-worth is simply the reputation you have with yourself.
If you lack integrity, then you’re going to have a dubious reputation, and I promise that’ll eat at you.
22. Emotional Control
The Buddha said:
“In life, we cannot control the first arrow because it represents the unexpected conditions of life. But we CAN control how we respond to the second arrow, which is fueled by our reaction and judgment.”
Thousands of years later, after surviving a concentration camp, Viktor Frankl said:
“Between the stimulus and response, there is a space. And in that space lies our freedom and power to choose our responses. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Here’s the take away:
You are only free in this life to the extent you are able to control your emotions.
If you cannot master your emotions, then you will be doomed to serving them.
23. Decision Making
Most of us were never taught a systematic way to make better decisions.
Which is a shame, because as Naval Ravikant says:
“In an age of infinite leverage, judgment becomes the most important skill.”
And good judgment is derived from the ability to make good decisions.
If you want to learn my 3-part System for Making Better Decisions, check out this article called The Millionaire Skillstack.
24. Patience
One of the most powerful perspective shifts I’ve undergone in the past decade is the realization that I have just so much time ahead of me.
Even now as I approach 40, it feels as though the game is only just beginning.
Now, if you’re reading this and you’re in your 20s, that might be a hard thing to imagine, much less believe, but I assure you, it’s true.
And this is good news, because all the things that make life worth living (strong relationships, good health, financial stability, etc…) take time.
So start cultivating patience now by realizing that the race is long and your ability to show up consistently matters far more than your ability to show up with intensity.
25. Execution
Okay, so now I’m gonna immediately contradict myself.
Yes, you need to practice patience.
But, also realize that often the difference between successfully capitalizing on an opportunity, or missing the boat entirely, depends on your speed of execution.
When opportunity knocks, you best get off your ass and move with purpose.
So how do we balance these contradicting ideas of Patience and speed of Execution?
By developing Micro-Speed and Macro-Patience.
Or, as Naval put it: “Impatience with actions, patience with results.”
26. Personal Presentation
Listen, we all know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover… but we do.
All of us, even the most well-intentioned, are guilty of this.
So be aware of this and don’t make things harder on yourself by showing up with a shitty book cover.
Pay attention to how you dress, how you stand, how you maintain eye contact, how you shake hands, how you walk into a room, and, most important of all, how you make other people feel.
The way you present yourself communicates volumes about who you are and what you stand for, so cultivate your image and the message you’re communicating to the world with intention.
27. Conflict Management
One of the questions I get most often is, “What’s the hardest part of building a business?”
The answer is simple: People.
Whether it’s customers, employees, partners, or vendors, at some point you’re gonna have to deal with other people regardless of the type of business you’re building.
And the problem with people is that we’re all different in our wants, needs, and desires.
Because of this, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for interacting with other people. No simple system you can deploy that’ll work perfectly regardless of scenario.
This means you’re inevitably gonna piss somebody off.
The ability to manage that conflict is one of those subtle life-skills which will dictate the overall quality of your relationship.
Good conflict management stems from your ability to effectively deploy tactical empathy, which is something that’ll serve you in all areas of life.
28. History
I’ve noticed an interesting commonality amongst the people whom I consider wise in my life:
They look at current problems through the lens of history to gain perspective and insight.
That’s because, as Mark Twain pointed out:
“History never repeats itself, but it always rhymes.”
The problem with being young is that you just haven’t been around for very long. You haven’t been exposed to enough history yet.
But once you become a student of history, you unlock this strange superpower called context.
And with this context you start to see patterns and connections between seemingly unrelated events.
Remember, In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
In my estimation, the man or woman with a firm understanding of history has the ability to see beyond the Present, to the Future which will be shaped (as it always has been) by Past events.
29. Poise
I used to coach young competition rock climbers, which is a particularly challenging skill to teach because pretty much every human on the planet has, to some degree, a fear of heights.
Fear is a helluva thing that makes us behave in irrational ways.
For instance, when you’re dangling from the side of a cliff by your fingertips, the fear-response says you’d better hold on for all your worth.
So in that moment, it’s natural for people to freeze and become incapacitated by fear.
Now, the problem with this response is that it’s not doing anything to improve your situation. In fact, it’s actively making it worse because you’re probably wasting precious energy shivering like a leaf and over-gripping whatever you’re holding onto.
In this state, you’re accelerating the rate at which you will inevitably reach exhaustion and thus fall.
The only solution that optimizes for success is to act in the face of fear in a calm, calculated, and precise manner.
I call this poise and I believe it’s a superpower that the highest achievers amongst us are able to conjure on demand.
30. Confidence
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
Tim Cook was onto something there…
But it’s not craziness which compels these world-changers forward.
It’s Confidence.
It’s the unshakeable belief they have in themselves to problem solve, to adapt, and, ultimately, to execute.
Now, maybe you don’t have grand ambitions to change the world, but I’m SURE you don’t believe you were put on this planet just to be ordinary.
You don’t believe in your heart of hearts that you’re average.
No, there’s greatness in you. A potential you feel bubbling just beneath the surface that you’re compelled to pursue.
Well, my friend, I’ve been consistently amazed by how far people no different than you and me end up making it simply as a result of moving towards their dreams with confidence.
So what are you waiting for?
Hone these 30 habits and then go forth with confidence to change… well… everything.
Until next week…
Stay Hyperfocused, My Friend
AV
From YouTube This Week:
Businesses of the Future: This Generation’s Opportunity
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