 My 20s were really one of the most difficult times of my life and I think for you it might be one of the most difficult times for you as well Now recently as I'm wrapping up my doctoral program and I've been traveling a lot and I just got back from living in a monastery in China I'm reflecting on what were the biggest levers in the last 10 years of my life What things made the biggest difference and really pushed the needle towards being happy and really achieving my goals Now in this video, I want to share three of those insights with you What's up guys Alex Hein author of the book master the day now? I quickly wanted to share something really really cool and awesome company I've been working with and how it can help you reach your goals One of the things when you're really busy in life is that it's difficult to actually take time to sit down and read a book For example now, especially if you're using social media a lot It can be really really addictive and you may not think you have the time to actually invest something into self-growth But one app that I end up using a lot is actually called blinkest So one of the cool things about blinkest is that they actually take most of the critical information from thousands of nonfiction books and Puts them down into just maybe 10-15 minutes so you can read it or you listen to it So you don't really have to go through the entire book if you're really busy or Frankly, if you have a short attention span and you just want to get really the essential gems out of a book and There are millions of users using it personally I use it a lot for self-help books business and health as a majority of the time But one of the things that it's really cool about is that there's both are written and an audio option For listening to the content or consuming it and so sometimes those like one to two minute summaries of the chapter are really really cool And really really concise and I tend to use it when I'm like waiting in line or I'm just eating breakfast Or I've got time in between appointments and that's tends to be when I have the most Opportunity to go through it and just kind of get a summary of a book But the first hundred people that go to this link in the description are going to get unlimited access for one week To try it out and 25% off if you want the full membership So you check it out in the first link below now the first lever for me was always choosing growth over performance now So there's a big difference when you get into your 20s where you know I got my first job and what was everybody saying to me? Hey, Alex, what if you could get a seventy thousand dollar a year job? What if you can make six figures as if the monetary number was the only thing that really mattered in your career where people Always chase these short-term gains and they were like Alex. What if you could do this now? But what they didn't see was that ten years later? Most people that choose those short-term gains are almost always in the same spot. So I chose growth Now what does growth look like growth looks like getting the lowest paying job with the maximal amount of learning or the best Opportunity because maybe now you're learning from someone who's an icon in your field and even though you're getting paid Nothing you're learning the skills that will allow you to make quantum leaps of success Valuing growth might mean leaving your current relationship because even though it's good It's okay. It doesn't have that growth and longevity you want where it gets better and better every year And you have someone that's constantly improving themselves and constantly reinventing themselves where that passion is still there Growth may mean something like let's say like for example. I've written a book. I have two books Well, my next book that's gonna come out in the next two or three years if I just valued short-term gains I would just write a book just like I wrote all the other books I would follow the proven boring process. So I knew the book would be a hit. I knew it'd be a win I would get a book advance. That's not what a growth oriented person does The reason for that is now that if I want to choose growth, which is getting better Which will result from better things later I'm choosing to write a totally different book totally different topic with a totally different writing style The next book I write is going to be so different and if you always choose growth over short-term gains now You're gonna get those gains times 10 later The second thing that made a big difference in my life in the last 10 years is I've chosen to be rich instead of looking rich Internally, so what does this mean? You know how everybody talks about LA where you see someone that's like driving a nice car and they seem to have a cool job But behind the scenes they're living in a really bad apartment. They're massively in debt. They have roommates They actually can't really afford that car They're that writer or that artist or musician is really just working at a coffee shop or is working as a waiter This is big thing in LA and with the social media culture now where people want to look rich Instead of really being rich There's a difference between making forty thousand dollars a year as a bartender But leasing a one thousand dollar a month beemer Versus someone who has a normal car, but they actually are putting away a thousand a month cash into their bank account savings That's being rich and not looking rich, but for me, this is all about internal So when I say being rich it means following my intuition to go after the things that are really important to me The problem is that when you go after the things you want in life It often means you will not be respected by your own friends and family or your mentors The exact people you want respect from you want to feel good from your parents You want them to be like little Jimmy. I'm so proud of you son But when you follow the things you feel you're called to do in life It often means you're not respected at least not now in the short run So if you choose being rich instead of looking rich This could be rich however you define it, but also even financially rich It means in the short run you pay the price and you sacrifice you do what you love So that later down the line you'll be able to have the financial riches you want and all the kinds of experiences You want and maybe even the respect and admiration you want from your parents or from your friends But in the short run doing what you enjoy often does not produce that So if you choose being rich instead of looking rich You're gonna make the decision always that makes you feel good that you friggin love an awesome life And then you'll also get those fruits just later in life The last thing that made a big difference to me was taking a chance on love any kind of love Always take the chance on love The chance may be I always wanted to go to Spain and go to Barcelona after I read The Alchemist and Go around the trails go down to Tarifa and the Strait of Gibraltar and see Africa Just like Paulo Coelho talked about in his book So one month I took an entire month off when I just had quit my job and I decided to go do exactly that So most people that was a stupid pipe dream. Why would you ever do that? To me because it sounded cool and that was one of my favorite books just like it is probably for so many of you That may mean you take a chance on love even though it's improbable with a person Maybe you're not sure if it's gonna work out. Maybe they're the one that lives in Spain and you live somewhere else in the world Maybe you're just really intimidated by them and you don't know if you're good enough Take the chance because you're always gonna learn something that is gonna help you live a better life Down the line and in the future just like taking the chance on that trip is always gonna enrich your life It's always gonna make it better and of course always take the chance on doing work You love because just like I never envisioned. I would ever be a youtuber. I never envisioned I would ever write a book. I never envisioned I would ever start a business and now all of those things have gone really well Because I took a chance because I believed that there was a possibility somewhere that I could make this work And sometimes it's just by virtue of the possibility and you trusting that it might work out Even though I might not also work out it could happen and that possibility if you acknowledge it Is what will allow you to take the chance and possibly change your life forever So I hope that helps you guys These are three of the really the biggest insights that are a little bit unconventional in the last ten years of my life I hope it helps you make better decisions in your life and always take the long-term view and not just a short-term view of Dating those gains or those wins now Play the long game and that's gonna help you become the kind of person who has the most incredible life You've ever dreamed of So again before you go make sure to check out that link down below there for blinkest and otherwise You can check out my last related videos right there