All relationships need to be a two way street – they need to have an equal exchange. Whether it’s a family member, girlfriend, teacher, friend, or boss at work make sure every relationship in your life has a healthy give and take. That doesn’t mean that everything will be perfectly equal and fair at any given point – it won’t – but don’t continuously give if you’re not getting anything back. Your time and energy are precious and throughout your life you’ll have to make hard decisions to cut people out of your life that are negative influences or taking advantage of you. There are many ways you can contribute to a relationship - sometimes people just make us feel good or are good listeners and that’s enough in return. Making sure that relationships are balanced and a two-way street will keep everyone accountable and avoid many future conflicts or disappointments with people.
Start investing early. Listen up knucklehead – pay attention. Every single month put some money away to invest it with a steady, old-school financial planner. The key to this is that the YOUNGER you start the faster and bigger your money will grow. Even if it’s a little bit every month get in the habit because your money will grow exponentially – and that’s the magic of compounding interest. Don’t wait until you are older or making more money to start investing. As soon as you get an allowance, or paycheck from your first job, put aside 20% for savings and 20% for investments automatically, and then go ahead and have fun and blow the rest. You won’t even miss it if you take it out first and can’t touch it, but having it in hand makes it too easy to spend it. By the time you are 30 you’ll be shocked how much your money has grown. Everyone else will just be starting out with savings or putting money away, but you’ll have a huge head start. This will allow you to buy a house, enjoy a big safety net of savings, or invest further to be comfortable and not always stressed about money. Remember that starting early, not the amount, is the most important element; if you invested $100 a month starting at age 20 or $1000 a month starting at 30 believe it or not the 20 year old will have much more money by the time you retire.
Movies you MUST see whether you want to or not:
1. Animal House
2. Vacation
3. The Breakfast Club
4. Half Baked
5. Caddy Shack
6. 40 Year old Virgin
7. Good Will Hunting
8. The Godfather
9. Rocky 1-4 but DEFINITELY NOT Rocky 5-11.
10. Maid in Manhattan (ok that one is just a cruel joke just to bust his balls)
Network. From what I’ve seen the biggest measure of success in someone’s life is not dependent on where they went to school or how rich their daddy is but how well they network. Networking is simply knowing a bunch of people, keeping cool with them, and staying in touch. Think of it like an investment in people; those you are friendly with and help today will come full circle to be positive influences in your life down the road. Be friendly and say hi to people everywhere you go. Meet friends of friends – for this is the easiest way to grow your social circles and usually good people hang out with good people. Ask questions about them and show genuine interest. Help them when you can. Connect them with other good people you know or make an effort to assist them with the little things. They should look back and say their life is better because they met you. Remember everyone’s name and keep in touch. If you have a terrible memory like me then write them down everyone’s name, phone number, and email address in a big database. With all the people I’ve met in my life and the places I’ve traveled I can’t even imagine how rich in love and connected I would be if I took the effort to keep in touch and stay friendly with everyone. If you want to see a great natural networker in action spend some time with your Uncle Reilly. Your Uncle Mitch does an amazing job of making people feel like superstars when he meets them. I’ve learned from both of them.
A small smile is the only social response appropriate to ANY situation – whether good or bad.
Work hard in life. No matter what you end up doing for work, for a hobby, for recreation, or in a relationship work hard at it. The goal of life is not to take it easy and be lazy, and in fact this never makes you happy but more and more lost. Don’t be afraid of hard work because nothing good comes easy and you’ll have to earn everything that is truly valuable in life. Of course I’m not saying to be a workaholic – I’m talking about extending maximum effort and leaving it all on the field. No matter what the outcome, the process of working hard will enrich you as a person and keep your priorities in order. The trick is to love what you do, so that working hard will be fun and rewarding.
It’s your job to make your girlfriend or wife feel like the most beautiful, important woman in the world BUT you won’t be able to do it if she doesn’t already feel it for herself.
The world doesn’t care about you – you are sharing the planet right now with 7 billion other human organisms. You were born, will live, walk the earth, grow old, die, and disappear like everyone else. Part of your journey throughout your life will be to kill your ego. I am working on this now – surrendering our self-importance and the perception of control of our lives. FYI a month writing a book to your unborn son by the beach in Costa Rica is a good place to wage that battle! Your ego tells you that you are important and special but in reality our physical lives are all just as insignificant and temporal as everyone else’s. However your energy will be around forever. Your spirit is indistinguishable. That is what they call a legacy – what you are going to leave this world as evidence that you were here long after you are gone. Spreading love, helping people, or creating something good is so incredibly powerful because you are literally releasing energy into the universe that will travel and recirculate forever. Even a small smile and a compliment can make someone’s day and grow like ripples in a pond. Artists know this – they are giving birth to a creation from their soul that will be here forever and transcends mortality, whether it a painting, music, or even words documented by humble writers.
Last but not least for today, please know this – I love you.
Great blog! Love it! Sandra Aguirre-Herrera
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