18 Lessons To Teach Your Kids Before They Turn 18 (From People Way Smarter Than Me)

1. “One day, you'll leave this world behind. So live a life you will remember.” - Avicii, The Nights

2. “Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” - Mark Twain

3. “You're under no obligation to be the same person you were 5 minutes ago.” - Alan Watts

4. Optimize your life for the ability to go on a walk with your family at 10:30AM on a Tuesday. If you aim at this everything else will fall into place.

5. “Happiness is only real when shared.” - Christopher McCandless

6. "To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." - E.E. Cummings

7. “It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.” - Charlie Munger

8. “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.” ― Jim Carrey

9. "What boat you are in is far more important than how hard you row." - Alex Hormozi

10. “Unspoken expectations are premeditated resentments.” - Neil Strauss

11. "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin

12. “You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.” ― David Foster Wallace

13. "Your "waiting room" of things to do, projects to tackle, opportunities to address, people to see, and ideas to pursue will always be full. You will never make a dent in it — and expecting otherwise will only serve to create anxiety." - Sahil Bloom

14. “There is nothing more adventurous than telling the truth. You have no idea what will happen to you if you tell the truth.” - Jordan Peterson

15. "The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life." - Jessica Hische

16. "Ask for things. Ask for things that feel unreasonable, to make sure your intuitions about what's reasonable are accurate (of course, try not to be a jerk in the process). If you're only asking for things you get, you're not aiming high enough." - Cate Hall

17. “The Queen of England died 18 months ago…. She ruled an entire nation and accumulated more wealth than 99.99% of humans… And yet… you haven’t thought about her except for this tweet. No matter how big your dreams. You’re gonna die. Everyone will move on. Do what you want.” - Alex Hormozi

18. "Forever is composed of nows.” - Emily Dickenson

Words I Wish I Wrote

Links & Learnings

• How To Play Monopoly Wrong… This isn’t a post about Monopoly.

• I would highly recommend this self authoring exercise.

• Making “new” friends is easier than you think given everyone wants more friends but doesn’t want to be the first mover. Be the first mover.

Psst… DSTLLD has a podcast now, too. I know — like the world needs another podcast, right? But here’s the thing: if you can tolerate my written rambles, you’ll probably find my in-person yammering… well, moderately tolerable. It’s basically me and a guest chatting about the same offbeat stuff you read here, except now you get to hear me stumble over big words in real time. I’m not saying it’s the greatest thing in the universe (trust me, I’ve listened to it), but if you like DSTLLD, there’s a good chance you won’t hate it. Win-win! Subscribe or follow on your favourite podcast platform:

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