We commonly hear people say *life is short* when thinking about old memories.
In reality, life is, hopefully, pretty long.
A powerful concept to keep in the back of your mind is delayed gratification.
Simply put, delaying gratification means sacrificing a temporary high in exchange for a bigger reward in the future.
Consuming 17 nuggets from Chick-fil-A in one sitting, for example, might sound satisfying when you’re really hungry, but you won’t feel so great afterwards (trust me).
That’s probably not the most useful example when first hearing about this concept, so let’s discuss a few more examples that are actually relevant to your life today:
(1) Getting enough sleep on a consistent basis.
Flash back to your early twenties (or maybe, present day?) — work your ass off Monday through Thursday, and go out Thursday night through Saturday night.
Waking up each of the next mornings thinking about the crap you ate last night and feeling guilty. Being too exhausted and hungover the next day to do what you need to do. Missing workouts. The list goes on and on…
I’m not saying there’s ANYTHING wrong with going out and blowing off some steam. In fact, we all need some time with our friends to just enjoy life.
Just make sure that your leisure time isn’t interfering with your sleep too often. Find out what works best for you. After all, “sleep is the elixir of life” —Matt Walker:
(2) Earning a high up-front salary (early in your career) is simply a vanity metric.
Consider the following scenario:
Job A is for a small company that pays $42,000/year, but would allow you to have direct mentorship from someone who’s had major success in your field for years.
Job B is for a large enterprise that pays double that of Job A. You’d have access to fancy corporate perks and plenty of career stability.
In a vacuum, Job B seems like a total no-brainer. But I’m going to make the case for Job A that many people in our age group fail to realize:
Direct access to a successful mentor will allow you to develop a highly specialized skillset that will allow you make leaps and bounds in your career.
While Job B will make you monetarily richer today, Job A will allow you to build a skillset to multiply your wealth in a few years.
Job B is great for your ego, but not so great for your long-term growth.
As the GOAT Naval Ravikant says, “play long term games with long term people.”
The best things in life come from compound interest and focusing on building your specific knowledge.
(3) Living below your means.
Would you rather live in a shiny new apartment with a walkable commute in Battery Park City OR in a modest apartment with a short commute in FiDi?
Trick question — there’s no right answer. It really depends on your circumstance.
What I’m trying to get you to think about is how you can make reasonable sacrifices to live below your means.
While you certainly might be able to afford rent for that swanky new apartment in Battery Park, does it make sense to pay an additional $1,500/month to avoid a 15-minute commute?
The answer is obviously highly individual.
In short, pick your battles and find out how you can minimize your expenses on the dumb things so that you can spend whatever you want on the things you really like (like that $7 Starbucks coffee!).
Thanks for listening. See you on the next episode of The Principle Podcast.
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