i honestly intended to write about this weeks ago but life has been very busy the past few weeks. a lame excuse i know, but sadly it’s the truth. however, things a settling down now and i hope to have more time to write in the future. anyway, i am a regular reader of “zenhabits” and the recent post entitled “20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life” really moved me because there is so much wisdom and truth in it. some particular points listed there apply to me and hence i would like to share my thoughts on them.
ad 2. You gotta stay active. well, i wasn’t very active when i left school to begin with but my activity level dropped almost to zero when i started my studies. at around my 21st birthday i noticed that climbing one flight of stairs makes me breathless and i told myself to do something about it. i got myself a mountainbike and a stationary trainer and that’s where my obsession with cycling started. i think it is very important to maintain a decent level of fitness as you get older.
ad 4. Junk food will come back to bite you in the butt. i think that goes hand in hand with point 2 actually. during the early years of my studies, was not only sedentary but i ate like 5 times per week at McDonalds because it was “fast” food. i simply did not have the time to cook or prepare healthy meals. unfortunately, i did not stop going to fast food joints until i have almost finished my studies. i wish it had occured to me earlier that junk food is simply bad for you. these days i try to make up for it by eating loads of whole grain or organic stuff and being a part time vegetarian (that means i eat chicken and/or fish once or twice a week but no other red meat).
ad 10. Make time to pursue your passion, no matter how busy you are. yep, i am still working on that one. during the last two years of my studies i was so consumed by my work and research that i couldn’t focus on anything else. it wore me down and if i had to do it all over again, i would certainly do it differently. i would set aside some hours per week for stuff i love to do or always wanted to do.
ad 13. All that time you spend watching TV is a huge, huge waste of time. i wish someone would have told me that when i was 15. i watched way too much TV in my late teens and early twenties. luckily, i managed to quit watching TV about eight years ago and i do not regret it. all the junk on TV is just not worth your precious time.
ad 18. Tequila is seriously evil. yep, i could not agree more on this one. maybe i should change it to “Red Bull is seriously evil” though, since i did not drink as much alcohol as guzzled down Red Bull in my early to mid twenties. so for me personally, Red Bull is the drink of the devil.
ad 19. Yes, you can do a marathon. Don’t put this goal off — it’s extremely rewarding. i would rather replace marathon with Ironman but a marathon is alright as a first goal in terms of endurance events. i would love to cross the finish line of a marathon one day. i believe it teaches you an important lesson about yourself: that you can really do stuff that seems impossible to do if you set your mind on it.