I recently turned 30 and said goodbye to my twenties.
Unlike most people my age, I've been looking forward to it.
I felt like I achieved just about everything I wanted to achieve in my twenties, and more importantly, I felt ready for the next phase.
In my twenties, I: married the love of my life, bought a house, saw a lot of the world, built an incredibly successful business, leveraged that to build and invest in several other businesses, pushed myself physically, focused relentlessly on improving every day, read several hundred books, and had a lot of fun along the way.
That decade gave me a foundation I'm deeply grateful for. The next chapter of my life will be different — slower in some ways, heavier in others — but it will build directly on what those ten years made possible.
Recently, I spent some time writing down 30 rules and lessons I've picked up along the way. To do them justice, I'll be sharing them in three parts over the next few weeks. 10 at a time.
1. Find your life partner as early as possible.
If you're looking for love, and someone to build a life with, one of the most leverage-filled decisions you can make is choosing the right partner early. I was lucky. I started dating my now-wife when we were 17, and I knew very quickly that she was the person I wanted to build my life with.
Finding your partner early saves time, energy, and attention. It removes a huge source of uncertainty and distraction. It gives you a teammate, a best friend, and someone who has your back when things get hard.
That stability creates space to take risks, to focus deeply, and to build things that matter. Don't spend years investing in things you already know aren't long-term.
2. Sweat. Every day.
If there's one habit that improves the quality of your life faster than almost anything else, it's taking care of your body. Health doesn't just extend your life — it changes how you experience it.
Do something every day that makes you sweat. It doesn't need to be extreme. It doesn't need to be impressive. It just needs to move your body. Daily movement stabilises your energy, sharpens your thinking, and makes everything else easier.
3. Journal. Photograph. Document.
Life is really just a collection of moments. Moments you'll never get back, yet ones you'll eventually find yourself wanting to relive, understand, or remember more clearly.
Take time in the present to journal your experiences, capture moments in photos, and document pieces of your life through video. Memory fades faster than we expect. Documentation gives us perspective we didn't have at the time.
One important condition: never compromise the present moment just to record it. Live first. Capture second.
4. Read more than you watch.
Building a reading habit is one of the highest-leverage investments you can make in yourself. Reading doesn't just expose you to new ideas. It forces you to engage with them. It slows your thinking down just enough to help ideas stick, connect, and compound over time.
"Reading science, math, and philosophy one hour per day will likely put you at the upper echelon of human success within seven years."
— Naval Ravikant
The average person spends 5–7 hours a day consuming content through social media, television, or streaming services. Imagine what changes if even a fraction of that time is redirected toward ideas that expand how you think.
5. Own a dog.
Life is hard. Dogs make it easier. There's a reason dogs earned the label "man's best friend." Few things reset your nervous system like coming home after a long day to a dog waiting at the door — excited, present, and genuinely happy that you exist.
Beyond the emotional benefits, owning a dog teaches you important things: responsibility without negotiation, consistency without motivation, care without immediate reward. It forces you to be less selfish with your time, your energy, and your attention.
6. Systems and habits create success.
"If all it took were more information, then we'd all be billionaires with perfect abs."
— Derek Sivers
Results don't come from knowing what to do, but rather from doing the same small things consistently, over a long period of time. Information isn't the problem. The gap is built from excuses we use to protect our ego.
Progress comes from building systems and habits that make the right actions inevitable. On hard days, don't look for inspiration. Look for the system. Show up sad. Show up tired. Show up discouraged. You don't need to be exceptional. You need to be consistent.
7. Make time. Don't find time.
Drop the phrase "I need to find time" from your vocabulary. Nobody ever finds time. Time isn't hidden. It's fixed. If something matters, it has to be made, not discovered.
Decide what's important to you. Then treat it with the same respect you'd give a meeting or a deadline. Put it in your calendar. Commit to it. Protect it. Your time already reflects your priorities, whether you like them or not.
8. The higher up on the flagpole you go, the windier it will get.
This is a piece of wisdom my grandfather shared with me before he passed away. The more you achieve — and the more you aim to achieve — the more resistance you'll encounter.
Life works a bit like a video game. Each level brings new challenges. Stronger opponents. Higher stakes. The mistake is thinking this means you're doing something wrong. In reality, the higher you climb, the more capable you've become of handling the wind.
9. Don't postpone living.
There's no guarantee I'll be alive tomorrow. It's always puzzled me how many people defer living until some future milestone. When I retire. When I'm 65. When things slow down.
That doesn't mean being reckless. It means being intentional. Enjoy your life as you build it, not only after you've finished building. Take the trip while you can enjoy it fully. Have the experience while it still excites you. Money can usually be earned again. Time only moves in one direction.
10. Things aren't good or bad. They just are.
Humans are emotional beings. We attach emotion to almost every experience in our lives. That's natural, but it can also become a trap. Looking back and permanently labelling moments as "good" or "bad" is a misunderstanding of how life works.
An example from my own life is being fired from my first software developer job. At the time, it felt like the worst thing that had ever happened to me. In hindsight, that moment set off a chain of events that eventually led me to starting Origen.
"You never know what will be the consequences of good fortune or misfortune."
— Alan Watts (parable of the Chinese Farmer)
Life doesn't need your judgement. It just needs your participation. Accept what happens. Learn what you can. Move forward.