21 Life Lessons I've Learned

In this video I'll be going over 21 life lessons and tips that stuck with me after 2021.

00:00 Intro
00:10 Die with Zero Book
01:26 Stay Scrappy from Sahil's Minimalist Entrepreneur
02:50 Steven Bartlett's Quitting Framework
04:04 The Gap and the Gain
04:51 The 37% Rule
06:31 Forget the Noun, Do the Verb
07:39 Optimise for the life you want to lead day-to-day
09:00 Delegation is hard but changes the game
10:05 Everyone has some level of career risk
11:36 Time = 112 chips
13:13 Embracing the suck
14:49 If you're worried about your belly, stop ordering takeaway everyday
14:53 Infinite games over finite games
15:59 Separation of tasks
17:20 Be yourself when dating
19:15 Make sure you always have a kindle with you
19:58 Learning languages through audiobooks is fun & easy
21:15 What MrWhoseTheBoss Taught Me
22:52 Loving myself for who I am instead of what I do
24:20 Questioning assumptions and recognising how you feel about things
25:55 Embrace Life Long Learning!

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The podcast that delves into the minds of entrepreneurs, creators and other inspiring people to uncover the philosophies, strategies and tools that help us live happier, healthier and more productive lives. You can find it by searching “Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal” on any podcast app (eg: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts etc).

The podcast that delves into the minds of entrepreneurs, creators and other inspiring people to uncover the philosophies, strategies and tools that help us live happier, healthier and more productive lives. You can find it by searching “Deep Dive” on any podcast app (eg: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts etc).

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[georgestephen]

Books mentioned in the video:
1. Die with zero
2. The minimalist entrepreneur
3. Happy sexy millionaire
4. The gap and the gain
5. How to not die alone
6. Keep going
7. The courage to be disliked

Please consider leaving a like. Means the world to me :)

[fashionspy]

1) Spend your money on experiences and relationships
2) Stay scrappy, don't be a perfectionist
3) Know when to quit
4) Focus on your progress, rather than how far away you are from the ideal
5) Applying the 37% rule might be useful (explore 37% of the options and then commit)
6) There was no 6 😂
7) Forget the noun and do the verb. what matters is what you do, not what you "are"
8) What do i actually want from life? orient your day-to-day to this thing.
9) Delegating is hard, but so worth it.
10) everyone has "career risk", don't worry too much about it. bonus from me: develop your skills and you'll always have work opportunities.
11) You have 112 waking hours in the week. Allocate them wisely.
12) Embrace the suck, it WILL be sticky and shitty, it's supposed to be that way. Do it anyway.
13) Stop ordering takeaway. You'll probably get fat and/or damage your health.
14) What are the infinite games that you want to play? Enjoy the journey, not just the "destination". There might not be a "destination". (E.g. getting lean. You can't get there and stop working out and eating healthily).
15) The things other people say/think about you are not your responsibility.
16) Be yourself when dating.
17) Make sure you always have a kindle with you if you are in the habit of reading.
18) Learning languages through audiobooks might be more effective than other methods. Try it!
19) Often magic happens when you put in more work than anybody else.
20) Be okay with loving yourself for who you are, rather than what you do.
21) Question assumptions!
Apply critical thinking in your life.
22) (maybe this was supposed to be number 6? 😂)
Embrace life long learning!

[woodlandbunny]

My book wish-list always doubles in size when watching an Ali Abdaal video! Thanks Ali, great video as always!! :))

[GinnyBerch]

Lesson 20 is a big one for me. Unconditional love. I always feel like I have to accomplish extreme things in order to deserve validation and love. For me accepting that I am fine the way I am is still work in progress, but awareness is one step in the right direction.

[semira.yesufu]

Subscribing to your YouTube channel is still one of the major highlight of my 2021.. you’re so full of wisdom. The one lesson I’ve gotten from you is not dwelling so much on perfection or what people will think, just sharing your craft & document your journey.

[thejushmann]

What Ali taught me in 2021: Even with great success in business or my career, the questions of who I am and how I want to live my life will still remain if I don't work on answering them.

[KENRBLXGAMING]

Subscribing to Ali channel is one of my best decision, Learned a lot from this video and I’m glad I already knew some of them.

[megangardner_science_and_art]

You’re honestly such an inspiration. You spew out all this sensible and useful information all the time. I find myself telling my work colleagues or my ex-husband “well, Ali Abdaal says”. My ex is like “who is this Ali Abdaal” 😂😂 But my colleagues have looked at your videos after my recommendation and they have also been inspired by you. So keep it up 👍 👏🏽

[ItsDeveshA]

Listening to Ali is itself Motivating-like honestly, Ali is from those Small Section of People who can kill off my Saturation and Burn Out within Seconds and Boost Me Up(Also, great work by the Editor for this great effect that he made here 2:41-this is not that much hard, but not all mind doing; and this just makes the Experience just BETTER)

[fashionspy]

About number 20: sometimes what you do and who you are are the same thing!
Take generosity, for example: you "are" generous" because you act generously. Everything is an action.
When you decide to hug someone after an argument to make things better and not leave the tension fester, you are "being" a kind person because you're acting kindly. Giving that hug is the thing that you're doing.

So don't beat yourself up if you can't separate those two things. You are great because you do great things! It's just a matter of recognizing that small things are also great, like the hug example. It's not just about "big" things like winning an oscar or something like that.

[amoghjha]

The 37% rule is also mentioned in "Algorithms to live by". Haven't read the book but seen a few blog posts and tweets about it. Nice book :)

[Jubair]

We die and leave *nothing* physical behind, the only thing we can hope to properly continue are the advancements we make to *technology*, *science* and better ways of *thinking* . Have a great day!

[Fatima_]

Thank you Ali for inspiring me to make simple-form content without too much editing, with me just being myself. Your videos are awesome. Thank you for being you

[PierceJPeterson]

Always great to reflect back on what you have learned and then use that information to better yourself in the future. Great video my man!

[brennanjay]

Definitely vibe with lesson 20. I think a lot of people that were “traditional successful” at a young age can share this experience. Convincing myself of my own intrinsic self worth is something I try to think about and work towards as much as possible. As of now, it’s still more like a piece of knowledge that I know, rather than a concept that I understand experientially. Good luck with your own journey! Looking forward to hearing about it in a future video :)

[Hamza]

0:20 thats why I gave away all my GP before I quit Runescape

[walk_london]

Lesson No. 20 : Your natural humility shines through all these videos and even if you were not doing what you are doing, people would love you for that.

[amrnuman]

Ali i can confirm that i have never watched any of your videos without gaining at least 1 very important and inspiring information ! please keep going and keep inspiring us we need more people like you

[mattih]

love this man :) whats ur fav board game? Stone Age is so good haha

[junepark]

FWIW, I don't think you are less cool because you are no longer a doctor. In fact, I find it admirable that you worked hard and explored life enough to find something else you enjoy doing and moved on. All of us have to decide who we want to be and what major we want to pursue at college in our late 10s without even knowing who we are and what the real world is like. Some people like what they chose, some people don't and choose to stay, and some explore something else and pivot. And pivoting is hard and takes courage, and you did it rather than staying as doctor you no longer felt passionate for. So kudos to you!