Imagine, just for a moment. Imagine you are in your early twenties and your whole life is open before you. What would you do? Or if it had been possible, what are the lessons, knowledge, experiences that would be most valuable? Some say, they wouldn’t change anything, life is a journey; they say that the fun is in the exploration, not the arrival. That may be true, but might the journey have been more interesting with more effective tools or equipment? Sure, it might be very exciting driving my Accord on parts of Germany’s Autobahn, but I bet it is exhilarating in a Ferrari.

Well, if I had been given the opportunity, here are a few of the nuggets I sure wish I would have known when I was 20:

• Have No Fear – Many of the situations we find that debilitate us are only created by our fear.
• Plan + Commitment + Sacrifice – I was raised with the simple empowering statement: “You can do anything you put your mind to.” I believe that 100%. However, later I found out that the “formula” was incomplete. You can do anything that you want, as long as your willing to create a plan, commit yourself to that plan, and you are willing to accept the sacrifices, THEN you truly can do anything.
• Passion – Make sure you are extremely passionate about what you spend your time on. Passion, will make the above formula infallible.
• Reading is Power – I’ve been an avid reader since I was about 10 years old. Reading gives you knowledge. Knowledge gives you power. What kind of power? To quote Darth Sidious “Unlimited Power! Unlimited P-o-w-e-r” Power every aspect of your life. Let’s face it, most every thought I’ve had, someone has had before me. Why not reap the benefit of their past contributions?
• Be true to yourself – This is perhaps one of the hardest to achieve, because first it requires that you learn who you are. While this may sound ridiculous, if you don’t know who you are, what you are capable of or not, what you like, what you dis-like, what you are willing to sacrifice, then you will be doomed to make decisions that are inconsistent with who you are. believe me, everytime I have allowed this to happen, it has ended in pain.
• Seize the moment – Lastly, never take any moment for granted, squeeze out of each day that you can the most that you can. For if you are truly fearless in your life, then you will devise plans that will take you beyond your wildest dreams. And if you know who you are then, you will naturally be able to bring passion and commitment to anything you do and accept any consequences that may result. And for me the tool that has aided me to refine the experiences of my life and produce these nuggets is reading.