No matter your age, there are so many nuggets of wisdom that you can apply to your own life. Living a long, full, happy life is what everyone is after. Surround yourself with beauty, the people you love, and the things that bring you joy.

In no particular order, here’s a few wisdom nuggets from my own life experiences that may be useful to you.

• Get out of debt if you are. Live debt-free. You may feel some sense of accomplishment if you pay off the smallest loans first, known as the snowball method.

• Understand how money works, and what it can do for you and the people you love or want to help.

• Try to exit the rat race the minute you can do it. Escape and never get sucked back in.

• Refuse to work for peanuts. Know your value in the marketplace.

• Try to work on things you enjoy doing, and with people you like to be around with.

• Give yourself space to think what you want out of life, to contemplate, to feel.

• Don’t wait for retirement to enjoy your life, travel a little, do fun stuff once in while, spend time playing, experience new things.

• Don’t be a yes man, have the courage to create healthy conflict and disagree with the opinions and ideas of others. Express your thoughts without being bullied or put down for having a difference in opinion.

• Family should always come first no matter the situation.

• It’s important to have something to aim at in life, it doesn’t matter how small or how big you think it is.

• Observation is a super power with many applications in your personal and business worlds. Many people don’t take advantage of this free gift.

• Understand that too much of anything is not good for you, from social media to wine and even love.

• Do not make a drunken fool of yourself at an office party or in front of friends and family. Leave the party while everyone is still smiling.

• Understand the definition of true friendship and appreciate those you can call friends.

• It’s impossible to please everybody all the time.

• Sometimes you don’t know someone until you find out what they want from you.

• Know what you can and cannot change.

• In Peter Thiel’s book ‘Zero to One’, he said, “We don’t live in a normal world, we live in a power law.” Understand the dynamics of power. Understand who holds the power advantage in each relationship and during each negotiation. Learn the sources of your power, and use it only for the good.

• We are interconnected and always part of some relationship. It is wise to strengthen important relationships and abandon toxic ones.

• With so many things and so many people competing for your attention, learn to say no. Create systems to reduce unnecessary noise and distractions. Focus on what matters.

• Avoid watching too much TV, specially news, and avoid spending too much time focusing on social media networks. Try to not fall into the trap of compulsively engaging in risky behavior in order to gain likes, shares, or positive reactions. Create your own roadshow instead.

• Beware of toxic people in your life, and cut them off without hesitation.

• Don’t let anyone mistake your kindness for weakness.

• Don’t tolerate insults or abuse from people, especially if you’re paying them to do work. Expect respect.

• Be kind to people, but if they are not kind to you don’t waste your time and energy trying to get their attention or getting them to like you.

• We all have a bad day where we say the wrong things and even hurt others. The trick lies in not to make it a habit, and apologize if apologies are due.

• Always be honest with yourself. Cheating yourself is one of the saddest things you will ever experience, even if you don’t realize it.

• Protect yourself or a loved one against mind control groups and brainwashing.

• If you have kids, guide them in life the best you can, with an open mind to accept that they are part of a new generation and a new world.

• Teach your kids from early ages about ownership and entrepreneurship, so that they can create their own opportunities when the time comes. Getting good grades in college to later enter the job market seeking employment is what most people learn to be content with. Know that this model will most likely end in a complete waste of talent and potential, all the way to settling for a mediocre life. Give your children meaningful choices.

• Getting good grades in school and academic success in college could lead to a high-paying job, but it doesn’t guarantee your success in life.

• Keep your relationship with your spouse healthy, do fun things together every time you can, create systems for conflict resolution. Be patient and forgiving.

• If your spouse or romantic partner decides that they are no longer interested in the relationship, the sooner you begin to move forward, a new door will open for you. Don’t force anything, and don’t blame or punish yourself. It takes two to tango.

• Practice gratitude, especially if you’re going through tough times and life keeps knocking you down. If you gaze up at the stars, your problems will seem smaller and not as unique as you make them out to be.

• Exercise, eat healthy, and sleep 7 — 8 hours each night.

• Smoking isn’t cool, it’s actually dumb.

• Find ways to improve your eating habits. You are what you eat.

• Be aware of how beautiful it’s to be alive.

• Most problems that are solved in a rush are solved in the wrong way, especially emotional problems between people.

• Try to stay calm during moments of intense pressure or stressful situations.

• Sometimes is better to shut up and listen.

• In any situation, having perspective is a beautiful thing.

• If you’re a perfectionist, try to create a more balanced diversion of perfectionism, where you can be a high achiever without a lot of the baggage that comes with it.

• Knowing your priorities allows you to allocate your time and attention to tasks in order of importance.

• If you haven’t heard of Alan Watts, I recommend checking him out. He was one of the most entertaining, intelligent, illuminating, and all around fascinating western philosophers of the 20th century. His lessons and ideas may bring you a fresh perspective on life.

• Your life path is unique. There’s no way it can be recreated. All the events that led to this very moment in your life are impossible to happen again. That’s how unique your life is.

• Motivate yourself to see the bigger picture. Recharge your creativity. Envision possibilities that go beyond the current horizon.

• Reading many books alone doesn’t necessarily makes you smart. Understand the distinctions among knowledge, intelligence, experience, competence, and wisdom.

• Books won’t teach you that if a group of “mareros” in Guatemala stop you at gunpoint and demand you hand over your wallet or phone, the smartest thing to do is giving them everything they want. But if they ask you to get in car, you should run in the opposite direction of traffic, fast. Book smart and street smart are not the same, and then there’s common sense.

• Bad meetings make bad companies. Instead of looking forward to it, people can’t wait for that painful moment to end.

• Bullies eventually get what they deserve, because in life there’s always someone with way less to loose.

• Avoid road rages, you have no idea what crazy people will do to feel better about themselves for just a minute.

• Don’t be indecisive, make a left or make a right, then correct course if needed; most times, things will figure themselves out.

• Learn when to trust your instincts, in certain situations there’s no need to think it over or get another opinion, you just know.

• The way you think today and see the world should evolve gradually with the times; embrace change.

• If you choose to believe in God, then having a fair understanding of religion is crucial.

• If you wish to engage in civic dialogue as an informed citizen, decide on what political issues you can make a difference and where you cannot. Act for the good, disengage from the rest.

• News media companies are in the business of packaging, distributing, and selling bits and bytes of truths and falsehoods, always favoring the interests of one group over the other interchangeably. It’s a business. They make money in the advertising industry.

• Know that despite what they say, a company is not your family, they will let you go if they need to, and without giving you a two weeks notice.

• Stop romanticizing your job, you’re part of a transaction where you’re trading your time and the value you can add in exchange for money.

• Stop mastering common job interview questions and answers, and start mastering unsolved people problems or poorly solved ones, then come up with a better solution.

• Don’t wait for good things to happen to you, make your own luck and seize opportunities.

• Losing today can be a great catalyst for future winnings.

• Be competitive, but compete fiercely in the games that matter the most to you, the ones that can bring meaningful rewards to your life. The rest is just for fun, as it should be.

• Never claim to be the gatekeeper of the truth, whatever the topic is. The ultimate truth lies in something unspeakable.

• Whether you’re looking for a job or a relationship, you must know that the opportunities are endless, as long as you keep looking.

• Be selfish with your health and with your time. Time is really the only thing you can’t get back once is gone.

• Be aware of your mortality, it makes you appreciate even more how incredible it’s to be alive.

• The funny thing about hiding from yourself is that in the end, when you wake up and stop pretending, everybody can see you by who you are.

• You can design pretty much everything, including your life.

• The present is what there is and all there is. Try to live every moment to the fullest.

• The future is a land of things imagined.

• Some things are meant to be appreciated and admired, not understood.

• The concept of ego is an illusion, it’s all in your head.