5 MISTAKES You Must STOP Doing by 30 Years Old

Five things you gotta stop doing by the time you're 30. If you're under 30, this is a warning, and if you're over 30, this is just a reminder to stop doing this shit. Number one, stop trying to change characters in the middle of the game. At some point, all you can do is upgrade. A lot has been written on the internet about life being compared to an RPG, but if that's the case, by the time you're 30, the character that you are and the archetype that your friends are is already set. There's really no switching unless you want to restart to the beginning. In your 20s, most of us are still trying to figure out what butterfly we're gonna become, but by the time you're 30, you've already emerged from the cocoon. You're not gonna go back into the chrysalis, become a caterpillar, then go back into the metamorphosis and become a different butterfly. I'm not saying that nobody in the history of the world has ever reinvented themselves in their 30s, but statistically, it is very unlikely. As hard as it is to change yourself in your 30s, in the middle of the game, can you imagine how difficult it would be to try to change your friend's archetype? One thing you can do is actually just put them in a situation to mitigate their downside. If they're the lovable but unreliable friend, don't ask them to do anything in your life that you need reliability at. Also, if they feel self-motivated, you can encourage or help them upgrade their attribute points. Upgrading your character probably means going on side missions, completing certain challenges to get more fuel points or whatever. In a real life context, that's probably like reading books, getting therapy, going to seminars, and otherwise, just putting in some real actual work and reps. Basically, if your friend was a Squirtle and for whatever reason, they got stuck at War Turtle and they never made it to Blastoise, you're either going to have to accept that you got a War Turtle on your team and build around that, or you're just going to have to make sure that they're just that fun party friend that you don't do anything serious with. For example, LeBron James took an incredibly talented player but flawed player like J.R. Smith to a championship. However, the next year, J.R. was asked to make a lot more reads and have a lot more responsibility, and guess what? He ruined the team's chance for a championship. It just kind of goes to show you, with certain players that are unbalanced, it's really situational. Dude, I know you got huge dreams, but I'm just playing way too much PS5 for me to evolve into Blastoise. I'm stuck at the War Turtle stage. I wanted to know if you could lower the expectations of the squad. I've seen a lot of people do it. It looks fun. Thanks for letting me know. You know, you almost tricked me, but I just want this thing so bad, I had to weigh it out. I'll see you on the weekends, man. Point number two, when you hit your 30s, you got to stop believing in half-truths because headlines are for hype. When people are in their 20s, they tend to just want to simplify the complex issues and just take on the viewpoint of one of the extreme sides, whether it's here or here. In your 30s, it's important to have a little bit of a gray zone because any pundit, politician, or talking head that really survives by the support or viewership is pretty much taking their half-truth and then rolling with it 100% and not even taking into consideration the other side. They're not getting paid by balance, nuance, and moderation. They're getting paid by polarization. I don't even think that they believe 100% in the headlines they say. Privately, they'd probably make an argument they're just trying to overcompensate for the pendulum swing. For regular people who live regular lives, we tend to oversimplify the complex issues and then overcomplicate and really nuance the trivial issues. When it comes to complex issues like globalization or the future of capitalism, we're just going to take the view of the pundit that mostly appeals to us. That's if we even have a single thought at all. When it comes to some trivial shit like who's thriving better after the divorce, Kim or Kanye, or who's their favorite character on Singles Infernal, or even did Jake Paul really change boxing and is he going to face off with Manny Pacquiao, when it comes to all these debates, everybody's so detailed and nuanced. Then all of a sudden, everybody's an expert analyst on pop culture that can weigh out the arguments of both sides. One is like weighing out different scientists and then the other is comparing and weighing out different booties. All you can do is realize that those big issues actually have a lot more effect on your life than that TMZ shit. I don't want to watch this debate between the PhDs, MDs about these WMDs. I'm like, man, I just want to watch TMZ, think about some TITs, and what's my next TAT? I get it. We're not that far removed from that village parochial mindset where we used to burn people at the stake who we just thought were acting different. I mean, I'm just saying, figure out the issues that actually impact your life. Do a little bit of research and figure out your own opinion. Don't just be a follower. You're 30 years old. Point number three, stop looking at your group of friends like a fun-loving group of new recruits in the Marines. As you get older in your 30s, you will need to shrink it to be more like the Navy SEALs. When you're in college, when you're in your 20s, life can be low stakes and low pressure, so why not goof off with everybody at the metaphorical barracks or mess hall? Why not have a crazy text thread where there's like 40 people always trying to go to Vegas and sending hilarious stuff to each other all the time? Why do you think Navy SEAL teams are only like 16 people whereas other squads might be like 40 or more? It's because when it comes to getting a specific difficult task done, you just need a small group of people who are highly effective. And I'm not just talking about your friend group. I am talking about your business partners, your co-workers, your family members, your significant other. In your 30s, the missions just get more and more serious. A baseball is way smaller than a beach ball or even a basketball, but which one's going to travel further and have more impact? Imagine the Tour de France going up a mountain. The higher it gets, the more difficult the terrain is, the better team you need to have. Dude, who would have thought that Frank the Tank would have been the downfall of the whole project, bro? And then he brought in his like two hilarious cousins and they started doing the accounting and then it all got messed up. I mean, we were laughing the whole time while the ship was going down, but, uh, yeah, dude, that was a big mistake. Mistake number four, stop being the co-pilot on your own plane on the flight through your life. Uh, hey, mom, dad, who, who's flying this plane? You're flying it now! But if, when did we switch? I get it. In America, it's a little bit confusing. You're legally an adult at 18. You can join the army. You can drink alcohol when you're 21 and then you're finally off your parents' insurance when you're 26. But by the time you're 30, you have to be firmly in the pilot seat making all final decisions. Different cultures operate differently. For example, a lot of families more rooted in the Eastern culture are going to have both parents sitting up front row, first class, right next to the cockpit. And in a lot of Western families, the parents are on the tarmac waving goodbye to the plane like, all right, see you later. So for us, we come from a fairly traditional Asian family where they expected us to become lawyers, doctors, engineers, or be in tech. But when we chose a completely different destination, not only did our parents not want to be on that plane as much because they had no idea where it was going, but they literally could not fit on it because the plane was actually a helicopter, which means the flight might have been more interesting, but honestly, it's more risky. Listen, mom and dad, you supported me a lot and worked very hard as immigrant parents, but you don't want to see where I'm about to go. It kind of always reminds me of this J. Cole line. Rest in peace. Can't control another man's destiny, so I do what's best for me. It's ball, right? And the fifth mistake you have to avoid by the time you're 30 is stop being faked out by the fluttering ribbon of life. Now, what the hell am I talking about? If you look at the general bird's eye macro perspective on life, it generally should be going up. However, in the micro or even the mid tier view, there could be a lot of fluttering ribbons or barcoding along the way. A lot of people get faked out by dips downward and rips upward, but they're not really paying attention to the overall macro long-term trend. Basically, it is a more advanced infographic base way of saying, do not only get caught up in the moment. Do not only be subject to recency bias. I have a friend who is really, really successful and famous, and literally a few months ago, they thought their life was going to come to an end, and a month later, they barely even remember that moment. Of course, when you are the rider of your own bike uphill in life, you feel every single little bump. You hit every single piece of turbulence, and you feel it viscerally, but everybody else who's just viewing you from the outside, they generally just see an uptrend. It's fully legitimate to acknowledge the dips that you're going through, but at the end of the day, you have to understand where the ultimate magnetism is pulling you. If the second dip that you go through in your life or in your journey of a project is not as low as your first floor, that means that the floor has been raised. Understanding the fluttering ribbon analogy doesn't just apply to your life. It actually applies to larger things. For example, the cryptocurrency market right now, at this moment, is in a dip, but most smart people out there would say, and I would agree with them, in that the overall market trend is going up, and it can apply to something a lot less technical, like the Asian-American narrative, but as much as this analogy applies to the upside, it also applies to the downside as well. Dude, I just lost my iPhone. My hinge situation ship just ghosted me, and I'm down on all my alt coins, and I just feel like ending it all. Yeah, dude, that does kind of suck, but look at Lee over there. He lost like half his extended family in a civil war in his home country, and he's still able to smile at work every day. Okay, fair point, but you know, I just live my life within this very, very small sheltered spectrum, so that's just some perspective that I don't have, so any fluctuations really trip me out. I'm going to go listen to some sad boy music. Do not equate oscillation with elimination. It's just a built-in part of your situation. All right, you guys, those are the five mistakes you have to stop making by the time you're 30. I get it. Everybody's life is different. Some people learn these earlier. Some people learn these later. Some people never even learn them at all. And I just want to let you know, if you are above the age of 30, do not worry. It's never too late to make the tweaks and the adjustments, so if you enjoyed this video, please hit that like button. And make sure you share this with somebody because you could change their life. All right, everybody, thank you so much for watching, and until next time, we out. Peace.