GUEST BLOG: Seeby Woodhouse – 40 Things I wish I’d known before 40

1. Staying fit and healthy is the best way to multiply overall output in all other areas – even business – health always has to come first. If you’re not healthy you can’t help yourself nor anyone else.
2. Small daily victories, performed with disciplined consistency over extended periods of time, lead to outstanding results.
3. Working diligently without concern for the rewards is the very behaviour that brings the rewards.
4. It usually takes ten years of working on something to become successful or a master in your field. So choose your passions wisely.
5. Your income will never exceed your self-identity. You can’t earn more than you believe you can earn. And your impact will never be larger than your personal self story.
6. Life’s too short to play small with your dreams.
7. People putting you down is a sign of your increasing success.
8. Sometimes your finest office work is done out of the office.
9. The priorities I thought were most important in my youth are actually the pursuits I’m least interested in as I get older.
10. Your choice of relationship partner is one of the main sources of your success (or failure), joy (or misery) and tranquility (or worry).
11. If you risk all for love and it doesn’t work out, there is no failure because all love stories are, in truth, hero tales. And no growth of the heart is a waste
12. Being scared just means you’re about to grow. And frequent discomfort is the price of accelerated progress.
13. Often when I didn’t get what I desired it was because the universe had something different for me in mind.
14. The humbler the person, the stronger the character.
15. If you love a house, don’t sell it just because you’re bored. Sometimes having roots in the same place forever is the best option.
16. That family, plants and walks in the woods would bring me more happiness than cars and watches
17. Good friendships are priceless treasures, but take work to maintain.
18. God helps those who help themselves. So do your best and see what happens.
19. Just because someone is aging doesn’t mean they are growing. Sometimes people can’t be helped.
20. Life has a fabulous feedback system showing you what you are doing right by where you are winning (and what you need to improve on by where you’re losing).
21. We get what we settle for. (So stop settling for what you don’t want.)
22. Sometimes silence is the loudest reply you can give.
23. The way people make you feel when you interact with them tells you everything you need to know about them.
24. Sometimes taking a lot of time off can make you twice as productive.
25. Most critics are jealous because you did what they couldn’t do. Ignore them.
26. Bullies become cowards once you stand up to them.
27. Journaling is putting intentions on paper. And once written, they become real.
28. That a genuinely rich life costs a lot less than you think.
29. Some people in business will tell you they’ll do amazing things for you, but once the deal is signed, they’ll end up doing nothing for you.
30. The activities and places that fill you with joy are the activities and places where you should be.
31. The best use of money is to create experiences and memories and not to secure objects and possessions.
32. Willpower is built by doing difficult things. So do more difficult things daily.
33. Reading is super power, you can gain a lifetime of someone else’s wisdom and lessons, just by spending one day reading their book.
34. That hardship is the birthplace of heroism.
35. That the majority of human beings are good people.
36. That elderly people have the best stories.
37. That all life has huge value.
38. That when you feel most alone, your higher power is closest to you.
39. Respecting yourself is more important than being liked by others.
40. That not every hour of the day and not every day of the week needs to be used “productively” and “grinding. Taking naps, staring at the stars and, sometimes, doing nothing are pursuits absolutely necessary for a life of unlimited beauty.

Seeby Woodhouse is a NZ tech entrepreneur, CEO of Voyager and posts on Substack.