Turning Knowledge Into Wisdom: A Few Things I Learned in My 33rd Year
Today I turned 33.
On my most recent lap around the sun, I collected a few more pieces of knowledge I’m trying to turn into wisdom.
What’s the difference?
As far as I can tell, knowledge is information, and wisdom is application.
With every passing year, I learn a little more, and slowly, I'm able to apply pieces here and there. That's the trick to growing wise—learning and applying.
These are some of the lessons I learned in my 33rd year. Here's to applying them.
Winning beats being right.
The customer service rep you’re yelling at might be the only person who can solve your problem. So you can yell at them, call them an asshole, and tell them how immoral their company is. That’ll guarantee they won’t help you.
Or you can be friendly, sweet talk them, and try to get the outcome you want.
The first way makes you feel right. The second way makes you more likely to win.
Substitute a million different people for the customer service rep and see how this becomes a universally practical way to live.
Eat more protein.
My body looks better at 33 than it did at 25, and it's almost entirely due to my diet.
I don't eat super healthy, but I pay close attention to my protein intake.
My daily goal is to eat one gram of protein per pound of body weight. I usually miss by 20 or so grams, but I'm eating WAY more protein, more consistently, than I ever have before.
Within a few months of making this change, I was getting a ton of compliments about looking bigger. It happened so much, my wife would roll her eyes and say, “here we go again.”
Eating a lot of protein can be challenging. It requires some planning, but it's worth it. If you're working hard in the gym and skimping on protein, you're sabotaging yourself.
Never take a sticker off your child's arm.
I took a sticker off my daughter's arm a few weeks ago when we were getting ready for her bath. She lost her mind.
I think she’s still mad at me. She tells me every day, "Daddy not touch your sticker!"
I’ll never do that again.
The bigger lesson here is to leave your kids alone. Let them keep the sticker on. Let them wear their boots on the wrong feet. Let them wipe their own ass even if it's already clean.
There’s no reason to force your will upon your kids unless it’s a matter of safety or they’re being rude to others.
Nothing bad will happen, and your life as a parent will be much easier.
Take a small action toward a big goal every day.
I once heard Tim Urban say that if you read for 30 minutes every day, you'll read 1,000 books in 50 years.
Ryan Holiday says it’s a successful day if he makes any type of progress on the book he's working on. That can be writing a whole chapter or editing a single sentence. As long as he's moving the ball in the right direction, it's a win. That's coming from a guy in his late 30s who has published more than a dozen books.
The same is true for fitness, or playing an instrument, or learning a language.
Achieving goals doesn't require Herculean efforts. It just requires small habits, carried out consistently.
I started writing in a ‘one-line-a-day’ journal this year. Because it's only a sentence, it's easy to do, and I've built the habit. Every other time I’ve tried to journal in my life, it lasts a few days or a couple weeks at most. I’ll be happier to have a tiny account of all my days rather than a long account of ten days every year.
Expect less of others, more of yourself.
I recently had to get blood drawn, and my appointment was at 9:45. The night before, my wife said, "expect to be in the waiting room until 10:45."
She knows one of my biggest pet peeves is having an appointment and then waiting an unreasonable amount of time past the scheduled appointment.
I try to hold myself to a high standard, and I’m often frustrated when others don’t do the same.
So I was a little grumbly, but I arrived at the lab with a book and the expectation that I'd be there for an hour. I was back in my car by 9:50, and I was unbelievably happy.
This tiny mindset shift makes life so much better. Expect to wait in line. Expect your flight to be delayed. Expect your kids to pee on the couch. Then let all your surprises be pleasant ones.
Handwritten notes are treasures. Treat them like it.
The other day I was going through a drawer and found a few notes my grandmother had written to me.
She died in 2018, so finding these letters made my day.
One was a comic clipping from Readers Digest she thought I'd like. One was a thank you note for a book recommendation I gave her. But they were all in her handwriting. They all reminded me how she was thinking about me and made the effort to let me know. And as I read them, I heard her voice in my head speaking the words.
We never know when we're going to lose our loved ones, and having these treasures from them is an incredible blessing.
That’s it for this year. If I had to sum it up in a sentence, I’d say, manage your ego and expectations, be consistent, and apply what you learn.
That advice will serve you well.
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