Have you ever wished you could go back in time and give your younger self some advice? Today I’m sharing why giving myself advice would have been a waste of time for four reasons: a lack of emotional intelligence, a tendency to ignore advice, procrastination, and a lack of purpose.
But don’t worry, the episode doesn’t leave you hanging. I’m also sharing how to avoid these pitfalls and live a life of action and purpose. So, if you’re looking for some practical tips on how to make the most of your life, be sure to check out this episode.
Episode Transcript:
00:32
Now, here’s your host, Marcus Aurelius Anderson. Beware of unearned wisdom, Carl Jung. There is so much empty advice being given by people that have zero experience regarding such advice. Listen, it is very easy to Google a few quotes from famous philosophers or prolific authors.
01:00
and connect the dots after the fact to create the three steps to this or the seven secrets of that. These sorts of posts and videos are all over the place today. And with AI being unleashed on the world, this sort of vapid, secondhand, unearned wisdom is only going to become more rampant in the future. What’s missing from this sort of advice is substance. And substance is something that you can only gain from experience. With all that said, and in this vein,
01:30
That’s why I skipped the preamble on this 153rd episode of Octonon Verba’s Warrior Wisdom to reveal the four reasons why giving advice to my 24 year old self would have been a waste of time. So let’s begin. Number one, at 24, I didn’t have the emotional intelligence to take advice from anybody. Period. Full stop. Even if that advice was from a future version of myself, they say that youth is wasted on the young.
01:58
And even with my life experience at that time, I was no different. I’m 51 now and 27 years ago, the internet was still in its infancy. Cell phones were uncommon and you had to read a paper map to get anywhere. If you wanted a book, you had to go to a bookstore in person and buy an actual physical analog book. If you wanted to learn anything at 24, I didn’t have the emotional intelligence to take advice.
02:26
The second reason why giving me advice at that time would have been a waste of time is because even if I did believe the advice, I would have said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that before and not taken it seriously. For those of you that read my first book, The Gift of Adversity, you know my story about being paralyzed from the neck down at 40 years old while preparing to deploy with US infantry and how it made me take a good hard look at my life. It also talked about the amount of regret that I had harbored throughout that entire process. So even if I had believed the advice,
02:56
I still would have said, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that before. I’m not taking action. The third reason, even if I did believe the advice and wanted to take action, I would have thought I’ll just do it tomorrow and wasted even more time in the process. In my TEDx talk, The Gift of Adversity, I dive into this a great detail. And needless to say, we all think that we have more time than we actually do. This is a lesson that we often learn only too late.
03:23
The last reason why giving myself advice at that age would have been a waste of time is because all of these behaviors stem from one thing. They all stem from a lack of purpose. When we don’t have some sort of purpose, we lack urgency to take action. And when I mean purpose, I don’t mean that you have to have your entire life figured out at 24. In fact, the most successful people that I’ve known and interviewed had no clue what their purpose was until after they faced some sort of adversity.
03:50
until they had hit rock bottom in some way or gone through their own all is lost moment. Only then did they understand what truly mattered to them. And this often didn’t happen until their mid thirties or later. And by the way, there are millions of people that make these same four mistakes, whether they’re 24, 48 or 72. Instead, I recommend doing the opposite. So number one, be coachable.
04:17
and take advice into consideration from those that you respect and trust, even if it’s criticism. Indeed, those that care about you the most will actually give a shit enough to tell you the things that you don’t want to hear, especially if you need to hear it the most. They do this because they know that you’re capable of great things and that you’re slacking or holding back in some manner. Secondly, don’t assume that because you’ve heard something once that you automatically know and have it understood. Seeing someone perform a skill perfectly
04:47
does not mean that you can do the same thing. As is so often the case, we confuse familiarity with mastery and nothing could be further from the truth. Next, once you’ve decided to take action, execute on it immediately. Stop waiting, stop hesitating, stop compromising and start taking action now on the things that mean the most to you in your life. Because if you’re within the sound of my voice right now, the reality is this.
05:15
There will eventually come a time in your life when you will no longer be able to chase after your greatest dreams and ambitions. And that time is much closer than you think. Finally, in everything that you do, endeavor to work towards finding purpose in your life, regardless of where you are currently. Because without it, all the advice in the world is irrelevant. Time waits for no man. Instead of saying, I would do that, but it sounds like it’s going to take a lot of time for me to figure this thing out.
05:44
My response to you is, and the next year of your life will pass anyway. Why not being a better job? Why not start that business? Why not be one step closer to finding your purpose? Why not break free from the toxic relationships and environments that you’re in right now? Why are you looking for the next seven steps of this or the next three laws of that when you haven’t followed the first step of the tens of thousands of things that you’ve already read about? Stop scrolling, stop consuming, start.
06:13
applying. When you do this, you’ll quickly learn what steps to take next or skip in the process. This lesson echoes the advice that I mentioned in the opening quote by Carl Jung, beware of unearned wisdom. If you have no purpose, experience or substance, all that you will have is unearned wisdom. Thus end of the lesson. While this warrior wisdom episode wasn’t 45 minutes like some of my others,
06:41
I recommend listening to this episode more than once and then taking actionable takeaway notes for yourself. If you enjoy to learn from this, share it with others and on social media. I also recommend going back to the rest of the Oxygenon Verbi catalog, checking out my other Warrior Wisdom episodes. I have lessons that discuss at link what I learned from Jaco Willink and Leif Babin at their council event last year. My key takeaways from David Goggins, Andy Versola, and Edmy Let from the RTA Syndicate live event that I attended earlier this year.
07:10
as well as my in-depth book summaries of The Art of War by Sun Tzu, The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield, and The Complete Works of Robert Greene, and more. And by the way, if you enjoy Stephen Pressfield and Robert Greene’s books, check out my interview with both of these incredible authors. They did not disappoint. Please subscribe, and I would appreciate if you would leave a review on iTunes or anywhere where you listen. This helps us attract like-minded listeners and spread the Octonon Verbiage message to others.
07:40
If you’d like to get additional content and information, you can join the Okta Non-Verba Inner Circle for free at MarcusAureliusAnderson.com. Be sure to check out our new website as well, ActaNonVerbaPodcast.com. There you can also keep up to date with my upcoming Okta Non-Verba book release, Acta Non Verba apparel release, and more. Until next time, live a life of actions and not words. Live a life of Okta Non-Verba. Thank you for listening to this episode of Acta Non Verba.
