A lot of people answering this struggle to understand what highly-specific means. I’m looking to, for the sake of experiment, highly-specific advice that gives a reader clear understanding of what they should do. Unlike the vague advice, on the contrary, that may be too abstract to get implementing it right away.
Inspired by this post but I wanted to change the question a bit to avoid the really vague answers as well as lower the age bar of target audience for the advice.
I’ll start with a bunch myself, to give a better example of what I’m talking about:
- Read The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Ironically, because this is a post about specific advice, dude wrote a book with vague rules on how to do war, but the way it is worded is ridiculously good. If you take your time to think about the advice, you can find their appliances in the most unexpected fields.
I, for example, have improved my skill in videogames, out of all places, after reading the book. Sun Tzu said “If it is not advantageous, do not move”. Instead of rushing into combat, I now consider whether my position, current health, location of health packs etc. work to my advantage. Sun Tzu made me realise team-based PvP shooters give you room to avoid and disengage combat, you can make more impact for the team if you choose your battle and have everything work for your advantage.
-
Exercises are not just about a lot of dedication, long commutes to the gym, expensive memberships and the fear of being judged by other gym members. 7 minute workout is a thing and it will give you all the benefits at your own home without the need for equipment, and it won’t take much time either.
-
Buy an old used Kindle. For dirt cheap, you will get a device with a good e-ink screen that works without Internet connection, still has decent battery, is light and small. A new thing that makes reading so comfortable will trick you into reading more and books still happen a good medium for sharing information.
Floss, brush your teeth daily and see a dentist at least once a year, eat less sugar and cut out soft drinks. Nothing worse than in losing or nearly losing one or two teeth in your 30s or 40s. Even without cavities, if you don’t take care of your gums, you can lose perfectly healthy teeth because the gums were eroded away.
Do some weight training and keep up an exercise routine … you can easily build muscle tone over the next ten years, after that you have to work a whole lot more to gain the same amount of muscle tone.
Eat less and eat healthy … learn to eat better and just eat less but better food … the sooner you learn this, the longer you’ll keep the habit and the longer the habit in your life, the longer you’ll live and the longer you’ll live healthier. What’s the sense of living to 80 when you end up sick and unhealthy for the last 20 years of your life?
Read, read, read … read the classics, read history, and read as much and as often as you can to fill out your knowledge and awareness of as much as possible.
Do all this now because you will never gain the time to do it all later.
Never assume that you can do things when you’re 30 when you’re 40 or when you retire because those times will either never come or when those times come, you won’t have the time or you will have so many other priorities that you won’t do these things anyway.
So do all these things now while you can because later may not arrive or when it does, it won’t be like you imagined it would be.
Thanks Baz Luhrmann
Sadly I already got a cavity at 15.
I don’t know whether to blame myself for that or parents. I even asked for toothbrush several times, but never got. I wanted to go to the dentist as I wasn’t there for years, but one of my parents would have to make the appointment, so as I said, wasn’t there for years.
At least I have a good dentist. Apparently she’s not allowed to do anything without parents permission until I am 18 for some reason, but she’s helped me anyway.