How to live when you are 20, 30, 40 and 50 years old

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Book author and businessman James Altusher, at the age of 48, created a manual for life, wittily telling what to expect from each of its stages.

When you are 20 years old

Twenty years is a complete nightmare.

The idea is that the world should make you happy. You just flew out of the cage. There is no longer parental care and teaching by teachers. Finally, you can undress in front of other people (with their permission, of course). You can find a job.

You can fulfill all your dreams.

But nothing happens. Simply because people in their twenty years really do not know how to do anything.

The university studies were not all that useful. You have acquired very little practical skills in these few years. A doubt creeps in: was it necessary to get this higher education at all?

Moreover, at twenty we are in a hurry. We want to “become successful” as soon as possible and find a “lifelong work”.

Someone will surely tell you: "Time is money." This means that every missed opportunity has its own price. In fact, this is not the case. Trying to calculate the mythical money lost due to unrealized chances, you will come to a dead end.

Because time is not money. Money, of course, you can lose, but you can also earn. But you can't earn time. Money is a means to buy some food, and time is everything else.

At twenty, you do not understand anything and do not know how. The saddest thing is that you don't even know about it. Because at twenty we are also stupid.

But it normal. At twenty, we usually choose a hobby or a job, start doing something day after day, hoping that sooner or later we will succeed in it.

I wrote, did programming, and when I got permission and consent, I took off my clothes in front of another person. I was not good at any of these things. But I still learned something, because I did it all the time, albeit blindly.

In short

• Choose from three to five activities for yourself and practice them over and over. Choose only those activities that you really want to do.
• Don't expect anything. Just do, do, do.

When you are 30 years old

Thirty years sucks.

At twenty, you paid for education. You are now giving the same money for your house. Someone said that it is necessary to buy an apartment - this is a good investment, an investment in the future. Plus, it's high time for you to put down roots.

For some reason, no one mentioned that mortgages make people get depressed, tie them to one place and take all the money.

At thirty, you will get terribly tired of doing the same thing day in and day out.

In my thirties, I learned to lose.

At twenty, I could not lose. Everyone around was too "dumb", and I just missed one more try. And one more.

But at thirty I realized: I underestimated the people around. I learned that the people around me are as good as I am.

At the age of thirty, I realized that one cannot find one work of a lifetime. You will have to chase several targets at once. You will have to do what pleases not only you, but also the people around you.

If you hang out with good people and do worthwhile things, then sooner or later you will succeed. If you're lucky, you get something else.

When you're 40

Forty years - couldn't be worse. Nightmare and hell.

First, you are not allowed to eat anymore. And also you shouldn't worry.

Food + stress = aging

But of course you need to eat. But only half of the usual portion. And you will worry. But you need to ignore stressful situations, otherwise you will die.

You can eat less if you do what you love more often. Then you won't have to seize stress.

You can worry less if you stop accumulating unnecessary things around you.

At twenty, thirty and forty, I was constantly stupid in relationships, family matters, communicating with others, doing business - and in almost everything. But now I don't care. Being aware of your mistakes is better than constantly worrying about them.

In short

• At twenty, you feel like you know what you are doing.
• At thirty, you will do everything to make more money.
• At forty, you do what you like.

To find what you like, mentally go back to yourself in your twenties. Remember what you loved and do it. Just don't overstate your expectations.

When you are 50 years old

One woman brought her son to Gandhi and said, "Gandhi, tell him to stop eating sweets." Gandhi replied, "Come back in two weeks."

The woman and her son went home, hundreds of kilometers away. They returned two weeks later. And Gandhi said to her son: "Stop eating sweets."

The woman asked: “Gandhi, why did you make us drive hundreds of kilometers home and then come back here? Why didn't you say that on our first visit?"

Gandhi replied, "Before telling your son to stop eating sweets, I had to stop eating sweets myself."

In short

Fifty years? See you in two years.