13 Useful Truths My Younger Self Didn’t Know

Mike Ying
2 min readApr 20, 2022

1:

You are smart but you don’t know anything.

You can learn an insane amount of knowledge and wisdom.

Get inspired by successful and happy people.

2:

There is a science to motivation.

Learn about it.

Motivation can be hacked.

3:

There is nothing missing. You are enough.

Accept the world as it is, peace and happiness will follow.

The paradox: stop searching and you will find.

4:

The past and the future are illusions.

Time is an illusion.

Now is all there is.

Waiting for the future makes you distracted from the present.

Enjoy the Now, which is the real world.

5:

You are bored.

Boredom is wishing for something that is not there.

Enjoy here and now. Because that’s all there is.

Don’t be a donkey following a carrot you will never get.

6:

There are billions of people.

Millions can help you.

Find one person that can help you.

Asking for help is a better way to find a solution than to think endlessly by yourself.

Who Not How

7:

{Food, sex, and games} are the opposite of the ultimate happiness.

{Love, gratitude, and appreciation} are the ultimate happiness.

Anything can be loved, thanked, and appreciated. Not just {food, sex, and games}.

8:

Positive and negative are two sides of the same coin.

When positive and negative balance each other, you get the true value of the coin.

The true value of the coin expresses itself through love, gratitude, appreciation, joy, and peace.

9:

Less is more. More is less.

Most of the things are not linear.

2 variables can be correlated by any function you learned in math.

This is possible: small input -> BIG leveraged output that grows and compounds over time

80/20 + leverage + compound interest

10:

It’s not about the big steps in every direction, it’s about the small steps in the same direction.

Focus on one thing for a long time and the results compound.

11:

Habits are effortless.

If you invest in your habits, you will produce a lot of value from 0 effort.

Then your habits and the output of your habits compound over time.

12:

You can be a new, better version of yourself every day.

Enjoy the progress.

growth mindset + The Gap and The Gain

13:

Motivation go up and down like waves. Ride these waves.

Seasonality is real.

There is a time to work and a time to rest.

Optimize your life around these waves.

You don’t have to focus on the same thing all the time.

Ride your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly waves.

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Mike Ying

🌊 Minimize Effort, Maximize Happiness ✍️ Daily: Psychology x Spirituality x Productivity for those that want more out of life