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25 principles I wish someone told me when I was 20
(these took me 17 years to learn):
Eric Hinman
December 11, 2024
read on: themovementmemo.com
read time: 7 minutes
Welcome to The Movement Memo, a bi-weekly newsletter where I share actionable tips to help you live your best day ever, every day.
Today's Programming
Movement: 4 rounds for time
Quote: Roosevelt on the arena
Lesson Learned: 25 timeless principles I wish someone told me when I was 20
Optimization: How I recover after long endurance sessions
Today's Movement
Complete 4 rounds for time:
10 deadlifts (275/ 185 lbs).
15 cal row
10 Thrusters (115/ 75 lbs).
14 cal ski
*Rest 60 seconds between rounds
Austin, Texas celebrating a friend’s book launch!
Today's Quote
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
People not in the arena will throw stones.
People in the arena will throw lifelines.
When you are getting started the hardest part is getting over your fear of failure.
Once you embrace that it is better to fail greatly than to not try at all, life gets a lot happier.
Today's Lesson Learned
This was a question a reader asked in response to my last newsletter.
Most people have a pretty good idea of what they need to do.
Where we fall apart is how we go about accomplishing our goal. How do we get started? How do we build a strong network when we are starting from scratch?
The goal of today’s newsletter is to provide 25 timeless principles to overcome decision paralysis.
A Harsh Truth: you just have to start.
It’s not sexy. It’s not easy. But it’s also not rocket science.
You can only build momentum from inside the arena.
• You learn more from your first 100 sales calls than reading 100 books on sales.
• You get in better shape from your first 100 workouts than 100 hours spent studying periodization.
• You develop more from starting your first business than having 100 coffee meetings with founders.
A quote I have always loved is from Theodore Roosevelt’s speech “Citizenship in a Republic”, delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23, 1910.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
So how do you get into the arena?
Odds are you’re young and ambitious (and have some specific knowledge).
It’s led you to read this today. It’s led you to the experiences, decisions, and desires you have today.
And yet you struggle, you battle cognitive dissonance daily.
You feel caught between who you are today and who you know you can be tomorrow.
You’ve taken chances and done things differently. You met interesting people, worked hard, and created some early “success”. Or at least it appears that way from the outside. But inside you are struggling. Inside you are conflicted. Inside you don’t know which direction to head (and what to spend your time doing).
You recognize the value of learning, of gaining specific knowledge, and if you’re ambitious you already have grit and know how to work hard.
So you sit, confused and conflicted. Unsure of what direction you wish to head.
And you read. And write. And look to others online to give you the answers. Because you know this is how you create the changes you wish to see and become.
But if you are ambitious then you are uncomfortable with this period.
You feel you are not doing enough. You feel like you are wasting time. And you feel as though you can not answer the questions you want, no matter how hard to try.
You tried saying yes to everything. You tried optimizing for relationships, experiences, and people. You tried being patient. But you can’t keep doing things the way you have.
Every day this cognitive dissonance grows, driving you to action, yet you do not yet know which direction to expel your energy. You can’t seem to get started.
If this sounds like you, know you are not alone. This was me 15 years ago. And here are the 25 timeless principles I wish someone had given me when I was 25.
Send blind emails and dms. (This is a volume game. A lot of people will say no or not reply – but all you need is one yes.)
Ask for specific advice or offer to provide value without the thought of compensation. This is how you get time around smart, interesting people who are willing to take a chance on you.
Getting in the room where things happen is merely the cost of entrance. How you show up once you’re in the room is what matters. Make yourself uniquely valuable.
Early in your career, you don’t have experience. You have energy and curiosity. These are your superpowers, lean into them. When you are the youngest person in the room, you provide unique insight because you grew up in a different world. Lean in to this. No one can compete with you on being you.
Ask questions when you don’t understand. Do not be afraid of sounding stupid.
Clearly communicate what you are feeling and struggling with. Successful people like helping others become successful… But you can’t waste their time and you have to show them you want it.
The only way you can do this and grow is through constant self-reflection. Buy a journal or open up your notes app and make daily writing a habit. Oftentimes you will not understand the thoughts that are constantly floating around in your head. Writing them down will calm you and bring clarity.
Share these lessons with the world. Create through the lens that you are helping the younger, less experienced version of you. This is why I share my life with the world.
Most people believe that they don’t have anything worth sharing. But think about the greats that came before you, the Jordan’s and the Lebron’s, or the Mark Galloways and Tim Ferris’s. If they never shared, they wouldn’t have inspired you. You get to become the hero of your younger self.
This only happens with work. A lot of work… and growth is an interactive, messy, ongoing process. Keep going. And always give yourself the grace to fail. Those in the arena will support you. Those not in the arena will throw stones (but they don’t know what it’s like).
Recognize and reward yourself for the progress you make. Oftentimes we struggle to see our growth in real time. Find ways to quantify your development; keep personal scorecards or set goals that are tangible. When you accomplish them, celebrate them. And remember to celebrate your tiny wins everyday.
Do not be too hard on yourself. But also do not be too easy on yourself. You will be your own worst critic but you must also be your own biggest fan. As you should be. No one else will do it for you.
Prioritize your relationships over all else. They are your greatest currency, both in work and life. If you accomplish all your goals and have no one to share it with, what was the point? Send hand written notes. Take friends out for their birthday. And show up for funerals. People will always remember who was present when they were going through a hard time.
Articulate the problems that you are struggling with and seek out people who are:
a. believable
b. have walked in your shoes.
Get their advice, ask good questions, but make your own decisions.When you are in a free fall moment, enjoy it. Embrace it. Cherish it, and stay present. They don’t come often but when they do, man they are special. Ride these waves as long as you can – don’t self sabotage when things are going well.
Recognize that most of life occurs in plateaus. When you are doing the daily work to progress, and building and learning new skills, you cannot yet see the growth. Trust the process. Fall in love with the process. This is where you differentiate because most people quit. Do not be this person.
When you are faced with a difficult decision, ask yourself how future you would behave in this situation. Then, do what they would.
Work to decrease the amount of time between decision and action. In the beginning, learning any new skill takes conscious thought. Over time you build this into a habitual practice that no longer requires thought. It’s easier to build new skills than it is to break old patterns. Be conscious of both what you do but also what you choose not to do.
Learn. Actively develop new skills in a variety of fields. This is the only way you will be able to find your passion. Angela Duckworth writes about how people don’t like activities when they are bad at something, but in your 20’s you have to find new passions. Embrace being bad. This is the only way you can find what you enjoy. And once you commit to something, stay the course – regardless of how hard it becomes.
Create scared hours for your highest leverage work and protect this time religiously. This is the most valuable skill you can develop, regardless of field or industry.
Know that it is ok to feel lost, that you don’t have to have it all figured out. Trust that no one really does, they are just further along in the game. Study them. Learn from them. And optimize for time around them so that you can pay down your ignorance debt faster.
Embrace being uncomfortable This is where growth comes from. If you’re anything like me, and if you’re reading this you likely are, then you don’t like waiting. You like taking action. But when you don’t know which direction you want to head it’s hard . You mistake being busy for making progress. This is actually a form of laziness. You are afraid to put in the work to find what truly makes you happy.
Say, thank you. And send handwritten notes. These actions don’t scale and they create friends, partners, and colleagues for life.
Become financially literate (and don’t wait for someone else to teach you). No one else will. This is your responsibility. And it will create so much freedom for everything else that you want to do in life.
Make one close friend who is years ahead of you. And another who is years behind you. By spending time in different circles you will expose yourself to more opportunities and ensure that your thinking remains open-minded.
These are the 25 timeless principles that took me 17 years to learn.
They are not a blueprint for how to make an extra $10,000 a year. They are not a playbook for how to write a blind email that gets a response. They are not a set of rules to live every day around.
They are the lessons that I have learned from spending time with high-performers across industries and what they all have in common.
And these 25 principles are exactly what I wish someone would have given seventeen years ago.
P.S. – If you have questions, please reply to these emails and ask them. I do my best to respond to every one and the questions inform what I share in the future.
Today's YouTube
Today's Optimization
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Publisher: Eric Hinman
Editor-in-chief: Bobby Ryan