A lot of adults I talk to long for their childhoods. When I was a kid though, I couldn’t wait to be an adult.
You got nobody telling you what to do. You get to do what you want. You get to stay up as late as you want and eat whatever you want to eat. Plus, you don’t have to go to school and sit there for eight hours a day in a boring ass classroom and try not to get in trouble.
And you know what?
Adulting was everything I dreamed it was. And more.
The thing is, too many adults are simply bad at being adults. It comes down to four things – health, relationships, finances, and extracurricular activities.
If you’re decent at all four, you’ll have a great adulthood.
Health
Health comes first. If you’re unhealthy, the other three won’t do you any good.
A lot of different strategies work. I know healthy people ranging from vegetarians to carnivores and everything in between. The secret is simply managing your meals and cutting out processed foods. And of course limit (or completely cut out) snacking.
Then find some kind of exercise regimen you actually enjoy doing. I’ve found that when people don’t like their exercise regimens, they quit.
I enjoy lifting weights. So that’s mine.
I also started getting into running recently. I hated it at first but with the gyms closed, I had to do something.
I noticed that there are a lot of good looking women who run. I’d get tired and see a nice ass in a ponytail pass me, then suddenly, I’d have energy to run another quarter or half mile. Funny how that works.
After the gyms open up again, I’ll still run once a week. So much better than those cardio machines.
Most exercise programs are great. Martial arts. Weightlifting. Swimming. Running. Hiking. Biking. Soccer. Just find something you like doing and stick with it. Simple as that.
Relationships
I’ve talked about people having bad filters many times. That’s what it usually comes down to. When someone has good filters, they have good relationships. They know the type of people who will actually make their lives better rather than making their lives worse.
Folks with bad filters consistently end up in bad relationships. Then of course they’ll complain constantly about people sucking.
No, people don’t suck. Your filter sucks. Fix that.
There are tons of tells. Watch how people treat others. Do they kiss ass to people they want something from? Do they treat people like garbage who they think are beneath them?
Do they constantly find things wrong with the world? Or can they spin a problem into an opportunity?
People are constantly emitting tells. It’s up to you to read them.
Also, don’t try “fixing” adults. Just don’t. Waste of time. People rarely change.
I’d say in my life, people only change when they hit rock bottom. You’ll find someone losing a foot from diabetes when they finally do something about their sugar intake. Not always that extreme, but that’s common.
Everyone has free will. Only about 10% of people actually use it.
Finances
Don’t try keeping up with the Jones’s. They’re often on borrowed money.
Simply live within your means. Then increase your means.
I’ve found investing 10% of your income over a period of a pair of decades will make your 40s very easy. What to invest in? Well, what do you know?
I know stocks and real estate. And I’m now learning Bitcoin.
I blew it big time. One of my friends bugged me back in 2010 or 2011 to buy Bitcoin. I snoozed on it. Just didn’t think about it.
Until this year. Oops.
But like I’ve said before, we’re humans, not dogs. We can learn new things.
I’m not cheap. In fact, I don’t stay friends with cheap people. If we’re going out to eat and they’re arguing about every dollar, I’d rather not go out to eat with them again.
If I like you, I value your presence. I’m not concerned with the money as much as I am spending quality time with you.
But we live within our means. We can afford our vacations due to both of us making good economic decisions twenty years ago.
We started off with a small condo. In two years, it went up $53,000. We sold it and had $53,000 in cash, untaxed. That was huge for us. The largest amount of money I’ve seen at the time.
Real estate goes up and down but you got to live somewhere. If you’re really good at investing in other things, sure, maybe renting is right for you. For us though, we like owning because my wife and I are both handy people. We’ve done everything from building fences to laying sod to minor plumbing. We can buy a home that needs some TLC and fix it up, then resell it.
I won’t get into starting companies because that’s an entirely different ballgame, and one that I’m simply not qualified enough to talk about.
Extracurricular activities
My absolute favorite thing about being an adult. When you’re a kid, your parents or your school often make the decision what you’re going to do with your spare time.
As adults, we get those choices.
Unfortunately for the vast majority of people, they waste their free time doing stuff that doesn’t make their lives better in any ways.
Hiking, sports, traveling, socializing with quality people, photography, art, music, writing, etc. All good stuff. All make your life significantly better.
Sure, I lose money every year doing music. But it’s good for my soul. Not everything is about money.
Luckily, I’m profitable in my paintings. They make up for the money pit that is my music.
You can sit around and watch tv all day with your free time. Or you can do something productive.
Yes, I get it. Some television actually has good stories. My wife and I loved Game of Thrones and ended up seeing some of the filming sites in Croatia in real life.
When I was younger, I got heavily into martial arts. I did Muay Thai for awhile then later did wrestling. My eyesight sucks so wrestling simply makes more sense. You can’t exactly box wearing glasses.
Turning a hobby profitable
One more point. If you find yourself in the top one percentile in a particular hobby, you can turn it profitable.
I can’t stand most pinup art. I find it boring. Plus the new thing I’m seeing nowadays is that all the pinup models are 200+ pounds. Whatever floats your boat, but not my thing. I like fit bodies so much better.
The other thing – pinups used to be fun. I’m seeing a lot of dysfunction in them now. Geez, is there any artist left that’s not a basket case?
Rather than complaining about it, I decided to do something about it. Actually giving credit where it’s due, it was Allie. She encouraged me to take my artwork seriously.
I started getting noticeably better pretty fast. Then Roxy noticed and asked to model for me. I had two of my besties now modeling for me.
I have a strong work ethic and don’t go a single day without drawing. Even on vacation. On the cruise ships, I’ll bring a sketchbook and draw everything.
Luckily for me, I’m an extrovert. I’ll talk to everybody. And everybody knows somebody.
Word gets around. I know several people who know people who own art galleries. So I simply asked them to set me up.
Of course, I waited until I was ready. Once I got a portfolio of quality art, I pulled the trigger. They said yes and I was soon selling paintings.
It was as easy as that.
But, I put in the work. Every day drawing. Every day practicing. At least once a week, working with a live model.
Studying from both 1800s textbooks and YouTube videos. Copying their techniques.
Reading up on other artists and borrowing a technique here and there. Or at least getting inspired by my favorite artists.
Until years later, I’m producing works that people buy.
The thing is, you can do the same. I know people who make money doing everything from dating coaching to personal training. Find your passion and if you want, you can turn it profitable.
But like I said before, not everything is about money. If you want to keep it to yourself, then do that. If you want to make money at it, then by all means, find out how you can and pull the trigger.
Visit my store
I got a lot of works available. I do the art. My wife mats the prints. I only sell prints online since I enjoy meeting people. So my paintings, I only sell in person.
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