You Only Live Once. Fuck it.

Here's how to finally live without regrets and get inspired to change the world.

Photo by Rodrigo dos Reis on Unsplash

Every day you’re slowly dying.

One of my mentors said that to me. It stopped my heart from beating. The worst thing you can do is get to the end of your life and have massive regrets.

Fuck it.

You’re going to die so consider these thoughts right now.

Quit your job once

Quitting a job makes you feel free. It reminds you that you have full control of your life. Suddenly, the fear of losing a job isn’t as strong anymore. The weird thing is, you can always find another job. So if you quit, faceplant, and need to go back to work then don’t stress – LinkedIn is overflowing with jobs.

I’ve quit a few jobs over my lifetime. I’ve never looked back on any of it. Quitting takes courage, then after you’ve quit, higher levels of career confidence magically appear.

Don’t be so afraid of quitting a job. An employer isn’t going to care about you if a car runs over your beautiful body tomorrow. They’ll simply rehire another warm body and place them in your office chair within a few weeks.

Have an after hours side hustle once

After work, a side hustle can make a world of difference. My early 9-5 jobs were soul-crushing. The one thing that got me through is my side hustle of writing. It helped me get out of my head. I transformed all the work frustration into energy for writing.

Nothing happened quickly. It took five years to get anywhere near where I’d hoped. Now I’ve reached hundreds of millions of people with my side hustle. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made.

Removing expectations allowed it to happen. I didn’t get caught up in bullshit followers or trying to impress Aunty Mary with my amazingly edited thoughts ready for Prince Charles to read over tea and scones.

I simply didn’t give a fuck. I did it for me. I did it for the people like me who were told their entire lives that they couldn’t be somebody. I did it for the people who have been trapped by mental illness and are too afraid to seek help.

After hours side hustles are for underdogs. They’re for people who dare to dream of an optimistic future, where they’re doing what they love and earning money from it.

Start one side hustle. See where it takes you. Commit to it for a few years. Your life will change, I promise you.

Start a business once

Businesses have ruined my life multiple times. I’ve walked away from one. I’ve seen many fail because of my utter stupidity.

But every freaking person should start at least one business. Why? Starting a business is backing yourself. It’s hard work but possible to succeed at. When you do, you control your day-to-day work life.

Harvard screwed the idea of business up.

They made us think business is some complex thing you need four years of education for. Bullshit. The internet made business far easier. You create content and make money. You can set up an eCommerce website in minutes and dropship stuff all around the world. You can learn how to run ads and charge people money to do it for them.

The number of simple business ideas is now endless. I saw the other day that adults in the Philippines are now playing a game called Axie Infinity to make money because of the dire economic situation. Playing a game on a phone feels like freedom to them. There’s no boss – only a virtual world full of cute, furry creatures to look after.

No matter how bad you are at business, try running one at least once. It’s gratifying as hell if you can pull it off. If not, quietly go back to work, rebuild your bank balance, and try again when you’re ready.

Ask them on a date at least once

Dating is scary for a big-eared monkey like me from Australia with a discombobulated, skinny body. I always thought no attractive woman would ever date me. So while single, I filtered out all the good-looking options on Tinder.

One day I said to myself, “Screw it.” I began swiping the profiles of the best-looking women I could find. Surprisingly, many of them swiped back. Many of them went on dates with me.

Now I’m about to marry one of those Tinder profiles.

I asked a few of the women, while on dates with them, why they would even talk to me. Their answer surprised me: “Your bio was well-written and you sounded interesting and emotionally intelligent.

Looks don’t matter as much as you think. You’re beautiful just the way you are. A good soul is worth more in the dating game than a douchebag with rock hard abs and an ego to block everything good in life.

Talk to them. Ask them out. You got nothing to lose amigo.

Take the holiday that gives you massive productivity guilt

Don’t wait until 65 to finally take real holidays that last months. The factory-worker economic system we currently have is lying to us. Delaying the good times until our energy is plummeting is a ridiculous idea.

Take a holiday. Explore the world. Meet people from different communities. Be like the late, great, chef Anthony Bourdain and ask philosophical questions at the end of your travel.

Or if you’re like me, take a holiday even though it gives you enormous productivity guilt. My career is at an all-time high. Taking a holiday means placing all of my writing, online courses, social media exploration, and newsletters on hold. But fuck it. What’s the point of working your face off to wake up non-stop and keep grinding away.

What’s success if you can’t enjoy it?

What’s the point of doing well financially to simply invest every dollar you have and then give it to your family to enjoy when you’re dead?

Your family wants you to enjoy your money now. That’s the harsh truth. I want my parents to die with zero dollars in their bank account because that’s one way I know they’ve lived their life to the fullest. Money leftover when you’re dead is bad. Spend every cent on good times and great classic hits.

Bottom Line

You’ll never know unless you try. Do everything once. Do the stuff people tell you is batshit crazy. Put the critics and their opinions in a deep hole in a graveyard inside your head.

Regrets are a pain in the ass. Not trying things once leads to a bullet train of regrets. You can do the thing people tell you is stupid. They only say that because they’re too scared to do it themselves.

The worst-case scenario is normally fine. Feel the fear. Lean in. Do it once.