1. Love yourself. If you can’t, how can someone else? You can’t truly love someone until you don’t need them in your life… No one is going to fix your problems or make you a better person but you, so love yourself and the rest will fall into place eventually.

2. Workout EVERY DAY. Embrace the pain. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger & on top of the physical benefits, exercise has enumerable mental benefits. Excuses are merely a product of laziness, not a lack of capability.

3. Eat healthy — you can only feel as good as the food you eat and you will not be happy if you are old and get fat or have high cholesterol. Seriously, it’s not that hard to eat a salad instead of a burger.

4. You are capable of anything you set your mind to. If you want to do something, go out and do it. Failure is always better than not trying. Excuses are a product of laziness not lack of capability.

5. Look ahead when you walk, hold your head high and observe the world around you. Do not let life pass you by because next thing you know you’re going to be reading a blog (or watching on some sort of holographic projection) on things to remember in your fifties.

6. Do not hold your head so high that your nose is in the air. Be humble.

7. Always practice good manners. Address people by name. Shake hands. Say please & thank you. Hold the door for people. Say bless you. Good manners are not easy to come by lately and they will not go unnoticed.

8. Laugh often and loudly, even if you have absolutely no reason to. -Especially if you have absolutely no reason to.

9. Never take things for granted. Whatever you have is always more than what someone else has.

10. Breathe. Like really breathe. Inhale all that life has to offer you and exhale everything you don’t need.

11. Learn to accept apologies that you haven’t received. Forgive everyone because hate and anger is a weight that only holds down the person carrying it.

12. Listen to music; listen to the lyrics. Cry if they make you sad. Laugh if they are funny. Never hold back emotions your emotions or they will come out in the worst way possible (aka when your drunk).

13. You are not always right. Sometimes you will need to apologize for things. Even if you think you’re right, swallow your pride and apologize anyway. People like people who say sorry.

14. Seriously, you are not always right. Keep an open mind. Even if you disagree with someone, consider that their views and opinions might have some ounce of truth to them.

15. No one is perfect. Even when it seems like everyone expects you to be perfect, they don’t, because they aren’t perfect either. “Doing your best” won’t always be enough and sometimes people won’t accept it- move on. find someone who will.

16. Take responsibility for your mistakes. Never blame someone else & waste no time doing whatever you can to fix them.

17. You do not need to be 2 steps ahead of everyone else. Think before you make decisions and you will be two steps ahead of yourself and that’s all that matters. (Decide to eat a salad instead of a burger and you’re really deciding to have healthy arteries… See? All coming together!)

18. Always make decisions that are going to better your life. For example, don’t stay in a relationship with someone who doesn’t make you feel like the best you possible (and I don’t mean break up with someone over something insignificant, fighting is natural- verbal abuse is not.)

19. At the same time, have fun. Weekends are a really good time for this. DO NOT WORK ON WEEKENDS. Working on weekends will make you miserable and throw you into an endless cycle of working 24/7 which will not make you any better than the guy who works 5 days a week because he will maintain his sanity while you have grey hair by 27.

20. Don’t be afraid to burn a few bridges. You are going to encounter a lot of toxic people in your life. Let go. As a matter of fact, let go of anything toxic in your life. These things only harbor negativity and you do not need them.

21. If you love someone, tell them. Either they’re going to say they love you back, or they don’t and at least you will know. FYI, the people who matter WILL love you back and you don’t want to regret never telling someone how you really feel if one day it’s no longer an option. A little love goes a long way. (I know this one is cliche but it’s only because it’s true.)

22. Kindness is always the right thing to do. Even when you have no desire to be nice, do it anyway. The ability to make someone else happy is the greatest gift we have as humans, don’t waste that. Even if someone is being unkind to you, it will probably upset them more to see you continue to be kind rather than exploding and giving them the reaction they want from you.

23. Remember that not everyone is just like you, but in an eerie way we’re all very similar. We all have a past, we all have a present and we all have a future. At some point we all experience heartbreak, loss, love, stress, anger, happiness, sadness, etc. Practice empathy because while you never know what someone might have gone through or be going through, you can sure as hell understand the emotions they feel.