4 Lessons from 40 Years [Weekend WRAP 107]

I won't bury the lede, Reader - I turn 40 tomorrow 🎂 It's a big one - maybe THE BIG ONE for most people, and I have a great weekend planned.

🍔 Cookout and bounced house for family fun
🍻 Reserved a brewery for adult fun
🥾 Hike with family
🏈 Watch football
🍁 Cool weather

It was 43 degrees when I woke up this morning - a true breakthrough fall temperature! What a way to enjoy a big weekend!

💡 4 Big Ideas from 40 Years

I'm resisting the urge to do "X lessons from X years" format that's popular on, well, X (Twitter) and instead focus on the 4 biggest ideas I've bought in to during my 40 years being human. TL;DR 👇

Family & friends have the biggest impact on happiness.
Building an audience and personal brand is the best thing you can do for your career.
40 years old isn't even halfway through your career. There's a lot of work and opportunity still to come!
Practice short-term action with long-term expectations.

A quick overview of each:

Family and Friends

A supportive partner and good friends have the biggest impact on my happiness. Yes, it feels good to have success in my career, from closing a deal to having a piece of content do well, or getting promoted.

But professional achievements are buoyed by steady, happy days at home, a wife who supports my work (and I hers) and friends I've had with me for many years. For me, only a couple of my local friends and bigger family work in this "creator economy."

They're excited about what I share, but it's a nice jolt of realism that life is going right along offline as much as it's speeding up online. Their perspective is helpful and appreciated, as is the "ooooooh you went viral that's nice" friendly trash talk that comes from friends you've known 20+ years.

Personal Brand

I'm the only one of my family and friends to go hard at building a personal brand, writing newsletters at 6:00 AM on a Sunday morning, publishing YouTube videos, and going on podcasts.

What does that mean? For one, I don't think I'll ever have to apply for a job again. It means when I want to rent an Airbnb with 3 rooms instead of 2 I have ways of generating extra income on short notice through sponsorships, client work, or live workshops. It means we can pay off student loans faster.

A personal brand means you have a cheat code in your career — which honestly means your entire life — by connecting with others who like your work (thanks for being one of those people, Reader!)

I'm Not Even Halfway

I plan to live well past 80 (Lord willing), so this isn't even mid-life yet. But in terms of career, I hope to be vigorously working for another 30 years. I graduated college in 2006. Conservatively, I have a "full-time" 50 year career from early 20s to early 70s and I'm only 17 years in.

Even better — I didn't start working with creators or building my own brand until I was 30 and will make content until God calls me away. So I'm 10 years into a 50-60 year content journey, meaning there's more than 80% of the journey to come!

Short-Term Action, Long-Term Expectation

This has roots in all the work we've done together on habits and the freedom to take tiny steps. Almost everything you want to accomplish in life is on the other side of hundreds and thousands of small actions.

Personal habits are the compounding investment of your life. Little improvements in exercise, eating, kindness, positivity, brand building, business, and everything else builds a life you're happy to live.

Where we get stuck (I know I still do) is the desire to want things to happen now or soon, not later or in a while. Because while I confidently talk about having 80% of my career remaining, I'm also thinking "what the heck is taking so long?!" for the work I'm doing now.

They key for me is to practice short-term action (write the newsletter, publish the video, train jiu-jitsu, raise kids) and balance long-term expectation. I'm very open to short-term success too ;) but my timeline is in years as my habits and content compound.

Thanks for reading this special birthday edition of the WRAP. If you are new you can also read the archive here. You can also reply to this email and let me know which lesson resonated with you the most. I would enjoy hearing from you!

Have a great day,

Matt Ragland