I have encountered this question in various forms, so here are my thoughts on it:
1) Money management
Learning how to manage your finances is one of the most important things that we should learn.
In my opinion, our financial education should start as soon as we learn basic arithmetic!
The younger we start, the more time we will have to make mistakes.
The one thing that I am thankful to my parents is that they taught me how to be thrifty.
My dad was a marine engineer, and my mum has been a home maker since my brother and I were in primary school.
We often lived below our means, and that meant that my parents became financially free when my dad retired.
Most people nowadays prefer to live on debt, and today’s “consumer” economy encourages taking on debt.
However, one of the most important lessons that my parents taught me were to live simply and live humbly.
We still traveled overseas every year.
Spending time with loved ones is so important, which leads me to the second point.
2) Priorities
Getting your priorities right is important for growth.
While we were younger, we tend to have more time and energy.
Hence, it is important that you invest the time and energy wisely, in the right things.
Another area which I felt that I would have done better would be in terms of getting my priorities absolutely right.
My priorities are: God, family, job, ministry and all others.
There was a period of time when I was not sure what I wanted to do, after failing to get into medicine.
You see, it was my dream to get into medicine in university.
During that period of time, I was serving the nation in army, when I was called up to serve the nation for 2 years. (All Singaporean males have to serve the army for 2 years)
Hence, I was under prepared for the interview, and flunked the interview.
That was also a period of time when I was searching for a purpose, and I felt that life can’t be just about getting a good grade, getting married and settling down.
This leads me to my next point!
3) Purpose (Your “why”)
Why do you do what you do?
When you are in your twenties, you may or may not have figured out your purpose in life.
If you have already figured out what is your purpose, congratulations!
I didn’t figure out my purpose until I was in my thirties, when I got out of employment to start on my own entrepreneurship journey.
Now, my purpose is to help people discover their purpose!
#behelpfulbehappy
This is why I founded the Happy Man Club!
The Happy Man Club is a community of people happily helping one another, and it is a growing online/offline community.
4) Mastery
Once you have figured out your purpose, it is important to spend enough time to gain mastery of the skills that are needed to help you fulfill your life mission.
It will also be really helpful if you can identify someone more experienced to mentor or coach you along the way, as it will help you to shorten your learning curve and identify the blind spots that you have.
It is important that you remain disciplined and spend your 10,000 hours to hone your skills.
It is easy to let time slip away, but if we are not careful, we will find that we have reached the end of our twenties, and youth is no longer on our side.
Do you agree with the above?
What do you find helpful/not helpful?