Five things to tell your 25-year-old self

Executive overview

Most people in their mid-twenties are busy doing without stopping to think. The gap between where you are and where you want to be rarely closes through effort alone — it closes through clarity, deliberate relationships, and consistency.

Five concrete habits compress years of trial and error: scheduled thinking time, a written vision, targeted mentorship, sticking with things, and making things.

The most rewarding things are also the hardest — struggle is a signal, not a reason to quit.

Schedule thinking time

• Block time in your calendar specifically for thinking — not working, thinking.
• Even 15–30 minutes a day is enough to get clearer on direction.
• Sharpening the saw beats cutting harder with a blunt one.

Write a clear vision

• Write out where you want to be at 30, 60, 90 days, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years.
• Be specific: net worth, living situation, relationships, what you own.
• Print it and put it everywhere — fridge, mirror, phone, laptop.
• Repeated exposure keeps you moving toward it without forcing it.
• If you don't know what you want, do things until you know what you don't want.

Invest in mentors

• When you're young, people take your meetings — use that while it lasts.
• Pay for dinner at their favourite restaurant; the ROI is enormous.
• Ask to interview them — ego drops, access opens.
• Find people who've already done what you want to do and shortcut the learning.

Stick with things

• The instinct to move on to the next thing costs more than it saves.
• Satisfaction is built through depth, not novelty.
• Most valuable things only reveal themselves after sustained effort.

Make things

• Everything is cheap to start — there's no excuse to stay passive.
• Build something, write something, sell something.
• Use idle time to learn, create, or practice — not just consume.
• Stay sharp: keep reading, keep building, keep updating your skills.