35 Things That Will Give You More “Bang for Your Buck” in Life

Ever heard of, “The Pareto Principle?” Basically, it means that 80% of the results tend to come from 20% of the causes in pretty much everything. If you look at your life through the lens of this principle, you’ll find there’s usually a lot of truth to it. This is incredibly valuable information to know because you may find that you can dramatically improve your life either by cutting out the worst 20% of your life or finding a way to cram in a lot more of the best 20% of your life into it. ͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­͏   ­ Forwarded this email? [Subscribe here]() for more [35 Things That Will Give You More “Bang for Your Buck” in Life]( [John Hawkins]( Apr 12   [READ IN APP](   Ever heard of, “The Pareto Principle?” Basically, it means that 80% of the results tend to come from 20% of the causes in pretty much everything. If you look at your life through the lens of this principle, you’ll find there’s usually a lot of truth to it. This is incredibly valuable information to know because you may find that you can dramatically improve your life either by cutting out the worst 20% of your life or finding a way to cram in a lot more of the best 20% of your life into it. For example, if you love dancing, but only go once every few weeks and just find watching TV tolerable, but do it for several hours every night, maybe you should be doing a lot more dancing and watch a lot less TV. On the other hand, if you spend every day dreading going to work, hate your job, and then worry about it when you get home, maybe it’s time to find a new job that causes you fewer headaches. After spending a lot of time thinking about this, I wanted to list the things that came to mind for me as adding the most to my life. I left off some of the ones that were so basic that they almost seemed like everyone would have them on their list (electricity, cars, microwaves, etc.) and decided to skip a few that either no longer applied to most people (blogging) or that were so highly personalized that they wouldn’t be useful to a lot of people (Example: A chiropractor fixed a 20-year back problem I had by realizing one of my legs was slightly longer than the other and giving me a 6mm lift for that shoe. Three days later, my back problems were mostly over). My hope is that doing this article will give people some ideas AND, more importantly, cause them to think about the things in their lives that give them the most “bang for their buck.” The more we manage to concentrate on the best things in our lives, the better our lives will be. Here are the 36 things that have given me the most “bang for the buck” in my life. Some of them are even free. 1) Affirmations: “Simply put, [daily affirmations]( are clear, positive statements that are designed to help you create change in yourself so you become the kind of person who is capable of accomplishing your goals in life. Do this by stating your goals in the present tense, as if they’ve already been achieved – so that thought and desire to experience that stated reality is always top of mind for you.” 2) Bitcoin: Bitcoin has been the best investment I’ve ever made, and I think it still has an awful lot of room to run for the next 5-10 years or so at least. 3) Blackout shades: As someone who often stays up late, having blackout shades has significantly improved my sleep quality. 4) The Boy’s Club: When I was a kid, I spent countless hours playing organized sports, shooting hoops, and hanging out at the Boy’s Club. It was good for me as a person. 5) Conferences: There are an awful lot of big-name conservatives that know who I am and will still respond to me years later because I met them in person at conferences, we hung out, they got a good vibe off of me and I invited them to parties and dinners. The Internet makes reaching out easy, but face-to-face contact still means a lot. 6) Consistent sleep: It seems like a minor thing, but getting a consistent amount of sleep each night was a game-changer for me mentally and physically. 7) Dogs: Other than your family, close friends, and people you’re connected with romantically, your dog is the only other creature on earth that is truly on your team. 8) Dungeons and Dragons: I played D&D on and off from my high school years until I was about 30 or so. It was a lot of creative fun playing with friends, but perhaps more importantly, all the dice rolling helped give me a freakishly good understanding of statistics that has proven helpful many times since. 9) Expensive bed: I figure if I’m spending 1/3 of my life sleeping, it makes sense to put money into the mattress I’m sleeping on, so I do. 10) Family/friends/girlfriends: 11) Fast computer/Expensive office chair: As someone who has to spend a lot of time at a computer, putting some money into a first-rate chair and a fast computer is well worth it. 12) [How to Win Friends and Influence People]( Dale Carnegie’s famous book was life-changing for me in high school, and I’ve probably read it a half dozen times. The book is 88 years old and it’s still probably the best book ever written about people skills. 13) Hiring people to do repetitive tasks: I hire people in India to do small, repetitive tasks online and bring people in to mow my yard, do repairs, put together furniture, and clean my house. I can do all those things, but I’m willing to pay to free up more of my time. 14) Jar of Awesome: “I have this jar, and it’s going to sound super cheesy, but she labeled it [the jar of awesome](. And it’s a big mason jar. And it’s like when something really cool happens, you’re not going to remember it three months later and have that perspective to give you gratitude. It’s like write it down on a little piece of paper every night. Write down the things that were awesome that happened that day, however small they might be, fold it up, put it in the jar of awesome.” 15) Life Coaching: I don’t need “life coaching” per se, but I do find it useful to have another smart, competent human being that I can tell ANYTHING that’s going on in my life or my head once per quarter. It helps keep me accountable, catches errors in my thinking, and sometimes introduces me to ideas or concepts that help me improve my life. 16) Rush Limbaugh: Rush Limbaugh was someone who heavily influenced me to become conservative and he inspired me to build a career by running my own website. He had a big positive impact on my life. 17) God: God has lifted me up, looked after me, and given me a moral order to the universe since I was small. Without God, I don’t really know who I would be, but I can say I probably wouldn’t be someone you’d want to know. 18) Martial arts: It’s great physical exercise and knowing that you can handle yourself in a fight pays enormous dividends in the confidence department. 19) Massage: I find massages relaxing and enjoyable generally, but getting consistent deep tissue massage from an excellent massage therapist has made a huge difference in how I feel and how I move.  20) Podcasting: I have learned an enormous amount about health, weightlifting, longevity, fitness, business, and self-help from podcasts. The right ones are continuing adult education of the best sort. 21) Portable music players: Being able to take the music I enjoy with me to the gym, on walks, and trips has been enormously valuable to me. 22) Ayn Rand: The writing of Ayn Rand had an enormous philosophical impact on me in my high school and college years. She is one of a very small number of people who have genuinely shaped the way I think with her books. 23) Radio interviews: I’ve done hundreds of hours as a guest on radio shows. I didn’t get paid for it and I can’t necessarily say it brought in a lot of new fans for me, but because of that, my voice sounds good, I’ve gotten very quick on my feet, and I could probably walk up in front of an audience and give a pretty good talk on just about anything for 10-15 minutes with no preparation. 24) Reading: I’ve been a fanatical reader since I was a child and the 1500+ books I’ve read have entertained and educated me throughout my life.   25) Real estate: Other than Bitcoin, my best investment has been in real estate. 26) Tony Robbins: Tony Robbins has had an enormous impact on the way I think. I am a better, stronger, smarter person because I was introduced to the ideas in his books and tapes. 27) Saving money: Initially saving up $2,500 in cash was one of the most important things I’ve ever done for my peace of mind and few things give you more options and confidence than being able to get your hands on cash if you need it. 28) Stretching: Stretching is generally a good thing, but when you get older, having a real stretching routine and doing [Stretch Zone]( felt like it peeled a decade of aging off of my frame. It was a big deal. 29) Spotify: Almost all of the new music I’ve found over the last few years has come from [Spotify]( which doesn’t cost me a dime. 30) Streaming movies: The endless and relatively cheap entertainment value I’ve gotten from streaming movies makes them a worthwhile addition to this list. 31) Traveling: I genuinely love experiencing new cities, cool tourist attractions, amazing views, and incredible natural wonders. Just to give you an idea of what I mean, I took these three pictures last year during trips to Denver, New York, and Seattle respectively: 32) Typing class: I didn’t like typing class in high school and got a “C” in it, but it turned out to be the one class that taught me a skill I regularly used for the rest of my life. 33) Walking: Over the last couple of decades, I have consistently walked somewhere around 1.5 to 3 miles per day. Mentally, it has been a great opportunity to decompress, and physically, it may be the single most important thing I’ve done for my health. 34) Weightlifting: There’s a lot to be said for being physically strong. It’s good for you, it’s a confidence booster and it helps you move heavy things. 35) Writing: My entire life for the last two decades has revolved around writing. I enjoy it, I’m good at it and it’s woven through the purpose of life so tightly that if I pulled that string out of it, the whole thing would unravel and I’d have to start again from scratch. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Upgrade to paid]( [Share]( [Leave a comment]( [101 Things All Young Adults Should Know]( You're currently a free subscriber to [Culturcidal by John Hawkins](. For the full experience, [upgrade your subscription.]( [Upgrade to paid](   [Like]( [Comment]( [Restack](   © 2024 John Hawkins 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 [Unsubscribe]() [Get the app]( writing]()