Most important thing you've learned in the past 5 years

The 80/20 rule... although it is more 90/10 for me.

For example, being full vegan is awfully hard (at the start), but eating vegan 90 percent of the time is actually super easy.

Biking instead of driving most of the time is much easier than telling yourself to cycle every day.

We often treat things as all or nothing... And sure, I'd love to be perfect at all the things I find important, but doing so puts certain things out of reach because it makes me frustrated and give up on good intentions.

If somethings takes less than 5 minutes to do, do it right away. Don't waste time thinking about when to do it, reminding yourself the whole time, risk forgetting about it, don't procrastinate about it. Do it right away. You get so much more stuff done and are way less stressed.

Confidence and/or giving no fucks goes a long way. Combine that with unabashed honesty, and you're good. Just gotta make sure not to be a dick about things.

This ends up rubbing assholes the wrong way, but good people will be drawn to you. If you're in a toxic environment, you'll end up kind of ejecting yourself, but you can build a good environs around yourself

I've learned that no matter how nice people seem, they can still fuck you over when money is involved.

Invested quite a lot of money and they chose to remove all contact with me after I told them I wouldn't bail out their debt.

So lesson learned. Absolutely make people accountable for their managerial actions every single day before they throw a business into debt. And get out if they show red flags of fucking up.

Linux

Don't stay at a shitty job just because you're scared of new things or because you think it's good pay. Put yourself out there and interview. Some interviews will suck, some job offers will be insultingly low, but eventually you'll find something better. And guess what? Maybe that one will end sooner than you'd like, but you're already practiced up and know how to interview and write a resume, so you can just dust yourself off and move on.

Also, if you get a huge pay raise, try to live at the same expense level as the old job. Maybe get a treat here and there, maybe fix that problem in your house or car you've been putting off, but don't blow all the extra money. Save some in case that new job ends and it takes a little longer to find more work than you'd like.

Being kind to others and surrounding yourself with people who are positive and kind to you make miracles for mental health and confidence. Staying positive leads to see everyday life under a different light

Dicotomy of control, that the only thing that you can control is your actions and responses to the things that happen to you, you cannot control external things, none of them, not money nor work, love, death, health, nothing, just your response.

That, and the fact that everything you love is not yours, they belongs to death, and sooner or later he's going to take it back. Live your life now. Be a good being.

Using free/libre/open source software whenever possible, and megacorps don't necessarily have your best interests in mind.

That you need to water your trees.

It may seem obvious; Water the plants in the yard! But for some reason evertime I was watering my garden I never even thought about watering the trees, but they ARE some big thirsty boys.

Water small-med trees for 30 minutes ~2-3 weeks. Water large trees for 45-60 minutes every month.

Oh. And just pay your fucking taxes. my friends are fucking stupid and dealing with the ramifications of not filing mor multiple years and it's surprised face MORE expensive to deal with after the fact 🙄.

Ditch negative people from your life. Surround yourself with positive people and you’ll excel faster than ever before!

It was not the most important thing for me, but I agree: 15-20 years ago, veg options (and sugarless too btw) sucked. You really had to be committed to the cause to endure them.

We're not vegetarians, but my daughter has allergy to eggs and milk. We buy cakes, pies, brownies, cookies, etc from a vegan bakery that honestly are delicious - better than most non-vegan equivalents. We all end up eating them, although only she actually "needs" them.

If vegan activists worked more towards kindly creating and showing the world vegan options that are as good as/better than their animal counterparts, it would help their cause MUCH more than pestering people, destroying property and making everyone hate them.

Act on your thoughts and ideas. Especially small stuff like being creative (for fun) or writing a friend, you haven't had contact with in a while - little effort, but feels nice and motivates you to do more.

Keep trying, don't be afraid to fail, don't be afraid to look stupid.

Kindness, Honesty, mindfulness. If someone or something makes me feel some type of way, I don't need it. What's the point of doing something that I hate doing? I learned how to be happy, because happiness is largely a choice, a perspective.

Building new habits or replacing old ones has to start small, so small actually that the book I read about this a few years ago is titled Atomic Habits. What it breaks down to is that changes in our daily lives don't happen instantaneously; they take time, effort, and repetition.

For example, if you were to set a goal of getting more fit you wouldn't accomplish that in one day. What you can accomplish though, is to go out and walk a mile today. Then the next day walk another mile. And the next another mile. After a week or two of this, you might try something more intense like longer distances, jogging, or maybe even riding a bicycle. But you didn't get there in one day: you worked at it a little bit each day until it naturally became part of your habits.

If you experience death or a loss, make sure to take the time to mourn them properly.

Suppression or distractions from your feelings leaving them unresolved WILL resurface and affect you.

Maybe don't buy that bigass (sail)boat.