My top 20 life changers
Lifehacks for people who want to change the world 🌎
I am in training to solve the world's biggest problems and impact billions of people. I’m on the most incredible journey where I get to do crazy things, meet amazing people and train to change the world.
It all started in late 2018 when I joined The Knowledge Society (TKS) and since then I have grown an insane amount.
If you saw me in early 2018, you would never have thought I would be someone working on impacting a billion people. You never would have thought I would detect cancer with AI, work on extending our health/life span, create moonshot ideas and consult for top companies like Walmart and WealthSimple. Nobody would have thought that.
But in the last two years, my world flipped upside down. I’ve had so many unique experiences and created insane memories. I worked with huge companies like Walmart, Wealth Simple and Kidogo. I got exposed to revolutionary technologies and sciences. I learned about different mindsets, skills and philosophies. But, I also met my future co-founders and had a whole new family.
These last two years have been life-changing and I wish everyone could get the life-changing experiences I’ve had. But, unfortunately, I can’t make that happen.
But I still wanted to compile all the crazy things I’ve learned over the last two years so that anyone who clicks a few buttons can find it.
So a few hours of writing went by and this article was created. I decided to keep it concise (kinda) but follow me here to see when I come out with more articles on my learnings and growth moments!
Let's get into it :)
A few days ago, I was reading through old notebooks, slites, notion pages and all the other apps I’ve used to take notes in. I originally had the intention of organizing everything, but instead realized two things:
- I wrote all these notes, reminders and learnings for myself but never looked back on them
- I have learnt a TON of stuff in the last few years
After internalizing that I had two action items:
- Make sure you are continuously looking back at old notes
- Create a list of the top things you’ve learnt in the last few years
So I scheduled some things in my calendar and started creating the list.
Originally I was going to keep this list for myself because sharing every single reflection I write with people makes me feel like I have to “perfect” my thoughts.
But this was a list of things that changed my life. I wanted to share these with the world. Stick around because you never know what you could learn!
Keys to self-development, biggest mindset shifts and building skills and knowledge are the three main themes. Not all of them could fit in these themes so hold them loosely!
👧 Age Is Just a Number
Just because you are young doesn’t mean you can’t make an impact. I know TONS of teenagers in high school doing revolutionary things. Being surrounded by those people for the last two years made me truly believe anyone can do anything and it was A HUGE mindset shift.
Click here for more proof that age is just a number. But after you click, you aren’t allowed to use age as an excuse for anything (don’t break the law).
🌪 Embrace Failure
Everyone lives their lives trying to be perfect. Always avoiding failure. But failing motivated me to do better and I learnt so much from it.
One of my mentors once told me that pain + reflection = growth and that changed my views on failure. Embrace the pain of failing, reflect on how you can do better, put that into action and you will level up.
I’ll talk about this a bit more in another section but important people are way to busy to remember all the times you failed. If they hold your failures against you they aren’t an important/good person.
❤️ Identify Who You Are
Authenticity is one of the most important things you can develop. But authenticity can’t exist if you don’t know who your authentic self is.
Take time to identify who you are. Think about your values, goals and dreams. I also wrote a not-to-do list for myself. It’s filled with all the things I don’t want to do.
Adara Hagman wrote an article I really liked about not-to-do lists, check that out here for more information!
Write them all out and then email them to yourself every two weeks. But, don’t just delete them from your inbox. Actually read them. Make changes if necessary. Changes are good, it means you’ve grown.
You can use FutureMe to send those :)
🌻 Personal Growth > Being Liked
Everyone is so concerned with how people view them. I totally get that, but this is a list of life hacks for people who want to change the world.
Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Sara Blakely are changing the world. Do you think they have time to sit and worry about being liked? No. They are invested in themselves. They are concerned with their own personal growth.
I’m not saying don’t invest in relationships. But, don’t invest in negative relationships.
I LOVE this tweet. It doesn’t just apply to time but in relationships as well. Either have investment relationships that are helping you grow or have fun relationships that you get enjoyment out of. When one person satisfies both, your winning.
👀 You Are a Reflection Of The People You Surround Yourself With
This relates back to my previous point a little bit, Don’t invest in negative relationships, because you will adopt those qualities.
After you’ve identified your values, surround yourself with people that will embrace those qualities.
Pretty simple :)
🌳 Not Everything Is Permanent
This applies to people as well. Not everything and everyone is meant to be permanent. I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason. It’s important to remember that just because its the end of a friendship, relationship or mentorship doesn’t mean the world is falling apart.
You can’t stay there forever. Don’t hold on to the past.
🤗 Not Everyone Will Always Agree With You
….and that's okay. Everyone is different, with different values, experiences, expectations and goals. All these things (and more) make up who we are. If everyone agreed on everything nothing would be interesting.
That being said, have strong opinions loosely held. One of my mentors taught me this and it changed the way I have conversations. It makes people feel like you are invested in the conversation and that you don’t think they are wrong.
Humans hate being wrong so making them feel like they aren’t wrong makes them happier.
The key takeaway from this is to stop trying to convince everyone to agree with you and hold opinions loosely (ie. openmindedness ) when having conversations.
😍 Self-Actualization Is a Journey Not a Goal
There isn’t too much to be said on this one, but don’t think of self-actualization as a goal. It’s the journey you go through.
All the time you spend on identifying your values, editing your not-to-do lists and eliminating toxic friendships is the time you invest in the journey of self-actualization.
⏰ Time is everything
Going back to one of my favourite quotes…
“Time is a currency and there are only two ways to use it: invest it or enjoy it. When you can optimize for both, you win.” — Navid Nathoo
You can’t get more time, you can’t get less time. You just have time.
🤝 Invest in your network
I recently started building up Carbovore and I have spent most of my time connecting with my network. One of my mentors once told me that “companies don’t change the world, people change the world”. Companies are made up of people, everything you do is made up of people.
Nobody ever does anything amazing, alone. Spend time investing in your relationships with people. I promise this will pay off in the future and you will thank yourself.
✏️ #growthmindset
That pretty much sums it up!
🧠 Be a Life-Long Learner
The world is changing so quickly. Every day we have new technological advancements. There's new companies, ideas and knowledge being produced daily.
You will never know everything because of the fact that things are growing so quickly. Instead of pretending like you do know everything (most people are really bad at this just saying), invest time into constant learning and growth.
Have a curious mind, go down deep dives. You never know when you may meet someone and have an amazing conversation. Maybe the reason you had such an amazing conversation is that you went down that rabbit hole. Maybe its how you met your best friend, spouse or co-founder! You just never know.
Always be curious, never stop learning.
✅ Done > Perfect but not better than correct
Perfect doesn’t exist. So if you are striving for perfection, you are striving for something that doesn’t exist.
But, correct does exist. Don’t spend time trying to perfect something because you will never get there, you can always improve. That’s having a growth mindset. But, spend time making sure the work you are doing is correct.
🔑 Figure It Out & Relentless Hustle
If you can figure anything out and never stop hustling until you get what you need, you will make an impact.
It’s that simple. These two mindsets are the underlying skill of making an impact.
😌 Live In The Moment
If you aren’t careful, the good moments will instantly pass you by.
I used to be obsessed with “what’s next?” “where are we going now?” or “what are we doing after?”. But, I was letting all these moments pass me by. So many things I may have missed because I was so obsessed with the future.
This also applies to the past. People who hold grudges and put their energy into negativity are living in the past. I challenge you to let it go. It can be hard sometimes but by holding onto it you are letting beautiful moments go by. Moments you will never know existed.
Someone once told me that there isn’t a past, present or future. There are just moments. Every time we are putting ourselves back into a moment that's already gone, we are wasting time that could be spent creating another moment.
Don’t waste your time in old moments, create new ones.
☁️ Build a T
T is a very important letter. It has a deeper meaning. To some people it's just a letter in the alphabet. But to me, it’s a sign.
The horizontal line stands for the breadth of knowledge, and the vertical line stands for the depth of knowledge.
Here’s an example of what this T may look like in the future:
As you gain more knowledge and understanding of things, this T will grow bigger and bigger. You want to build the biggest T possible because its a superpower. ;)
🌍 Compounding
Our brains make us overvalue short-term things for instant gratification. Humans find it challenging to understand the power of exponential growth.
It’s difficult for us to understand the power of exponential growth. Compound investing is a method to achieve exponential growth but to get the benefits we need to think long-term.
The thing that sucks about compounding is the beginning sucks. There aren’t any big wins and no instant gratification. So, people either don’t do it or stop early.
Remember that these are long-term investments. Don’t expect instant results with these.
Here's a good reading on continuous improvement, check it out if you really want to invest in compounding.
I also suggest making a list of all the things you are investing in right now. Then, reflect on whether or not those are compounding or short-term. It completely changed how I spend my time and made me more aware of the time I waste.
🤔 Seek Understanding
If you don’t understand something, figure out how to understand it. If one of your mentors tells you something that you don’t fully understand, ask why. If you read about how impactful meditation was on Elon Musk understand why. Always ask why.
I wrote a separate article going more in-depth into asking why and seeking an understanding which you can check out here.
💬 Thinking Is Just As Important As Doing
Every day we are taking in new information. But we are so invested in doing that we don’t take the time to truly think about things going on around us.
Remember, pain + reflection = growth. But, if you don’t have the reflection you won’t grow.
Nobody has their best ideas when they are running around doing tons of stuff. For example, think about shower thoughts. In the shower, we aren’t doing much. We are putting 98.8% (this is a random number don’t quote me on that one) into thinking. That’s why people have such crazy ideas in the shower.
Trust me, spend time thinking. Go for a walk, sit at the beach, lie down in bed. Just think. I promise this will change your life.
Pro tip: Every morning/night spend a few minutes just writing everything on your mind out on paper. Game changer!
🎁 People don’t care about your name till they see the value you can give them
I was listening to this podcast a while back and it really stuck with me. It changed the way I present, have conversations and just live my life.
Key takeaway: show people how you can give them value first!
Recap
That was a ton of information so let me summarize it for you:
- Age doesn’t matter
- Embrace failure
- Identify who you are
- Personal growth > being liked
- You are a reflection of the people you surround yourself with
- Not everyone and everything is permanent
- Not everyone has to agree with you
- Self-actualization is a journey not a goal
- Time is everything
- Invest in your network
- #growth mindset
- Be a life long learner
- Done > perfect but not better than correct
- Relentless hustle & figure it out mindset are key
- Live in the moment
- build a T/breadth of knowledge
- Invest in compounding
- Seek understanding/ask why
- Thinking is just as important as doing
- Show people how you can give them value first
There are so many other things that I have learnt over the last few years but these 20 have been essential to me. If you ever want to chat about these or have questions please reach out!
Hopefully, you learned something :)
-Nyla ✌️
🌹 Resources
The Knowledge Society (website)
Not-to-do list (article)
FutureMe (tool)
Carbovore (website)
Growth vs fixed mindset (video)
Continuous growth/compounding (article)
Heyyy! I’m Nyla Pirani, a 14 y/o working on identifying and solving the world’s biggest world problems. I have explored nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, agriculture, human longevity and more. Over the last few years I’ve developed cancer detection software, a prevention plan/cure for obesity, worked on detecting senescent cells to expand health and life span and more! I’ve spoken at Oakville Innovation and NPower about huge world problems and how we should tackle them. Now, I’m transitioning my focus to the climate and food crisis, co-founding Carbovore to create carbon-neutral protein products.
Socials:
✏️ Medium Blog
