10 Years of Self-Development: The Most Important Thing I Ever Learned

As I begin to write this, I am turning 30 years old in one day. As of last June, I have spent a decade pursuing self-development. Since this feels like some kind of an occasion, I thought it might be good to say a few words about what I have learned since 2013.

I initially wanted to go over a list of six or so topics which have been important to my personal development. However, it turned out that I had more to say about these topics than I felt like writing during my one week vacation.

So instead, I will talk about the single, most important thing I have learned and practiced in the past 10 years: Well-being. In other words, how I developed the capacity to cultivate an internal sense of well-being; along with the extraordinary changes that followed from that.

How To Actually Fix Your Mental Health

I will start by describing my mental state and general self-view from about 10 years ago:

• My inner dialogue (along with visual thoughts) was an endless torrent of mostly useless thoughts
• I was generally unhappy and was at best “coping” by distracting myself with various addictions and chemical mood adjusters
• I had no idea what true, internally generated…