The Anthony Way Part I.

10 Insights I Gained in 2024.

The Italians inspire me — Slow living and appreciation for the mundane beauty of life.

2024 was quite a strange year for me. A bit of travel, but a lot of chaos as well — releasing toxic people and relationships, and enduring despite the odds. Overall, it was a great year. Here are 10 important lessons I have learned; I offer them to you as a little present.

1. Live in the present, avoid being trapped in the past or anxiously anticipating the future. Live for a sense of timelessness and enjoy what your are doing (one at a time), deeply.
2. Have no goals, just dance to the dance of life and avoid treating it like a mountain to climb. Don’t obsess about making the perfect decision (spoiler: it doesn’t exist) and just make the next move based on what you feel is right. Eventually you will get where you need to be.
3. Socialize selectively. Only surround yourself with people who grow you, and add joy and support to your life. Life is too short for drama queens and shallow minded people.
4. Take nothing personally. Detach self worth from work or achievements; it allows you to take constructive criticism better too.
5. Unplug. I don’t use social media feeds, and I love it. Not having highlights thrown at your face makes you more loyal to what you already have. You crave less, become less self-conscious and become more appreciative of your own blessings. It makes you listen more intently, and use your five senses more. Unplug from social media to experience more of the world! Forget FOMO — let’s have JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) instead.
6. Induldge in guilty pleasures. A bike around the village, a new book, or a cat nap in your office chair. Don’t plan it, just let it happen.
7. Live slow. Don’t overwork yourself to the grave so early.
8. Save more, live more. Life’s best pleasures are free! Love, community, and even a deep conversation. Enjoy these things while you still can. Life doesn’t need to be expensive.
9. Call me by my true name. We are all connected to each other, watch the same sun rise and set, and share the same air — let us be kind to each other. Forgive, but never forget.
10. Be yourself. Do not stiffle your expression nor change to fit society. Own it and be free.