7 Tiny Lifestyle Changes That Will Instantly Give You An Unfair Advantage

Make these small tweaks to gain the upper hand.

Woman traveling abroad, exploring Spenser Sembrat | Unsplash, Artem Podrez | Canva 
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These are things I wish someone told me when I was in my early twenties.

But now that I do these things (most of the time), I’ve never been happier, healthier, and more in control of my destiny.

Here are 7 tiny lifestyle changes that will instantly give you an unfair life advantage:

1. Nurture your ‘mental gap.’

When we are triggered, the space between the source of anger and your reaction is what I call the ‘mental gap.’

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Calm people who go far have nurtured their gap and rarely react with strong emotions. They take a breath and have learned to remain calm.

Those who continually make life hard, have little to no gap.

They are reactive and this creates a lot of damage in their lives.

7 things you can do before age 30 to gain an unfair advantage over your peers

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Photo: Ivan Samkov/Pexels

​RELATED: 10 Love Mistakes I Made In My 30s That I'll Never, Ever Make Again

2. Learn online marketing.

If you’re starting in business, you likely rely on one of the most vital skills in marketing and business growth, which is creating clients.

So, at the fundamental level, one of the most important skills is the habit of regularly reaching out to potential clients and adding value, so that over time, you create opportunities for paid work.

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Few can do this well. Develop your networking muscle, grow your community and you will never have to worry about money.

3. Develop a strong physique.

One of the best gifts I gave myself in my thirties was spending a decent chunk of my twenties working out.

There are two key aspects to exercise, especially lifting weights: it keeps your brain and body healthy, which is vital for long-term happiness and performance.

But secondly — and this is what keeps me going — it lifts your mood and improves your effectiveness greatly right now, today.

​RELATED: 7 Biggest Regret People In Their 30s Say They Have

4. Write daily.

Writing every day for the last 15 years was one of the best things I could have done.

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It taught me the power of consistency; it built an audience, and it created opportunities from speaking around the world to developing an income from writing.

Writing will help you find and hone a voice that will attract your people, no matter who you are.

There’s little that has the leveraging power of writing and sharing every day, and the net makes this possible.

7 things you can do before age 30 to gain an unfair advantage over your peers:

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Photo: Samson Katt/Pexels

5. Desensitize yourself to the lie of ‘self-esteem.’

Most people limit themselves greatly, and take themselves too seriously because they believe the lie of ‘self-esteem.’

This is a mental construct that keeps us scared.

There is no link between what others say to you and your self-worth.

No self-esteem can be reduced in the first place. So you’re free.

The more you can detach from the illusion of self-esteem, the more relaxed, confident, and alive you will feel.

​RELATED: 30 Things To Do In Your 20s To Ensure You Kill It In Your 30s

6. Avoid all drugs.

I’m not just talking about hard drugs like heroin (which is hard to avoid), but all stimulants like alcohol, cigarettes, porn, refined sugar, and even bread.

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Anything that sends you higher comes with a complementary crash that gives you a significant performance disadvantage.

You will go far if you can maintain your mood instead of continually crashing.

Mkay?

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7. Live abroad.

We live in a rapidly changing world.

Nowhere on Earth is predictable, so by traveling and living somewhere for several months, you attune yourself to unfamiliarity and change.

If you can find the courage, like I did, to live somewhere alien for some months, there’s little else you can do.

This puts you at a significant psychological advantage that you can apply to all areas of life.

7 things you can do before age 30 to gain an unfair advantage over your peers

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Photo: Ryanniel Masucol/Pexels

RELATED: 13 Things It's Okay To Not Feel Confident About In Your 30s (Even Though Everyone Expects You To)

Alex Mathers is a writer and coach who helps you build a money-making personal brand with your knowledge and skills while staying mentally resilient.