The Number One Lesson I learned in life

Summary

In this insightful video by Linval Williams, the main takeaway is to live your life according to your desires, not based on others' expectations. Williams emphasizes that criticism is inevitable, but it’s more important to do what makes you happy than worry about others’ opinions. The video explores themes of self-fulfillment, resilience, and the journey from selfishness to selflessness. Williams encourages viewers to become the best versions of themselves, take risks without fear of critique, and to focus on their own happiness and growth.

Highlights

• Living life on your own terms is the number one lesson. 🌈
• Criticism is an inevitable part of life, so focus on your happiness instead. 🎯
• Being alone can lead to introspection and greater self-understanding. 🧘
• Transitioning from feeling worthless to becoming productive is a key theme. 🔄
• True selflessness stems from building oneself up first. 🏗️
• Understanding that risks and mistakes are part of the growth process. ⚠️
• The video illustrates the duality of selfishness leading to selflessness. 🔄
• Williams uses personal anecdotes to emphasize resilience and success. 📖

Key Takeaways

• Live your life for yourself, not for others' expectations. 🌟
• Criticism is unavoidable, but don’t let it dictate your actions. 🛡️
• The journey from selfishness to selflessness is essential for personal growth. 🌱
• Taking risks is necessary to achieve your dreams. 🚀
• Happiness and fulfillment come from staying true to yourself. ❤️

Overview

Linval Williams shares a powerful lesson in his video: live a life that's true to your own desires and values, rather than conforming to what others expect of you. He's laid-back yet impactful, reminding viewers that no matter what you do, there will always be critics. Hence, it’s better to live authentically and face criticisms head-on while focusing on what truly makes you happy.

Williams elaborates on the human need for acceptance but stresses that at the end of the day, you must live with yourself before you answer to anyone else. He speaks from experience, sharing how people often feel trapped or unfulfilled when they prioritize others' expectations over their own goals. Through personal anecdotes, he describes the transformative process of turning selfish actions into selfless outcomes.

The heart of this message is about embracing risks and refusing to let fear of judgment hold you back. Williams encourages boldness and faith in oneself as the pathway to success. By challenging conventional norms and daring to be different, individuals can find true fulfillment. The video reassures that happiness and growth come from embracing one’s true self and taking control of life’s direction.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Live for Yourself, Not Others The chapter emphasizes the importance of living life by one's own standards rather than succumbing to the expectations of others. It acknowledges that criticisms are inevitable regardless of one's actions or identity. However, it is crucial not to allow the opinions of others to dictate or alter one's life path. The lesson underscores maintaining focus on personal goals and desires, ensuring that outcomes are determined by one's true intentions rather than external viewpoints.
• 01:00 - 02:30: Criticism is Inevitable The chapter 'Criticism is Inevitable' addresses the inevitability of criticism when embarking on actions that entail risk or are subject to disagreement. The narrative emphasizes that regardless of the outcome—whether successful or not—criticism is a constant factor. It prompts the reader to reflect on whether the fear of criticism outweighs the regret of not pursuing their desires, ultimately encouraging action in the face of inevitable critique.
• 02:30 - 04:00: The Value in Being Selfish to Become Selfless This chapter discusses the importance of self-acceptance and self-prioritization. It highlights that while humans naturally seek acceptance from others, it's crucial to prioritize one's own needs and desires. Before one can healthily connect with others, they need to be comfortable and content with themselves. The speaker suggests that self-reflection and pursuing one's true desires is essential for personal fulfillment, indicating that being 'selfish' in this context is about self-care, which ultimately allows for more genuine and selfless interactions with others. The overarching message is that personal growth and self-realization are necessary preludes to forming meaningful relationships with others.
• 04:00 - 05:30: Overcoming Life's Ruts The chapter emphasizes the importance of focusing on personal goals and not letting others' opinions hinder one's plans. It discusses the balance between selfishness and selflessness, highlighting that sometimes being selfish is necessary to be able to care for others effectively. The text draws a metaphor between being in a rut and being physically underground, emphasizing the emptiness one feels when in a rut.
• 05:30 - 07:30: Living Life on Your Own Terms The chapter 'Living Life on Your Own Terms' delves into the internal struggles individuals face with feelings of worthlessness and uselessness. It explores the profound question of life's meaning, particularly when one feels as though they contribute nothing to the world. The text underscores the stark contrast between being alive and dead, emphasizing that the difference lies in one's location and state of being. The chapter aims to rejig perspectives on self-worth and the importance of recognizing one's intrinsic value while still alive.
• 07:30 - 10:00: The Necessity of Taking Risks The chapter discusses the importance of taking risks and stepping out of one's comfort zone. It emphasizes that even when people are experiencing a slump or are in a rut, they still have the potential to overcome these challenges. By doing so, they can become the individuals they were meant to be, with improved opportunities to give and show their true selves. The text argues that when individuals are at their best, they can utilize their full potential without any limitations holding them back.
• 10:00 - 12:30: Final Thoughts on Self-Reliance and Fulfillment The chapter discusses the concept of self-reliance and fulfillment, emphasizing the importance of personal strength and contentment. It suggests that by focusing on bettering oneself and meeting personal goals, one can reach a state of fulfillment. This state then enables individuals to be more generous and giving to others. The idea is that selflessness emerges from a strong sense of self-fulfillment and self-reliance, where the individual, after achieving their goals and feeling good about themselves, can share their successes and help others more effectively. The chapter promotes the notion of building oneself up, leading to a more generous and altruistic behavior.

The Number One Lesson I learned in life Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 The number one lesson I learned in life, although there were many other lessons, live the life you want, not the life that others expect of you. We hear this all the time. Don't care about what people think about you about anything. Now, I know a lot of people say that's not good advice, but I think generally what people mean is although you understand there will be some type of criticism no matter who you are, what you're doing, you don't want the end result to be affected by what you're doing right now. What I mean is, you
• 00:30 - 01:00 know, you're about to do something that has some type of risk or somebody's not going to agree with you. Don't let the simple fact that you know you will be criticized stop you from doing it. Because let's say you do it and although you get the results you want, people still criticize or vice versa, you don't get the results you want, people still criticize. What do both scenarios have in common? Someone still is going to criticize you. What will you have a issue with more? The criticism or you not actually doing what you want? So, I
• 01:00 - 01:30 see it as yes, as humans, we have this need to be accepted. We We're always going to have that. I think overall everybody's going to have that. But more or less, you also have to understand that you're going to deal with yourself before you deal with anybody else. At the end of the day, you still have to live with yourself before you accept living with anybody else. Cuz you can always be alone. And when you are alone, you will find yourself thinking what would have happened if I would have just done what I wanted to do. A lot of
• 01:30 - 02:00 people don't see it like that. So worry about what people think but don't allow it to stop you from doing something you planned yourself. It's about what you're doing for yourself. And another thing is you become selfish but in return you become selfless. Someone who always cares for others usually we go through certain things. We have to get ourselves out of that slump. The difference between being dead and in a rut is you above the ground. Your location of the ground. If you in a rut, you feel empty.
• 02:00 - 02:30 You feel useless. You feel worthless. What's the point of living? Some people ask themselves that question. When you're passed on and you're under the ground, every question I just said, you're actually doing it in real time because you're not alive. So, it's not that you're worthless, but you can't give worth because you moved on. It's not that you're useless, but no one can utilize you in whatever skills you have or your personality or your character because you've moved on. So the difference between being in a rut and being six feet under is the location. It
• 02:30 - 03:00 doesn't matter that you're in a rut. You're still alive. So most people who are losers, right, they work themselves out of that slump and then they become the people who they always were, but they have a better opportunity to give. They have a better opportunity to show who they truly are. Because you can give and show who you are, but I would argue when you're at your best, you can utilize who you are as a person to your fullest potential. You don't have anything weighing you back. I mean,
• 03:00 - 03:30 outside of the necessary, well, I won't say necessary, outside of the usual day-to-day problems that we all have as human beings, you are in a position where you feel good about yourself, you're living a life of fulfillment. Things are going your way based on you working hard. Therefore, whatever you have, you can share, you can give. So, you become selfless by going through the process of being selfish. You always have to build yourself up. I see it like this. A person who is strong and fulfilled will always give more to
• 03:30 - 04:00 people. You will utilize a your full potential. Your heart is filled. Person that has a full strong heart is better than someone who's half empty or empty completely. So it's don't look at it as your initial approach will hinder you in the in the in the future. Your initial approach will help you in the future. People may not agree with what you're doing right now. They have their reasons. What do you see? Because it's not about you actually not caring. It's
• 04:00 - 04:30 you know your consistent efforts will give you what you want. So you keep doing that. You don't stop. Yes, it's going to be uncomfortable because everybody's going to have something to say. That's just people, right? You can't stop that because you can have something to say, too. But we're trying to be time efficient here. Most of the time, sitting there arguing with people, trying to plead your case when they already see it, how they see it, you you're somewhere wasting time. Allow people to see it how they see it because you will want people to allow you how to see how you see it or you wouldn't care.
• 04:30 - 05:00 Either way it go, that's the balance of life. But are you focused? Are you doing what you set out to do? Yes. Live the life you want, not the life that other people expect of you. Live life on your own terms. You're going to have setbacks. We all do. I was once broke, in debt, didn't know what I was going to do with my life. A lot of people don't speak on that because I guess it's the the you're too vulnerable. But sometimes that vulnerability shows who you are because
• 05:00 - 05:30 it shows where you come from. You're the type of person no matter what you keep going. A lot of people inspire or a lot of people can relate. I know a lot of you have been in slumps in your life and you came out on the other side. Sometimes it feels good hearing people talk about coming from what we consider a loser to a winner. Okay, look at it like this. If you are a loser, would you want to stay there? No. If anybody is telling you to do something that you know will directly correlate with you
• 05:30 - 06:00 staying in the position you're in so you'll become stuck. Would you take advice? Would you take what they say serious? No. It probably will be a little bit uncomfortable cuz why is this person saying what they're saying, doing what they're doing, etc. But like I said, we can't control what they do. And if we accept that, if we believe them, that's the part where you're allowing people's opinions and what they think to guide you to you trying to build a structure of your life using their advice. But it's not that you hate them
• 06:00 - 06:30 or you need to be disrespectful. Just say no. And you don't even have to say it. You can listen to people and when you walk away, you go do exactly what you wanted to do with your life. No one really can make you do anything. Some of us were we're surrounded by people who have these high expectations of us. They don't even have half the same expectation for themselves. You see how hypocritical that is? And then they most people say things like we love you. We Yeah. At the end of the day, live life how you want to live it. You're not a
• 06:30 - 07:00 selfish person. But even if you are in the beginning, you'll be one of the most selfless people because you will always put other people first. You you can relate to what people are going through. You can relate to people who experience satisfaction. You can relate to people who experience sadness, who are who are going through a point of discomfort in their life. But, you know, going through that pain and discomfort can also propel you into your full potential. It's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I see it as do the hard things. What's difficult going against the grain? What
• 07:00 - 07:30 do I mean by that? Everybody's going to have this is the way to do it. They're going to have the blueprint that works, but when you see the results, you don't like it. You don't agree with it. So, you're the person that's willing to go down that other path, that road, least travel to do what you need to do. And who's going to say that what you're doing is not going to have mistakes. It possibly will. But you know that this is possibly going to be the greatest opportunity for you because the reward is so great that the risk of failure or
• 07:30 - 08:00 the risk the chances of not succeeding, it doesn't even add up. It's minuscule compared to what's going to happen later down the road. So do it. I say do it. Obviously, don't listen to me. But if you're that person that's sitting there contemplating what move should I do next, but you've already pre-planned it, but you have a little bit of everybody else's opinion over there and it may be the same level of impact or it's outweighing what you want to do and you pushing yourself to go do what you already pre-planned. I say go for it.
• 08:00 - 08:30 But obviously, it has to be up to you. And in that breath right there, listen to what I just said. I'm telling you to go for it, but you have to do it. It's not on my terms. Although we can perceive that as me telling you something good. What do you have to do? You got to get your ass up and go do it. It doesn't matter if I say do it or don't do it. Just like anybody else, the world, people you don't even know, strangers, co-workers, family, hell, the comment section for y'all that people
• 08:30 - 09:00 leave comments, whatever the hell you post, whatever you post, whatever platform, at the end of the day, it has to be on you. It will always be you. You're gonna be selfish first. In the beginning, you're gonna show a lot of selfish behavior. But in the end, no one will stand up to the selfless person you become because you were always that person. It goes back to me saying, if you have something to give, you give. If you a giving person, but you have nothing to give, you can't give. So although you know that's who you are, you can't show it. People believe what
• 09:00 - 09:30 they see, not what they hear most of the time. So you have to position yourself. That's going to take what? A lot of work. That's going to take what? you doing what you need to do, not because I say so, not because anybody else says so, cuz you said so. And keep the humility. Keep being who you are, but it's going to take some work. It's going to take focus. It's going to take drive. We already know this. But as humans, we have this innate urge to be liked. We want people to like us. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's natural. But if you always wor about what people think, sometimes you'll hold
• 09:30 - 10:00 yourself back. You'll live in fear. You won't take risk. You won't get the reward. You won't achieve things that you could because you're worried about what could happen if I fail and who's going to say what and who's going to judge me. Listen, people are going to judge you anyway. If you're a religious person, you already know this. They talked about Jesus. What makes you think they're not going to talk about our ass? If you're not religious, it don't even matter. You talked about someone. Whether your intentions were good or bad, you've had
• 10:00 - 10:30 multiple conversations about other people. So people are going to do the same about you whether it's good or bad. It's always two sides of every coin. Do not allow the fear of being criticized stop you from taking a risk that can be 10 times greater than that criticism because at the end of the day it's minuscule. Take the risk, go through your process, write it out, plan it out. You don't even have to be specific. Have a little guideline and learn as you go. Grow as you go. At the end of the day, nobody's perfect. We don't know [ __ ] We just live life. And that's the beauty of
• 10:30 - 11:00 it. Take the risk. Don't take yourself out of the game. Don't trick yourself off the streets. What I like to say, don't trick yourself out of position to always have a chance because once you lose a chance to take a chance, there is no chance. Stay in the position to take chances and keep taking chances. You a good person. If you're not, okay, God bless you. But most of us are good people. We just have to do what we need to do to be where we want to be to live the life we want to live and also share with people. But don't allow the criticism that's going to come from people stop you cuz they gonna talk any
• 11:00 - 11:30 [ __ ] way. Some people wake up and all they do is talk. They look for something to talk about. Be so good that they talk about you so bad because they can't accept that you just so good. That's the type of people we want to be. I want to be so damn good. I don't give a [ __ ] what you say. It it will not have it won't stand a chance compared to the good I've done and the good things people have to say about me. But at the end of the day, I still will take risk based on me not worrying about how you feel. I could care less. And I think in the end, all of us will live a more fulfilled life. But if you don't do what
• 11:30 - 12:00 the [ __ ] you want to do, right? That's basically what this video is about. It's not about what anybody want. It's about what you want. Live the life on your own terms. Long as you got you, you always be straight. Because at the end of the day, you still have to live with yourself. That regret, that doubt, that guilt, that all comes from us doing things we know we shouldn't have, but nobody made us. Even if we allow their words to persuade us to do certain things, it was our fault. It was our responsibility. We got to hold ourselves accountable. Do what you're going to do.
• 12:00 - 12:30 Don't worry about anybody else.