Episode 23: Life Lessons You NEED to Avoid Dying With Regret

May 10, 2022

Hello everybody, and welcome, welcome, welcome, to another episode of Kosmo Unfiltered.

OK - I know I say it every week, but boy, this is gonna be a good one.

Because today we are talking about how to find your ‘what’ and your ‘why.’

And it’s shocking how most people will go their entire lives without ever even thinking of this question.

So before we get into it, please make sure to like and subscribe to the podcast, and go on… share it with a friend ;)

Is It Because of Your Childhood?

So growing up, me and my family were pretty different. Like we didn't have any cook-outs or any events, really.

The only time I would ever see other families interacting with each other would be once a year. ‘Cos, we would always have these big family reunions, of like my extended family.

So that was always weird. I always found it strange to see how other families would interact with each other.

And it still kinda sticks to me to this day. Like even when I met my wife’s family, I thought it was weird. Like strange to see a different dynamic in the family.

You’re probably wondering where the heck I’m going with this one - but don’t worry…

Should We Raise Our Kids as Sheep?

See, in my eyes, America has always been the land of the free. And the land of the brave.

They’re the big two values of America in my eyes.

So…

With that in mind…

Should we really be raising our kids to be like sheep? To just follow orders and to do the norm - which everyone else does?

Like we all know the life the average American lives. The 9-5, white picket fence, with 2.5 kids.

I mean, as Wes points out, if you want to avoid this, then you have to go out of your own way to do it. Like you have to expend energy in order to not go down the mainstream path.

And that makes it hard!

Like for me, I could feel this force almost pulling me out of that lane. Pulling me to do my own thing.

But every time I stepped out of line, I could almost hear this smack on the head pushing me back in.

But this is the way I thought about it:

If I feel like that… what am I suppressing onto my kids.

Like what kind of example am I setting for them?

Like we should be teaching them, you can try whatever you want. Then just let them decide what they want to do.

This Is Why You Have to Be Selfish

OK, so in my eyes, at some point along this journey, you have to be selfish.

You have to look at yourself in the mirror and say - I’ve spent my whole life doing things to please other people, my parents, my teachers, blah blah blah… but now I’m finding my purpose.

For me, this is when it changed.

I said to myself, I’m gonna go to work, come home to my kids, live my life and enjoy it.

And that was maybe the most liberating experience of my entire life.

It got me to the point where I realized I couldn’t love other people until I really started loving myself.

And then I heard this:

“If you want to find your purpose in life… go volunteer at a nursing home for terminal patients for 8 hours a day.”

Just do it for one day. Talk to the people there.

Like these people have lived it all.

And all you hear is:

“I wish I did this...”

“I wish I did that…”

“I wish I did this more…”

And so on.

This kinda made me realize how I wanted to live my life. I wanted to give more, spend more time with people I love, be kind to people, and enjoy every single second of my life.

This is what locked it in for me.

After I helped myself, I wanted to help other people.

I mean, it’s not about what job you have, what car you have, what neighborhood you live in.

Like I’ve never heard anyone on their deathbed say, “I wish my kids played just one more sport.”

You know what I mean?

And I think that’s where the beauty of life is.