35 Reminders About Life

I've always enjoyed a list, so what better way of celebrating my 35th birthday a few days ago than by jotting down 35 reminders about life. These are based on my own experiences throughout my life and are in no particular order, nor is there one reminder for each year. It's a collection of musings, more than anything else. Hopefully you find something of value!

1. Curiosity is growth.
2. Failure isn't the end.
3. People will take the piss, so you might as well give them something to talk about!
4. Talk to people. Everyone has a story.
5. Science fucking rocks! It isn't perfect, but it's the best tool we have for learning more about our world, and ourselves.
6. We’re all gonna die, and nobody knows when.
7. Rock and roll is a great stress reliever.
8. Survival of the fittest = survival of those most adaptable to change. Fitness is adaptability.
9. Alcohol ain't the answer.
10. Most people work too hard.
11. Most people work on the wrong shit.
12. Material wealth is boring.
13. Talking about material wealth is boring.
14. Reading books is like spending time with the author.
15. Stress is not only inevitable, it is necessary. Stress + rest = growth.
16. Acute stress beats chronic stress
17. You don't need to eat meat to be healthy. In fact, if you're a typical westerner, you could probably do with eating a lot less of it.
18. Perfectionism is the most effective way to burn yourself out.
19. Fitness is your ability to cope with and recover from stress.
20. Extremes attract the masses, but the truth is always somewhere in the middle.
21. Technology affords us methods of connection previously unavailable.
22. Digital connection is a poor surrogate for the real thing.
23. Your weight will affect your health. However, there is a disproportionate focus on weight over all the other factors.
24. Grief can be felt not only when we lose a loved one, but when we lose anything important to us: leaving a job, losing a relationship, diminishing physical capacity. The process is the same.
25. The concept of progressive overload in physical fitness can also be used to strengthen our minds. 
26. We humans are not separate from, or above, nature. We are a part of nature, a part of the global ecosystem.
27. Ethical choices can be better for your health, because they reduce cognitive dissonance and therefore unconscious stress.
28. Our wellbeing often depends on the juxtaposition of two extremes: challenge and recovery.
29. The universe doesn’t give a shit about you.
30. Depth of connection beats breadth of connection.
31. In times of great struggle, people will cling to any thread of certainty. Even if that certainty is completely false, and potentially dangerous. Keep checking yourself.
32. Joni Mitchell had it right: you really don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone. Stay grateful.
33. Chances are, you are grossly overestimating your own importance (whether things are going right or wrong)
34. Adversity stimulates creativity.
35. You always have a choice.

Which one of these hit home the most for you?