Most important thing you've learned in the past 5 years

ppmayne@lemmy.world to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 74 points –

What's the most important thing or change you've learned/made in the past 5 years.

For me it has to be that vegetarian based meals are not inferior to meat based dishes. I find myself preparing and trying so many interesting and great dishes that I would've never considered 10 years ago.

How about you?

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The 80/20 rule... although it is more 90/10 for me.

For example, being full vegan is awfully hard (at the start), but eating vegan 90 percent of the time is actually super easy.

Biking instead of driving most of the time is much easier than telling yourself to cycle every day.

We often treat things as all or nothing... And sure, I'd love to be perfect at all the things I find important, but doing so puts certain things out of reach because it makes me frustrated and give up on good intentions.

Yeah this is definitely a good mentality to become a better person. I'm still struggling a bit with wanting to do everything perfectly, which causes me to stop doing it. But I've started getting more success with just telling myself they "anything is better than nothing".

I used to not really do any sports and eat whatever I felt like. In the past few years I've started turning it around by picking up running and trying to eat better. If I would've expected perfection in either of those, I would've quit within a month. But by being proud of every good decision I make, however small it is, I managed to keep it going and changed my health for the better.

I like this one. I don't go quite as far as 80/20 or 90/10, but I try to progress. Like I generally avoid beef, now. Recently stopped eating squid and octopus (it's popular where I live). Next step will be pork, then chicken, though chicken's gonna be really tough. But yeah, still a good strategy

I found for me it helped a lot to focus less on what you'll stop eating, but on what you will start eating instead.

Learn to make a few epic bean/lentil curries/chillis. Experiment with alternative protein sources. Get real good at making tofu in a few different ways.

Ohh, that's a good idea. Maybe I'll give that a go. Thanks!

If somethings takes less than 5 minutes to do, do it right away. Don't waste time thinking about when to do it, reminding yourself the whole time, risk forgetting about it, don't procrastinate about it. Do it right away. You get so much more stuff done and are way less stressed.

Confidence and/or giving no fucks goes a long way. Combine that with unabashed honesty, and you're good. Just gotta make sure not to be a dick about things.

This ends up rubbing assholes the wrong way, but good people will be drawn to you. If you're in a toxic environment, you'll end up kind of ejecting yourself, but you can build a good environs around yourself

I've learned that no matter how nice people seem, they can still fuck you over when money is involved.

Invested quite a lot of money and they chose to remove all contact with me after I told them I wouldn't bail out their debt.

So lesson learned. Absolutely make people accountable for their managerial actions every single day before they throw a business into debt. And get out if they show red flags of fucking up.

Dicotomy of control, that the only thing that you can control is your actions and responses to the things that happen to you, you cannot control external things, none of them, not money nor work, love, death, health, nothing, just your response.

That, and the fact that everything you love is not yours, they belongs to death, and sooner or later he's going to take it back. Live your life now. Be a good being.

Each day you wake up with a limited number of fucks to give. Use them wisely on the things that matter to you.

Using free/libre/open source software whenever possible, and megacorps don't necessarily have your best interests in mind.

megacorps don’t necessarily have your best interests in mind.

They never have your best interests in mind. You're not even a consideration.

Don't stay at a shitty job just because you're scared of new things or because you think it's good pay. Put yourself out there and interview. Some interviews will suck, some job offers will be insultingly low, but eventually you'll find something better. And guess what? Maybe that one will end sooner than you'd like, but you're already practiced up and know how to interview and write a resume, so you can just dust yourself off and move on.

Also, if you get a huge pay raise, try to live at the same expense level as the old job. Maybe get a treat here and there, maybe fix that problem in your house or car you've been putting off, but don't blow all the extra money. Save some in case that new job ends and it takes a little longer to find more work than you'd like.

Being kind to others and surrounding yourself with people who are positive and kind to you make miracles for mental health and confidence. Staying positive leads to see everyday life under a different light

That you need to water your trees.

It may seem obvious; Water the plants in the yard! But for some reason evertime I was watering my garden I never even thought about watering the trees, but they ARE some big thirsty boys.

Water small-med trees for 30 minutes ~2-3 weeks. Water large trees for 45-60 minutes every month.

Oh. And just pay your fucking taxes. my friends are fucking stupid and dealing with the ramifications of not filing mor multiple years and it's surprised face MORE expensive to deal with after the fact 🙄.

It was not the most important thing for me, but I agree: 15-20 years ago, veg options (and sugarless too btw) sucked. You really had to be committed to the cause to endure them.

We're not vegetarians, but my daughter has allergy to eggs and milk. We buy cakes, pies, brownies, cookies, etc from a vegan bakery that honestly are delicious - better than most non-vegan equivalents. We all end up eating them, although only she actually "needs" them.

If vegan activists worked more towards kindly creating and showing the world vegan options that are as good as/better than their animal counterparts, it would help their cause MUCH more than pestering people, destroying property and making everyone hate them.

My now 19 yo has a host of food allergies as well. It's amazing how much better the non-egg/milk/gluten options are and how easy(ish) they are to find

10 years ago we were bulk ordering crackers from the US (we're in Canada) because finding the ones we liked here was akin to winning the lottery. Now, two local grocery stores carry them

Eating out is still a challenge, but it's getting better

A consequence of modern food. It doesn't even have a decent level of vitamins anymore.

Ditch negative people from your life. Surround yourself with positive people and you’ll excel faster than ever before!

Act on your thoughts and ideas. Especially small stuff like being creative (for fun) or writing a friend, you haven't had contact with in a while - little effort, but feels nice and motivates you to do more.

Kindness, Honesty, mindfulness. If someone or something makes me feel some type of way, I don't need it. What's the point of doing something that I hate doing? I learned how to be happy, because happiness is largely a choice, a perspective.

If you experience death or a loss, make sure to take the time to mourn them properly.

Suppression or distractions from your feelings leaving them unresolved WILL resurface and affect you.

Building new habits or replacing old ones has to start small, so small actually that the book I read about this a few years ago is titled Atomic Habits. What it breaks down to is that changes in our daily lives don't happen instantaneously; they take time, effort, and repetition.

For example, if you were to set a goal of getting more fit you wouldn't accomplish that in one day. What you can accomplish though, is to go out and walk a mile today. Then the next day walk another mile. And the next another mile. After a week or two of this, you might try something more intense like longer distances, jogging, or maybe even riding a bicycle. But you didn't get there in one day: you worked at it a little bit each day until it naturally became part of your habits.