The Most Important Lesson I Learned in 2018 (How I Traveled The World As a Freelancer)

Eva Gutierrez on Instagram

I’ve realized that there are absolutely no rules to life.

Abiding by the general rules of being a good person and living with positive impact-you can do anything you want.

I used to squint my eyes and crinkle my nose when I heard somebody talk about how we live in a simulation. I would walk away, slightly judging their intellect and wondering if they were aware of how crazy they sounded.

Now, I’m that person.

I am living in a simulation, and you are living in a simulation.

Now, to make matters even more intriguing…

We have total control over this simulation.

I see this simulation thriving most in the average lifestyle. When I go home to visit my hometown, I see that there’s a cookie cutter formula for how you should live your life.

1. Graduate college
2. Get engaged
3. Get a dog
4. Get married
5. Have kids
6. Save for retirement
7. HAVE FUN!

This is a societal construct.

If you haven’t found “the one” by the age of thirty-you’re behind and should start to reconsider if you’ll be able to have a family at all.

If you forego freedom in return for PTO-you’re doing the right thing and your sixty year old self will thank you.

If you haven’t made it on the Forbes 30 under 30 list then you weren’t a success.

These are all rules we choose to accept and the acceptance creates the simulation.

Yet, none of this is true.

Let’s turn the world on its head and decide there are new rules.

• You aren’t obligated to find “the one” in your twenties
• Freedom comes before money
• Success arrives to each person at whatever point in their life is right

Now, let’s place one hundred newborn babies into our new upside down world. What happens?

Would they grow up wondering why they weren’t given strict orders to find their soulmate within a ten year span?

Would they contemplate why they are living with freedom instead of constrained to the vacation time a corporation chose for them?

Would they give up on their dreams on their thirtieth birthday because they can’t make it on another listicle?

A better question to ask is:

What would they think about today’s simulation?

There aren’t any rules in life. Just a simulation that you either choose to play into or decide to walk away from.

Each piece of your life becomes your choice.

When you find “the one”

How much time you spend doing what you love

When you achieve success

And that’s the most important life lesson you can learn.