24 Lessons I Learnt This 2024

Looking back on a year of growth, change, and some tough lessons.

This year has been an incredible ride, and as we approach the end of the year, I like to look back at some of the most important lessons I’ve learnt this 2024, in the hopes that they can give you tools to make 2025 your best year yet.

There will be a second part of this series, which will be a free community post with advice and lessons shared by the Simple Men community. Join our chat to be featured in next week’s article!

24. Feelings must be subject to reason. Your emotions should inform your intellect but your intellect needs to filter those emotions through the lens of reason.

23. Sin makes you stupid. Literally. It clouds your judgment, blunts your conscience and diminishes your grasp of moral reality.

22. Learn about and understand your temperament. This is critical to understand your predominant fault, the main sins that you have to fight against, and your strengths and natural inclinations.
I’m writing a book on this topic and it will be released early next year.

21. Plan but don’t plan too much. Man plans and God laughs. Don’t become so attached to your own expectations that you forget who’s ultimately the One in charge.

20. Do not lie. It will always, always, come back to bite you. Honesty wins in the long run. Lying darkens your soul, fills you with guilt, and corrupts you. Even small lies do.

19. But learn to be diplomatic. Being honest doesn’t mean being careless. Learn the art of diplomacy, to deliver the right amount of truth in the adequate way.

18. God is also found in the humble and simple. He’s not just in the grandiose, the spectacular, and the breathtakingly beautiful. He’s not just in the ten story cathedrals, in the precious gems and the golden altars of Rome. He’s also in the wooden chapel of your hometown, in the humble Mass of a third world country, in the white plastic chairs of a Liturgy conducted in the poorest neighborhood of your city. The greatness of God is that He can make Himself small and humble too, and be with us anywhere we are gathered in His name.

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.
— Matthew 18:20

17. Make it a point to stop consuming so much content. Consuming too much content —even of the good kind—, will lead you to overthink, load your brain with useless information, confuse and distract you. Learn the art of extreme selectivity when it comes to the content that you let fill up your mind.

16. Never sacrifice yourself to the point that you crash and burn. A man lives to serve, but in order to be useful to others, you need to be well yourself. Take care of yourself, take time to rest and recover. The people you are sacrificing for need you at your best.