Adulting 101 Book 1: #Wisdom4Life

By Josh Burnette and Pete Hardesty

Adulting (verb): To do grown-up things and have responsibilities such as a working full time, paying rent, or owning a car.


Basic life skills go mostly untaught in classrooms, so graduates are on their own to figure out how to live successfully in the world. Without any guidance, where do you start? Adulting 101 is a clever, practical, and timely guide to show how to:

- Find a job and be wildly successful at work
- Buy the items you need as an adult (apartment, car, insurance)
- Set goals, prioritize, and get work done
- Communicate professionally and effectively
- Save and invest wisely
- Navigate personal and professional relationships
- Avoid the common mistakes of being out on your own
- And much, much moreThis book will give you what you need to succeed and make a real impact, inspiring you to change the world and be the person you were meant to be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Release date: Apr 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781424556373

Josh Burnette

JOSH BURNETTE was on staff with Young Life at Frontier Ranch in Colorado before joining Chick-fil-A in 2011. In 2012 Josh was selected to operate a restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he now resides with his wife and daughter.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

"I don’t know what goes where. I’ve never filled out a check before."

I thought the college sophomore was kidding with me. But he wasn’t. He was paying for an overnight excursion trip we were going on with about one hundred and fifty students, and he didn’t know how to write the check to pay for it.

Can you tell me which address goes where? A junior asked me this question as we were writing thank-you notes to people who had helped with a fundraiser. Again, I thought he was kidding. Nope. He didn’t know where to write the recipient’s address or the return address on a piece of mail.

That was when I realized that most of the students I worked with were not prepared for real life. They had studied in school for twelve grades (thirteen including kindergarten) and then four-plus years in college, yet after those sixteen-plus years, they were still lacking some of the basic adult survival skills.

And although the checkbook and postal problems mentioned above are fairly easy to remedy (we can Google how to do just about anything these days), having some real-life survival skills can keep young people from literally ruining their lives.

I know someone who racked up tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt (starting after high school with the purchase of a big-screen TV) because he never acquired financial survival skills. Both he and his wife are now working two jobs to pay for mistakes he made years ago.

But I’m going to make a difference in this world, you’re probably thinking. And my credit card balance isn’t that high.

We also believe you’re here on this earth to be a world-changer. You matter, and your life has an incredible purpose. So part of this next stage of the journey as a new adult is to find out what matters to you—spiritually, emotionally, physically, and relationally—and how you will give yourself to these things.

Most people want to make a difference. If you don’t, you can just stop reading right here. This book is meant for people who want to leave this world a better kind of different than they found it.

But you probably also need a job, a place to live, and a budget.

Oh, man, you sound like my parents.

And you’ve probably got questions about dating, relationships, and marriage.

Okay, you really do sound like them. Stop.

We’re going to try to not sound like parents, and instead sound like two guys who have also been trying to be world-changers as we’ve become adults. We’ve learned a ton from our mistakes, as well as from wisdom we’ve sought out and that’s graciously been given to us along the way. As you seek to make your mark on this world, we want you to thrive, not just survive.

HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD

James Hunter, in his volume To Change the World, suggests that change happens from the top down. We would like to suggest it also happens from the inside out.

How do you change the world? It starts with … drumroll, please … you. You’re not in control of the world, but you are in control of yourself—how you think, feel, and behave.

Think of this book as a greenhouse. What happens in a greenhouse? Growth. How? The conditions in the greenhouse are set for optimal growth. What we will talk about for the rest of the book is how to set the conditions of your life (that you are in control of) for growth.

Growth doesn’t just happen. It involves hard work, effort, and intentionality. What is your personal growth plan? Do you have one? (See chapter 18.) How will you get better? Zig Ziglar, a famous American author and speaker, would say, If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.¹

This book is designed to be a practical guide to a life well lived. We hope to help you chart a course for your life from the fifty-thousand-foot view, but also help you right down on the runway.

In this book, you will be equipped with:

• An exercise on how to discern your mission in life and give your life to what matters

• Tips and tricks on how to be wildly successful at work

• A step-by-step guide to your finances so you can become a millionaire (yes, we said millionaire)

• Goal-setting and time-management skills so you can spend more time doing what you love and less time doing what you hate

• Simple, easy-to-understand counsel on complicated topics such as insurance, credit, purchasing cars and homes, and more

• Research on how to do well in the first few months in college or after graduation

• Instruction for building better relationships with those around you and caring for people in a deeper way

• And much more

This book is about surveying your life for the long term but also practically helping you with the day-to-day. It’s about how to have impact, how to live a life of excellence and legacy, and how to get the most out of life. You want the life of the person you admire, but they paid a price for the life they have lived. They sacrificed, worked hard, took chances, grinded it out, and continued to press on through hard circumstances. And they were rewarded.

You’re at the beginning of your journey. You have vast adventures that lie ahead.

You want to be a world-changer.

You were meant to be a world-changer.

Let’s release you to be a world-changer.

1

#THEHEARSEANDTHEUHAUL

The phone rang. I (Pete) was the only one in the office so I answered it. A deep, gravelly man’s voice said, I need to speak with the person in charge of your chapter at Princess Anne High School.

Uh-oh. These calls could be trouble. I was on staff with a nonprofit organization that worked with high school students, and we never knew what to expect with these kinds of calls. Often, they were from parents worried about their kids.

I’m the one in charge, I said. How can I help?

We need to have a meeting, the bellowing voice said.

Okay. May I ask what it will be in reference to?

I want to know how I can help you.

Phew. I felt like I had dodged a bullet, and the next week I met a man who would change my life forever. His name was Jack Birsch, and at the time, he was well over three hundred pounds, had a shiny bald head, and was smoking a big cigar. At noon. In a Holiday Inn restaurant (one of the few places left in Virginia Beach that allowed smoking). It was the beginning of a friendship that would change me forever.

We started meeting once every couple of weeks, then every week for an hour, and then every week for two hours. Jack had a twinkle in his eye and a way with words. He was big on grace. He was big on love. And he had a big personality.

After we had met several times, he asked me a question I would never forget. It would become a splinter in my mind. Have you ever seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul?

I thought about it. No.

Of course you haven’t, he said. Because naked you come and naked you go. So you better find out what matters in this life and give yourself to it wholeheartedly.

Jack asked me that question every few weeks until it became engrained on my heart. As I got to know him, I realized that the impact of his life was still echoing all over Virginia Beach and the world. It seemed like almost every day I would meet someone who would say, Oh, Jack? He was a huge influence in my life. He showed up when I needed him most.

BEGIN WITH THE END RESULT IN MIND

Take a minute to think about your funeral. Pleasant, I know. But close your eyes and imagine what it would be like. Who will be there and what will they say? If you passed away tonight, how would you be remembered? Would people be sad or indifferent? Who would be there saying you made an impact on them? Have you made a difference in this world?

Unsettling, isn’t it? Morbid? Sobering? Yes, it is. We all think we’re going to live forever. But here’s the reality: the death rate is holding steady at one per person. You will die. It’s just a matter of when and how.

One of my mentors, Ralph (I called him Rev), had people from many countries come to his funeral. They traveled from all over the world to honor and pay their respects to someone who had impacted their life. Rev found out what mattered during his life.

We are temporary stewards of everything in our life. We are to responsibly manage what we have while we’re here, but none of it goes with us when we die. This may seem disappointing at first, but really, it’s good news. It is freeing. No possessions last forever, nor are they meant to. Dead people can’t enjoy their