Kareem: 20 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 30

16. Don’t be so quick to judge. It’s human nature to instantly judge  others. It goes back to our ancient life-or-death need to decide whether to  fight or flee. But in their haste to size others up, people are often  wrong—especially a thirty-year-old sports star with hordes of folks coming at  him every day. We miss out on knowing some exceptional people by doing that, as  I’m sure I did. I think the biggest irony of this advice is that it’s coming  from someone who’s black, stratospherically tall, and an athlete: the trifecta  of being pre-judged. And I have a lifetime of hurtful comments to prove it. Yet,  that didn’t stop me from doing the same thing to others. You have to weigh the  glee of satisfaction you get from arrogantly rejecting people with the  inevitable sadness of regret you’ll eventually feel for having been such a dick.  A friend of mine told me he routinely attends all of his high school reunions so  he can apologize to every person he mistreated back then. He’s now on his  fortieth reunion and still apologizing.

17. When breaking up with a woman, you can’t always remain friends. I  have managed to stay friends with many of the women I have dated because I truly  liked and respected them. But sometimes emotions run too deep and efforts to  remain friends, while that might help you feel better, actually might make the  other person feel worse. Take the hit and let it go.

18. Watch more TV. Yeah, you heard right, Little Kareem. It’s great  that you always have your nose in history books. That’s made you more  knowledgeable about your past and it has put the present in context. But pop  culture is history in the making and watching some of the popular shows of each  era reveals a lot about the average person, while history books often dwell on  the powerful people.

19. Do more yoga. Yes, K, I know you do yoga already. That’s why  you’ve been able to play so long without major injuries. But doing more isn’t  just for the physical benefits, it’s for the mental benefits that will come in  handy in the years ahead, when your house burns down, your jazz collection  perishes, and you lose to the Pistons in a four-game sweep in your final  season.

20. Everything doesn’t have to be fixed. Relax, K-Man. Some stuff can  be fixed, some stuff can’t be. Deciding which is which is part of maturing.

Read more: Life Lessons with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – Kareem on What He Wished He’d Known –

Article Appeared @http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/kareem-things-i-wish-i-knew#ixzz2Ry0bbiGM

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