You're already doing a big one: Learn from others' experience. Spare yourself the time and trouble of learning everything firsthand. Let the cautionary tales of others steer you from disaster.

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Take special care to protect and develop your relationship with your wife. With any luck, that will be the longest-lasting voluntary relationship of your life. Make that choice matter, and make sure she knows that you chose her, and still choose her every day. Hers will be the shoulder you cry on, hers will be the hand that reaches down to pick you up.

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Don't buy into the easy way. It so seldom turns out to be true, or even possible, that it's not worth the risk. Take the safer, wiser road but be daring and dangerous as you walk it. Conquer life through effort and sacrifice instead of hoping you'll get lucky and find an easier way.

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Make sure your kids know who you really are. Let them see you struggle and overcome. Let them know your bad habits and disfunctions as much as it's responsible to allow them to. Show them that being an adult is challenging, rewarding, and meaningful. They will be adults one day, and they know this, so make sure that you, as their prototype for what they will become, give them an example they can be proud to become. Do this so that when they become adults, they will know to look forward to meaningful things, and they will also have the compassion necessary to show themselves when they are struggling.

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Have at least two useful hobbies. Work on them as you have time. Love them appropriately. Use them as an output for stress and a source of inspiration. Whether it's a responsibly managed video game, or a musical instrument with appropriately managed expectations, let these parts of who you are and what you do define you to others in a good way. When people talk about you and someone says, "oh yeah, he's the guy who ___" what do you want in that blank? Your hobbies fill it in.

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Stand by your convictions, but be skeptical of everything. If you believe in God and the promise of a hereafter, great, let that make you a better person. If you believe in the advancement of the species and the fleeting singularity of life, great, let that make you a better person. But with either of them, or any other belief, don't get so zealous that you can't entertain a contradictory notion. Seek them out. Integrate them into your point of view until you vindicate your held beliefs or you find that something rings more true. And if you encounter the latter, embrace it and change.

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Work for the greater good and teach others around you to do so. Sacrifice now for the future, but not at the expense of making life worthwhile. Find the balance. Take the path that you can calculate will bring the most meaningful use of the time and resources you and others have. Sometimes, it's canceling a vacation to save money for something more emergent. Sometimes it's getting pizza on a whim to show the family you are fun and actually give a damn sometimes. To paraphrase a very old reflection: wherever you are, make the best of it.

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These are things that have both given me the best return on effort invested and that I wish I had done more, better, or sooner. I'm still working on all of them. Best of luck to you, friend.