What Would You Tell Your 18 Year Old Self?

[Robertson]

Hi everyone!

I'm curious to know what you would say to your 18 year old self, if you got the opportunity to do so.

I know I am only 19, but I still wanted to give my input, here's what I would say:
1) Take care of your mind and body. You as a person are the machine behind everything, if you don't look after yourself, everything else will suffer.
2) Exercise!!! I can't think of a single reason for not exercising and being in great shape.
3) Don't be a perfectionist. Do not focus on making each and every element of your life perfect, zoom out and focus on the things that make a difference and matter. (I used to be terrible at this, I would have my google calendar set up, and spend hours colour coding it, making sure every minute of the week is planned, and trying to make it work was a nightmare. I soon learned that life is spontaneous and things never go as planned, you must be able to adapt and react quickly.)
4) Don't burn bridges. It doesn't matter if you and your old friend are no longer the same people, that does not give you a right to disrespect them or their beliefs. Stay neutral, and accept the fact that with time you will grow apart. You will meet new people who are more like-minded and the process will repeat again.)
5) Don't say too much. Do you want to join a gym? Super!, don't tell anyone. Did you just buy a new car! Nice! Keep your mouth shut. I can't even count the amount of times I wanted to do something, and before I did it I would tell my parents or friends and they would talk me out of it with their opinions.
6) Take everything with a grain of salt. At the end of the day almost everyone is out for themselves. Don't believe anyone with 100% confidence. Sure, listen to them, understand what they are saying, do some research on the topic and develop your own opinion on the matter.
7) It's okay to feel lost. You won't always know what you want to do in life, and there will be times where you will feel like useless. Do what you can, and stay true to yourself - keep going!
8) Don't be afraid to ask people for help. You would be surprised to know that not everyone you meet is evil, and if you ask them they might just help you.

I'm sure there are many many other things I would say to myself, but I'm not writing a book here so I'll keep it short.

 

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[Iron Wolf]

Not sure if i would say anything to him.

I personally believe had a path to go, that made me tougher and without it, i dont know if i would be the man today that i am.

I believe some lessons you need to learn the hard way but I am definitely a proponent of learning from other people mistakes, i mean there are mistakes in life that you want to avoid at all cost.

 

[dauntless]

I'm 36 and there are some hard truths I'd tell my 18 year old self:

-People will disappoint you and you will disappoint people. You need to be selfish and focus more on yourself before you can care about others. Especially when it comes to family.

-Master saying "no" and never become a pushover.

-Get into sales and/or finance. You don't have to go to college for that but at least get some major experience in those two.

-Eat well, workout, and stay away from depressants like alcohol (I am much healthier than my peers who have done otherwise).

- Strengthen your analytical thinking skills. Get into programming or math, it's not hard...it just takes practice and getting comfortable with abstraction.

- If you're going to be a risk taker, make sure you fail fast and learn quickly. You want to enter your 30's with a healthy amount of failures.

- Take your time and marry the right person.

-The older you get, the less time you'll have for your parents, cherish them when you can, they'll be gone sooner than you think.

-Ideas are worthless if there's no action being taken upon them.

-If you win big, establish an ironclad financial plan.