Valuable life experience

[Vee]

I have a question for all of you who have gained valuable life experience (I’m not going to talk about age because that’s relative): if you met your 18 year old self today, what advice would you give him/her?


I would definitely tell my younger self to be less afraid to take chances and to focus on being compassionate and attentive towards others. I would also tell her to choose the most important things and manage the time and energy in order to become good at them without constantly getting sidetracked, a lesson that I learned the hard way.

 

[Sunstone]

My 18 year old self would not have taken the advice of my 60 year old self. Young people past the age of 15 or so seldom enough take the advice of their elders. At least not fully. And when they do, it seems they as often take the advice of their more foolish elders as they do their wiser ones. Perhaps that's one reason every generation more or less repeats the mistakes of previous generations.

Incidentally, I'm not blaming young people for failing to take the advice of their elders. The best advice often appears trivial or even nonsensical until you have the experience to see the wisdom of it. It is no fault of young people that most lack that experience.

Nevertheless, were I to give my 18 year old self advice, I would -- first and foremost -- tell him to be truer to himself. The supreme importance - the necessity -- of authenticity cannot, in my 60 year old opinion, be overrated, though at 18 I thought it was fairly inconsequential to dispense with it in favor of short term gains.

After that, I'd tell him to study even harder and read even more than he did. Few things improve the quality of one's life more than learning.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Lets say that my 18 year old self did do better. He would learn the importance and power of smiling. He also would not see insults as easily and would have a more reasonable expectation of friends and coworkers. Someone saying 'Hello' is actually quite generous and should be rewarded doubly.

 

[Revoltingest]

I have a question for all of you who have gained valuable life experience (I’m not going to talk about age because that’s relative): if you met your 18 year old self today, what advice would you give him/her?


I would definitely tell my younger self to be less afraid to take chances and to focus on being compassionate and attentive towards others. I would also tell her to choose the most important things and manage the time and energy in order to become good at them without constantly getting sidetracked, a lesson that I learned the hard way.

I've sometimes given that some thought.
My advice.....
- Be more dedicated to work, gaining more expertise, & taking on more responsibility.
- Be less trusting of others in matters where the downside is expensive or dangerous.
- Don't stop exercising.
- Get more legal advice, & get agreements signed, witnessed, & notarized.
- Plant more trees, especially Norway spruces.

 

[savagewind]

I would tell her that she doesn't know what is best for her so quit believing that she does.
Read much more and study more. Know that a good education is a gift and a blessing.
Don't do what you don't want to do. If in doubt, don't.
For goodness sakes don't smoke.
Exercise more. You think your fat, but it is only because you don't exercise enough.
Tough patches always come to an end. Expect the end, but learn from your troubles.

 

[Nakosis]

I have a question for all of you who have gained valuable life experience (I’m not going to talk about age because that’s relative): if you met your 18 year old self today, what advice would you give him/her?

Avoid serious relationships and focus on education. I told this to my kids, they didn't listen. I doubt I would have listen at 18 either.

Now my kids wished they would have listened, but it's too late.

 

[sun rise]

I have a problem. I am the person I am today because of the stupid mistakes I made when I was younger. But if I set that aside, I would advise myself not to care so much what other people thought and to avoid certain actions which created bad habits.

 

[WalterTrull]

Watch, listen, keep moving.

 

[bobhikes]

I have a question for all of you who have gained valuable life experience (I’m not going to talk about age because that’s relative): if you met your 18 year old self today, what advice would you give him/her?


I would definitely tell my younger self to be less afraid to take chances and to focus on being compassionate and attentive towards others. I would also tell her to choose the most important things and manage the time and energy in order to become good at them without constantly getting sidetracked, a lesson that I learned the hard way.

My dad would always tell me that he wouldn't change anything in the past. My dad has a temper and I always thought of the bad times and him not wanting to fix them. I always wanted to go back and fix the blowout of my knee but knowing my life up to now, there's no point whatever bad thing I change what ever advise I give another bad thing would happen. Good advice can be bad advice at the any moment.

 

[ChristineM]

I have a question for all of you who have gained valuable life experience (I’m not going to talk about age because that’s relative): if you met your 18 year old self today, what advice would you give him/her?


I would definitely tell my younger self to be less afraid to take chances and to focus on being compassionate and attentive towards others. I would also tell her to choose the most important things and manage the time and energy in order to become good at them without constantly getting sidetracked, a lesson that I learned the hard way.

Invest in Microsoft, Apple and IBM

 

[Unveiled Artist]

I have a question for all of you who have gained valuable life experience (I’m not going to talk about age because that’s relative): if you met your 18 year old self today, what advice would you give him/her?


I would definitely tell my younger self to be less afraid to take chances and to focus on being compassionate and attentive towards others. I would also tell her to choose the most important things and manage the time and energy in order to become good at them without constantly getting sidetracked, a lesson that I learned the hard way.

I would tell my younger self not to go to school nor work after my sugery but to get well first. Id also tell her to ask doctors about her mental consequences of surgery. Id tell my 21 age self to find a support network and focus on health early in life as well as financial means of security just in case.

 

[Vee]

I would tell my younger self not to go to school nor work after my sugery but to get well first. Id also tell her to ask doctors about her mental consequences of surgery. Id tell my 21 age self to find a support network and focus on health early in life as well as financial means of security just in case.

It's curious that you said that. I've asked this question to many people and the majority replied similarly to you.
Most people tell me to focus on health: physical and emotional.
Just a couple of weeks ago one of my colleagues nearly died with a cardiac problem she didn't know she had. 53 years old, not overweight, no history of heart disease, nothing indicated that something could be wrong. But she did smoke, she went through a difficult divorce that caused her a lot of stress and she doesn't exercise much. It nearly cost her her life. She had to quit smoking and if she wants to keep living, from now on her life has to change or next time she might not be that lucky.

 

[Quintessence]

I don't think I'd say anything, honestly. All things of the past were the catalyst for the now, and I rather like the now. Anything that I really want done in the now, I will do now. If I don't have the will to do it now, then so be it... not gonna beat myself up over it later. That's not productive.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

It's curious that you said that. I've asked this question to many people and the majority replied similarly to you.
Most people tell me to focus on health: physical and emotional.
Just a couple of weeks ago one of my colleagues nearly died with a cardiac problem she didn't know she had. 53 years old, not overweight, no history of heart disease, nothing indicated that something could be wrong. But she did smoke, she went through a difficult divorce that caused her a lot of stress and she doesn't exercise much. It nearly cost her her life. She had to quit smoking and if she wants to keep living, from now on her life has to change or next time she might not be that lucky.

Exactly. I'm listening to a Dhamma talk ("Sermon" on The Buddha's teachings) now and the monk talks about our denial of sickness and death. We try to help ourselves in order to live longer rather than the perception of how to live in order to die. It's interesting because the idea of living forever/eternity does not address the age and decay of things. She says it makes us take death for granted than it should.

I assume the more we suffer, the more death becomes a part of life instead of separate from it.

If I told my younger self this, I can imagine her saying "huh?"

 

[Silverscale derg]

I learned two that I will share today, first one being that a water bowl inside your habitat both being covered and uncovered can change the humidity to your liking, something important for those with cold blood.

Second is that you shouldn't trust a human with anything metal and sharp around you. I half invited knights into my cave. They came in and I was heading to sleep. I remember it clearly "you mortals didn't knock but regardless come in if you wish to speak." I was laying down however and with my eyes feeling heavy. They came in and stabbed me in the heart...that was the last time I let that slide, now there's no weapons allowed. I smell it and you come in I have every right to roast you.

 

[Jedster]

I would tell him to put away his Golden Age Superman collection so his mother doesn't throw them away.

 

[Jonathan Ainsley Bain]

I have a question for all of you who have gained valuable life experience (I’m not going to talk about age because that’s relative): if you met your 18 year old self today, what advice would you give him/her?


I would definitely tell my younger self to be less afraid to take chances and to focus on being compassionate and attentive towards others. I would also tell her to choose the most important things and manage the time and energy in order to become good at them without constantly getting sidetracked, a lesson that I learned the hard way.

I would say:
Yes, you are right about almost everything:
most especially that university is bollocks
that Einstein was a bumbling sophist,
that you should certainly threaten to
wipe the afrikaners off the face of the Earth
rather than allow them to conscript you into
the Wehrmacht. Just this you should do different:
Don't fall in love until you're 50 years old at least.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I have a question for all of you who have gained valuable life experience (I’m not going to talk about age because that’s relative): if you met your 18 year old self today, what advice would you give him/her?


I would definitely tell my younger self to be less afraid to take chances and to focus on being compassionate and attentive towards others. I would also tell her to choose the most important things and manage the time and energy in order to become good at them without constantly getting sidetracked, a lesson that I learned the hard way.

Small problems don't go away; they just go underground for a while and then pop up again as big problems, so it makes sense to deal with problems right away.

 

[Laika]

I have a question for all of you who have gained valuable life experience (I’m not going to talk about age because that’s relative): if you met your 18 year old self today, what advice would you give him/her?


I would definitely tell my younger self to be less afraid to take chances and to focus on being compassionate and attentive towards others. I would also tell her to choose the most important things and manage the time and energy in order to become good at them without constantly getting sidetracked, a lesson that I learned the hard way.

I think I'd introduce my 18 year old self to BDSM. This will sound like terrible advice for most people, but I was such a doormat for everyone else to walk over that the experience would have greatly accelerated many life lessons. The idea of creating a "safe space" with someone I trusted where I could explore power roles and ask the bigger question of why I kept choosing submissive roles in my life, voluntarily making myself unhappy and anxious would have greatly accelerated the self-knowledge that came much harder, much later.

This would have been shocking and subversive enough to get and keep my attention and would have got me to face up to the hard truth that I can't escape the darker side of my personalty what ever I might have been told or led to believe. Nor could I expect others to do the same in a self-destructive compulsive moral perfectionism. The best thing to do was to accept it and learn to be selfish, lustful, angry and that wanting to be in control could actually be a good thing and not something to be feared.

My biggest mistakes hinged on believing desire is something that must be resisted rather than accepted and respected as part of who I am. If I had known that, I would not have wasted ten years with depression and anxiety, battling my own sexuality before coming out as bisexual, having violent and suicidal thoughts and flirting with political extremism because I was trying to run away from the person I desired to be and was so confused by always trying to do the "right" thing regardless as to how miserable it made me. By comparison, a very enjoyable, healthy but perverted sex life would have saved me a great deal of pain and turmoil because it would have forced me to be honest with myself about what I really wanted out of life and face up to my well-meaning but destructive illusions sooner. The hardest thing in life is learning to love your own moral ugliness and imperfection. If you can accept that and be forgiving of yourself and others, things get much smoother.

 

[savagewind]

I learned two that I will share today, first one being that a water bowl inside your habitat both being covered and uncovered can change the humidity to your liking, something important for those with cold blood.

Second is that you shouldn't trust a human with anything metal and sharp around you. I half invited knights into my cave. They came in and I was heading to sleep. I remember it clearly "you mortals didn't knock but regardless come in if you wish to speak." I was laying down however and with my eyes feeling heavy. They came in and stabbed me in the heart...that was the last time I let that slide, now there's no weapons allowed. I smell it and you come in I have every right to roast you.

You must write!