A simple saying that carries so much truth to it. You will never be younger than you are today, so you must embrace every possible opportunity that is presented to you. We fail to realize the importance of so many universal truths until later in life. These lessons and truths would’ve come in handy if we only realized sooner. There is so much advice you wish you knew when you were younger to better prepare you for various life incidents.
If only you knew you’d eventually get over your first love as you tried to navigate your breakup. We don’t listen to our elders that tell us we will survive, we think it’s the end of the world as we know it.
“The young are too immature to really appreciate being young and the older generation would really know how to appreciate and take advantage of being young again.”
Forgiveness is one of the best traits a person can possess, but this is another lesson we learn too little too late. How much time do we waste on petty arguments, ones that could’ve been easily avoided had we just chilled the f*ck out? If something isn’t a life or death situation, how meaningful can it really be? Don’t let grudges weigh you down and stress you out. The sooner you realize that anger hurts you more than the other person, the happier you will be.
Physically, young people have everything going for them, as they are in the best health they will ever be in, and their minds are sharp and clear. The issue is they lack clarity and patience. Someone who has experienced life has learned many valuable lessons. They now know how and what to do with all these different abilities, yet they lack the body to do so.
“If I knew then what I know now, I'd be different, I would slow down.”
The young love to spend time on short-lived pleasures. As we mature, we realize there are lot of things that might have been more worthwhile. When we are young, we tend to take things for granted. We fail to recognize or enjoy the things that really matter in life, we don't always take the chances that are in front of us.
We put things off and say that there will be time later for them. The more you procrastinate, the chances of you actually getting around to these activities decrease. You have to seize the opportunities as they come because you never know if you will ever get another chance.
The mistake many young people make is that they have the mindset, “I can’t wait to get older.” The trick with that is you keep getting older. By not living in the present moment you are losing appreciation for it. You aren’t appreciating what is right in front of you at that time. They need to chill out and just enjoy being young. You don’t get to relive these years, so make them really count.
“When you are young (late-teens to early twenties, say), your old age seems impossibly far away. You are not yet aware of the way in which the lengths of the years shrink, relative to your entire lifespan, as you age. In terms of the psychological perception of the passage of time, the years pass more rapidly as you get older; the seasons become closer together; the birthdays, anniversaries and Christmases more frequent. Time literally seems to accelerate, and you become aware of the rapidly dwindling time frame you have in which to achieve your life goals.”
We also tend to live like we are immortal creatures. We speed in cars thinking that we are indestructible. The truth is just because you’re young doesn't mean you're invincible. Accidents can and do happen, so as much as it is fun to act recklessly, you still must remain cautious. We falsely believe we will always have a time to achieve our goals and, as a result, tend to let opportunities slip from our hands.
Perhaps this can all be traced back to the inherent impulsivity of the generation. Regardless, think of how much your life would be different if you could travel back to your past self and offer this advice. When you look back at your past, you will realize all of the chances we didn’t take and the experiences we missed out on. Stop living life with the naïve notion that there will always be enough time to get to these things tomorrow.
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