5 Life Lessons You Should Learn While You're Still Young

While it’s true that we live and learn, there are a few life lessons it would have been great to know about a bit sooner - at least while we’re still young. Unfortunately, it’s not always possible to predict the kind of stuff we should have known about before it actually happens, and it’s certainly not common sense to listen to the advice of our seniors. 

So we turn to strangers on the Internet instead, hoping they have a few words of wisdom on the life lessons they wished they’d known a bit sooner. Knowing about it could have changed their life for the better, giving them a completely different - and even a much brighter future. 

Here is a rundown of the most important lessons these strangers on the web would like to pass on so that you can make a difference in your own life. 


#1 Being fit isn’t just for jocks 


That exercise is good for you is something that most of us know by now. Thinking back to our teenage years, it’s easy to see why a number of grown-ups would like the younger generation to know that, even if you’re not participating in team sports or winning medals for your school, exercise goes beyond looking good and building muscles. 

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It goes beyond weight-loss too, and the importance of realizing this can have a tremendous effect on your mental health. We tend to understand the benefits of exercising as we grow up, though, but those who see the advantages to it a bit sooner are also able to improve their cognitive capabilities, boost their memory, and even be building lifelong habits of healthy eating and a balanced lifestyle. 

The bottom line in all of this is that being fit isn’t something that’s exclusive for jocks or the cool kids in high school - and the sooner an awkward bookworm realizes this, the easier it is for them to start committing to their own health goals. Invest in your health now, take care of your skin, eat properly, and you’ll get a great return on your investments in ten years. 

On a separate note, it’s also helpful to keep in mind that it’s never really too late to get in shape. Have a look at this article, first of all, to boost your motivation and find solace in the fact that these were formerly sedentary middle-aged adults who were able to practically rewind time by doing high intensity-cardio in intervals. It’s like the fountain of youth just with the taste of sweat. 

#2 We’re all a bit lost 


A life lesson that keeps being repeated is the simple fact that none of us really know what we’re doing. Everybody is pretending to understand this whole adulting-thing, we’re all suffering from imposter syndrome, and the sooner young adults manage to understand this, the easier it is to stop caring about what other people think. 

When you’re straight out of college and about to embark on your career, you’ll undoubtedly be surrounded by a bunch of people who seem to know what they’re doing. And they probably know a bit more about this than you do, seeing that they’ve been in the industry for a few years - but don’t think for a second that they didn’t feel like a big old phoney when they first started out. 

Don’t be afraid to admit that you’re a bit lost, reach out to others for help, and notice how much easier it becomes to laugh at your mistakes and get over it a bit quicker. The more lost you are now, the more clarity you’ll have when all of those mistakes are over and done with, and you’ll even start noticing that those with a full decade of experience still make mistakes sometimes. 

It’s a balancing act of understanding that your parents, for example, may have more life experience than you so you should listen to their advice - while also realizing that many people reach a ripe age before they figure out what to do with their life. Have a read about imposter syndrome in this article, by the way, and you’ll feel a lot more confident in the next meeting. 

#3 Look after your skin while you’re young 


Signs of aging will creep up on you when you least expect it - and by then, it’s way too late for prevention. While this advice ties up with the first one about seeing exercise as a way to boost your body and mind, rather than to fit in with a specific group, skin care is also something that all of us should focus a bit more on. 

Men, in particular, are still gravitating toward a better understanding of how to take care of their skin, when to wear sunscreen, and how the food we eat may or may not affect the condition of our skin, but they’re not all quite there yet. UV-protection remains the number one way to shield your skin from signs of premature aging, and there are multiple ways to do this that doesn’t include layers of sunscreen. 

relaxing, woman relaxing
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Protect it with loose fabrics during the summer, consider car window tinting if you spend hours on the road, and wear a hat if you’re confident like that. There are so many ways to take better care of your skin that doesn’t involve splurging on costly cosmetics; with that being said, you can easily find a foundation or tinted moisturizer with sunscreen, though, to save the extra bucks. 

#4 Don’t let anyone pressure you into university 


When we’re lucky enough to have grown out of those awkward teenage-years, we start to understand just how stressful the time actually was. It seems strange to advise the younger generation not to allow anyone to pressure them into higher education, but there’s so much buzz about it online and seems like a valid life lesson. 

Parents and teachers alike are keen on seeing their teenagers become a part of the rat-race sooner rather than later and, in some families, it’s completely unheard of to take a gap year. Land a decision immediately instead and regret the amount of money you spend on it in a few years when you’ve fallen out of love with your career, right? 

Taking some time off to figure out where you want to be in life is actually a very responsible decision. Some parents may say you’ll never get back to school after a year off and that you should just get college over with, but it’s so much money spent on a choice you never really had time to speculate on properly. 

#5 You can win in all areas if you work hard - except for love 


This advice is two-fold but it made so much sense to the readership online that’s it’s worth taking a moment to explain it. Trying hard and not giving up is something that will help you to reap a lot of rewards; learn to work hard in college, for example, and your life may look very different in ten years than if you just snoozed through it.

It is not necessarily because you’re bound to get awesome grades and lead a generally happy life, as you can never really predict where life will take you - or if your professor is just cruel and gives to poor grades nonetheless. The life lesson lies in the fact that the sooner you learn to keep trying and to work hard, the easier it will be for you to motivate yourself in terms of career progress later on.

heart-shaped
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Now to the second part of this life hack; even if you work hard and continue to try, it’s important to remember that nobody owes you anything in life. You can be dreadfully in love with someone, go out of your way to put your best foot forward, and take them on awesome dates - but the final decision is still theirs to make. 

Understanding that the world owes you absolutely nothing can help you in a lot of aspects. Jealousy, for example, or general envy of what others have that you can’t afford. Love and relationships may be one of the most insanity-inducing thing you’ll ever encounter and, unlike other areas in life, it doesn’t matter how hard you try. Realize it sooner rather than later and save yourself the emotional trauma that follows. 

If you learn the life lessons above before you turn 30, you’re either incredibly unlucky or just a an excellent listener. Hopefully, we’ll manage to be the latter and avoid years of bothering ourselves over things that are out of our control. If not, at least you’ll have a handful of life lessons to share with the rest of us in a few years.

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