Everybody else is just faking it, too.
post
Don't drink and smoke.
Don't put your dick in crazy
Learn to shop, cook and eat without highly procesed foods
Clean the toilet when you are done
Adding to this:
Save as much as you can. One day, you’ll need it.
Take care of your teeth. It’s the only set you get, and it sucks when you start having problem.
Drink water. Lots. You do not want to experience a kidney stone.
Save as much as you can… but don’t skimp out on quality of life.
Too many people I’ve see pinch pennies to save only to end up dead or in a place that couldn’t enjoy it. Make sure to take time out for yourself while you can before it’s too late
Basically mine would be “all things in moderation”
Obviously, making time for yourself is a good thing. If you’re miserable, there isn’t much point!
I guess this is more a consequence of my living in a very consumer-oriented society that the importance of saving is so prevalent. Plenty of fun can be had for little to no money.
Take care of your back and knees too. You really don’t want to fuck those up because they will be lifelong pain if you do.
Don't drink and smoke.
Don't put your dick in crazy
I mean, I agree, but I think it's more fun to find this out for yourself.
Use sunscreen.
This was reported twice for not being a shower thought. The reporters are correct, it's not strictly a shower thought.
But thinking about getting older is something we all do in the shower, for multiple reasons :)
Looks like people are mostly enjoying it so I'll let it stay for now.
Thinks about 18 year olds in the shower
Mods get them!
Buy a plunger BEFORE you need one
On a related note, own a fire extinguisher before you need one.
Also learn how to use both before you need to.
In a similar vein:
Get a fire ladder if you're not living on the first floor
But seriously, learning to use a fire extinguisher needs to be emphasized more. I stopped a fire from becoming serious because I was trained to use a fire extinguisher and I put out the fire quickly. My partner didn't know what to do and she just handed the fire extinguisher to me. If she were there alone, the building could have burnt down. Or at minimum, all of our possessions could have been damaged.
It's easy to learn, but YOU NEED TO LEARN
Always double-check.
For example, the community you are posting in.
Strengthen your core. Lower back pain in your mid-30s is a bitch. Also, take care of your teeth and floss everyday. Start investing early. Any amount you can set aside, no matter how small, will payoff if you start early.
Practice your hobbies, I didnt start taking photos or playing guitar until I was 21, I'm pretty good now, good enough to find enjoyment in them
learn a language?
oh and also, therapy
oh and also, therapy
Yeah, I need to comment that no one should be using BetterHelp or the like, if you care about your personal and/or sensitive data being stolen in a breach. BetterHelp already had privacy issues that came to light. 1 2 3
Yeah, never feel like it's too late to start something. There's stuff (learning an instrument, language, craft stuff) I considered getting into in my 30s but felt like it was too late. Now I'm 40 and I've started and I wish I'd done it ten years ago, because I'd be so much further ahead.
Wear condoms every time
Also it's okay to not know exactly what you are gonna do with your life. No one else actually does either, as much as they think they might.
Let go of any fear of others expectations for you as soon as you can. Explore what interests you and don’t let others stop you. People come and go, but they’ll come to you faster than they leave if you’re a confident and passionate person. You can only be that if you work on figuring out how you want to live and chase that life.
Don't do drugs. But if you're going to do drugs avoid anything you have to inject with needles. There are plenty of fun things you can smoke, eat or snort.
Don't do opiates or meth. You can smoke and snort those but the addictive potential is too damn high. There are other much more fun cheaper drugs.
Yeah, very few people can do opiates recreationally without addiction. Same goes for tobacco. Meth will fuck you one way or another (if you have adhd it may help while being a rough version of the treatment and basically guaranteeing you can't get the helpful stuff if a doctor finds out).
Stimulants don't make you smarter, but they do make you more confident, this is a dangerous combination.
Research every drug before you put it in your body, know the risks and be comfortable with them. And check drug interactions online with every recreational drug you're taking with each other and with your prescriptions. Lots of drugs have interactions both positive and negative with each other and while sometimes that's a uniquely good time or a particular perspective, more often than you think there's a risk of serotonin sickness
Unless your speed or skag are prescribed, and even then, take as little as possible to make you comfortable. Never up your dose, not even once, without checking in with a professional first.
I was told on my way to college to stick to natural stuff, and only with people I absolutely trust. I know there are plenty of natural drugs that can kill you quickly, dad was just trying to make it easy. I guess he figured I’d never see shrooms. At an A&M school. Surrounded by cow pastures. Anywho…
In my youth I thought I was old enough to try some stuff. I was not. Now that I’m older, I still think lots of drugs should be legalized, but I think 25 is maybe a good age. Let the brain finish developing before you start killing off the slow cells!
The biggest advice I can give you is, you need to try to be social. It's easy to hang out with friends in high school because everyone's locked into the same building every weekday for 6 hours.
Once you're an adult, you no longer have that limitation. Even college is more of a "go to class for 2 hours a day then leave afterwards" type of experience. It's certainly liberating to not be forced to be someplace for long periods of time, but it also means that the primary reason that you hang out with your friends (ie, because they're already there with you) is now gone. It can make for a very lonely experience.
You need to go out of your way and actively maintain your friendships. Make plans to meet up at least once a week or something. Otherwise, you won't really get another chance to make deep friendships
Yeah in college I experienced both extremes. I spent about a year and a half completely isolated, just traveling between classes and my dorm. It was self destructive and my grades and mental health suffered. Then I made some life changes and started going to clubs and events and made friends and suddenly it was easier to study even though I had less time. I became extremely social and found myself spending nights doing everything from deep discussions of big ideas to long nights drinking with friends to lots of casual sex to long nights working on projects.
Because of all this I left college far more well rounded and prepared for my career and my marriage. To this day the skill of how to make friends and positive acquaintances has stuck with me and been a majorly useful skill.
This is not strictly true. You can still make deep connections later in life. Very true that it takes effort though, and not as easy as when you are younger. Not impossible though.
Travel if you can afford to, it’s an incredible way to learn about the world and meet different kinds of people. Look after your teeth.
Stay away from gambling sites. If you’ve got extra money and want to watch it grow, invest in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) with a low/no fee trading account. Stay away from meme stocks as well.
If you do invest, diversify your portfolio. SPY is very exciting but it’s heavily tied up in the AI bubble. Try to more international markets, clean energy, minerals, heavy industry. No matter what happens to the AI companies, we still need energy and resources to build stuff and keep our economy going.
Read about taxable and non taxable trading accounts in your country. Try to use those to avoid having your savings eroded by taxes. You will pay plenty of taxes on your income, so don’t worry about that!
what is SPY??
Learn how to clean properly, stains especially.
Practice a few basic but yummy recipes (trial and error for which work for you) and get good at cooking them.
Remember everybody is living their own life at their own pace. Don't feel like you aren't doing it right.
Ask for help when you need it. Nobody can do it all alone.
Stay in contact with friends and cut ties with people that make your life worse.
Don't take advice from people on the internet.
Don't stop training, don't eat shitty food (at least, not daily), don't believe anything you hear or read and always double check it.
USE A CONDOM!
If you haven't yet, question what being a man means to you, and what being a good person means to you.
You will, throughout your life, find those definitions challenged. How you respond to the first will help you to develop a stronger sense of how you relate to your gender, and how it effects the way you interact with yourself and the world. How you respond to the second determines your character, which is how the world will see you as a person, and with sufficient introspection how you will see yourself.
Keep growing. Keep learning.
yeah i question it
get a dishwasher, always read contracts, be confident during interviews, hydrate your skin, do regular exercise
Vote!
Local, state, Fed.
If you don't vote, you have no rights to complain about how government is functioning.
Start building credit if you’re in the US, but don’t treat your credit card like free money.
Don’t let yourself get addicted to alcohol (or any other drug).
Spend a decade commuting by bike if you can (rain or shine).
Get radicalized by the terrorists (people who just wanna have a nice safe society free of bigotry and hate).
Get to know yourself. What kind of person you are, what do you like, need and so on. Accept yourself as you are.
Sure, you can change your weight, learn new skills, become better at stuff and get stronger. I’m not talking about those things. Some traits just are the way they are, and fighting against them will only result in frustration, stress and sadness. Try to figure out which parts of you can be changed and which ones can’t. Treat them accordingly.
If you can’t be alone with, and genuinely love, yourself; you’ll never be able to do that with someone else. Living alone for a little while really helped me either this.
You are the only person who is fully stuck with you and vice versa. You have to live with your choices and behaviors, and I've never met someone who genuinely both should and does have no regrets.
You will fail to be a good person, you will disappoint people you respect, you will fuck up on the job and in your relationships, and you will be the asshole sometimes. Treat each of these instances as a chance for growth and humility. A sincere apology and putting effort towards being better in the future will go very far. And when others do the same show them the grace and kindness you wanted when you fucked up.
That said, some people are in destructive places and will keep fucking up and hurting people, understand when you can't help and when it will hurt you to stay in their life.
yeah when I tried to suppress my bisexuality, it was just worse for me. Luckily this year I accepted who I am and it lifted the weight upon my chest
Buy quality things that will last a long time.
Paraphrasing Terry Pratchett, the man who buys a good pair of boots will have dry feet for ten years, and the man who buys a pair of cheap shoes every year will spend more and still have wet feet.
Take care of your body is the only one you have, use sunscreen.
Spend time with your parents and people you love they are not going to be around forever, do things they like.
You have time, don't rush into things. Don't think you are 25 you should have a family by now, life is not a race each person reach goals differently and not all have the same goals. Search what makes you happy and do it.
Worry only for what you control, if you can control it you can fix it, resolve it so look for solutions but don't worry about what is out of your control, you won't be able to fix it you have to accept some things are they are and learn to life with them being that way.
Go to therapy if you struggle with mental health - the sooner, the better. Change gets harder the older you get.
i can't afford therapy. is using Ai for therapy good??
I would say no, since it's too sycophantic which can lead down some dangerous paths.
In many countries there are NGOs or social services that can offer therapy cheaper, but it's hard to say exactly without knowing where you are. I read your other replies and based on what you wrote, you have had a pretty rough youth; you don't learn to hide stuff on the regular if your environment is accepting. If you ever get the chance for psychotherapy, take it.
Do not discard advice from older people because you think "the world has changed" and old people are out of touch.
ALL the advice that the older people in my life gave me in my teens about money/college/jobs/people/relationships was right, but I refused to listen to any of it because they were old and didn't understand my life.
Don't force yourself to learn every life lesson the hard way, like I did.
You'll probably learn everything the hard way...but I tried to tell you.
Who you are now, isn't likely who you'll be in 6 years. You'll change a lot over the next few years as you become an adult. Legally, becoming an adult is the difference of a day. But actually maturing into an adult takes time and effort. Yes effort, you'll meet plenty of adults who cling to their highschool self.
I don't know if alcohol is still placed on a pedestal like it was in my teens, but alcohol isn't that great. It's an expensive poison humans can sorta metabolize. It can taste good, but moderation is key. The point isn't to get drunk. As an adult who can drink anytime I please, is generally would rather just have water.
Now is a great time to get into a fitness routine.
Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Read.
If you don’t know, ask or find out. Knowledge is rarely a Bad Thing.
Read.
Take care of your health. It gets a lot harder as you get older.
Read.
Seriously, go to a library. Pick something. If you don’t like it, return it for something else. If you do, get some more like that one. But don’t be afraid to branch out.
Edit to add: pretty much everything said here is really good advice.
To add to this. You don't need to go to the library. Depending on where you live, you can go online to your local library website. Register with them. They will give you a username and password. Then you can download apps like Libby or Hoopla to check out books/comics/audiobooks from your mobile device.
Lots of good advice here and I am not THAT old but here are a few things I wish I had realized sooner in life (in no particular order or theme):
- No one really knows what they are doing, more experienced people usually have just made the mistakes already.
- There is a difference between being correct and getting someone to agree you are correct, the former is the most important and the latter is not always possible or desired and when to argue and when to let someone be wrong is a skill that takes practice.
- The less time spent worrying about what other people think of you the happier you will be and the easier life will feel. In almost all situations you spend more time thinking about whatever it is than the other person does.
- Always strive to be a good and like-able person but always remember that it’s impossible to be liked by everyone, sometimes people just won’t like you and that is okay.
- One friend you can count on is more valuable than 100 acquaintances, guard and nurture your valued friendships like your life depends on it because it might some day.
The biggest thing though, there isn’t one correct way to live your life and anyone telling you differently is probably selling you something. Always try to learn something from every situation and you will be fine, mistakes are a part of life. Anyway, hope at least some of that is helpful!
The lattory is a 'Stupid Person Tax.' Meaning that stupid people throw their money at it because they buy into the feeling versus the logic behind it. "The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million." source
You had better odds of you, a sperm cell, fertilizing your mother's egg, than you do currently of winning the Powerball jackpot.
How much sperm is in semen? A typical sperm count may range from 15 million to more than 200 million per milliliter of semen
Let that info sink in for a moment.
I've also heard the "stupid tax" or "dumb tax" as what you pay when learning or doing something new. There will be times that you look or feel like an idiot, but we've all been there, don't let it stop you. Learn from your mistakes and persevere. You're never too old to keep learning - knowledge, skills, compassion, empathy, shame, regret, success, failure. Life's a trip, appreciate it for all its aspects and keep at it.
Internalize your rewards for doing something good - don't look for external validation from others that you are doing a good job. This is especially important in relationships. It's great to be appreciated when you do the dishes, but you should be able to motivate yourself to do it and feel pride that you are carrying your own weight.
The fact you had the initiative to ask this shows you're probably pretty intelligent. All I'll add is the perfect life doesn't exist. Do your best to enjoy it and be kind to people.
Upload posts to appropriate communities.
Head to the Winchester and wait for adult life to blow over.
Exercise, have a salad for dinner sometimes, be careful who you date and keep friends you can trust to tell you when you're fucking up.
Meaning can be found in pain and we all face that.
Don't try and "make it" by 22 and realize that those who appear to do so are faking it.
Yeah, the only ones that realistically “make it” by their early 20’s were born with a trust fund. Seriously, if you go read up on most of the big “American dream” types, you’ll realize that they only had the time to work 55 hours unpaid each week, because they had a trust fund feeding them and keeping them sheltered.
Bill Gates used to be the poster child for the American dream; A young scrappy programmer whose tiny tech startup beat the odds, thanks to Gates working so hard he would end up sleeping under his desk. Then when you dig deeper, you realize he was born a multi-millionaire. He was only able to take the risk with (and dedicated the time to) his tech startup because he didn’t need to worry about rent or affording his next meal.
I’m in my 30’s. In my high school graduating class, there are three people who have very obviously made it. All three of them were already obviously from rich families. Not full blown “you’ve seen them on the international news” rich, but “my daddy owns most of the car dealerships in the area” rich. Because that’s what it realistically takes to get away from the rat race.
Don't drink a lot. I've forgotten a lot of good times due to excessive drinking, and it's taken a toll on my mental health. I'm 35 now and trying to make some changes, but I've wasted about 15 years of my life just partying and being hungover. Not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars spent.
On a positive note: find something to volunteer your time doing. Even an hour or two a week is great. It's a great way to meet people, and there is so much good work being done by organizations who always need extra help.
Good luck to you dude, I know you have a bright future ahead of you!
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