What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you?
Whatever it is… don’t do it!!
Seriously. I’ve reached that age where people apparently expect me to have accumulated some sort of wisdom. I’m not sure where that happened. I mostly accumulated bills, responsibilities, questionable decisions, and a collection of stories that probably shouldn’t be used as instructional material.
I could give you the standard advice. Save your money. Work hard. Don’t burn bridges. Think about your future. Take care of yourself. Don’t worry about what other people think. Make good choices.
Sounds great.
I probably ignored half of that myself.
The truth is, nobody really knows what they’re doing. Some people are just better at looking like they do. We spend our younger years thinking adults have everything figured out, then eventually become adults and discover that most of us are just winging it with a little more experience and significantly more paperwork.
You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to trust the wrong people. You’re going to make decisions that seemed like a good idea at the time and look absolutely ridiculous five years later. You’re going to waste money. You’re going to waste time. You’re going to have jobs you hate, relationships that don’t work, and days where you wonder exactly how you ended up here.
That’s life.
The trick isn’t avoiding every mistake. That’s impossible. The trick is learning something from the ones you make.
So I guess if I had to give actual advice, it would be this: don’t blindly take advice. Listen to people. Pay attention. Consider what they have to say. Then make your own decision.
Because ultimately, it’s your life.
And if you completely screw it up, at least you can honestly say you did it yourself.
That’s probably the most Gen X advice I can give.