I wish I had listened to my parents when I was a young adult, making life decisions and figuring out what I was supposed to be. I'm sure it was frustrating for my parents to see me make poor decisions as far as my schooling, marrying too young, marrying a second time, and the list goes on and on. Oh well, because of those type of choices, I ended up at the very least, a much wiser person for it.
If I were talking to a young person starting out on their adult journey....for whatever it's worth, my advice would be as follows....
Time is on your side. If you haven't found what your life's vocation is, you still have time. Time to go to school. Time to get experience. In a person's twenties and thirties, even if you don't believe it.......you have time to figure it out and make it happen. So don't give up on your dream thinking you are too old. You're still just beginning.
Cherish what you have. Don't compare your life to other's around you. I remember when I was very young and newly married and all of the people that we hung with had nice homes and jobs.....but we were just starting out. We felt an urgency to come up to speed to try to catch up a little, but in the end, we should have just enjoyed our small house and lifestyle, because in reality we had everything we wanted .... our beautiful little girls.
Get a college degree. Even if it is three hours a semester and it takes you ten yrs to get it......do it. And get it in something you love, or you won't finish it. A degree in anything opens doors to jobs, to friendships, to social acceptance.
Don't play the blame game. I played that game way too long and you know where it got me? Absolutely nowhere. So, if you want to go nowhere fast, always place blame on someone else.
Be around people that have their life in order and are on their way to being successful. Learn by observing their everyday lifestyle, what makes them that way. Perhaps they have a lot of energy. Perhaps they are very ethical. They may have a daily goal. I've learned from a friend that I need to be very structured like her. If I'm not structured for one or two days......things easily get out of hand.
And, structure is your friend. Wake up early every single day...make toast and coffee, then prioritize your day. Make a daily schedule of things that you do everyday, especially if you have children, because children crave structure. A schedule for the child and a schedule for you. When dinner time rolls around, you will have had a better day.
Work hard. Either on you job that may not even be your dream job, or if you are at home with kiddos. Lazy gets people nowwhere fast and turns into depression. In this day and age, jobs are competitive, we have to work harder than the person next to us.
Don't make choices on impulse or out of emotions. I can look back and see how one choice impacted the rest of my life. So, when you make just a handful of bad choices, they impact each other and snowball to where life is nowhere near what you thought it would be.
Treat people with respect. Even if you don't feel you can respect a certain person, pretend. A lot of success in life comes from pretending.
Finally....be happy. Just be happy, be content. If you aren't then get therapy and take some meds...Seriously. Life's too short.
