Love this idea and a lot of what has been said already! I guess I have a couple to throw in the ring:
Stop taking shortcuts. I learned this the hard way when I was in my early to mid 20s. It’s better to take the time to learn, whether it be a craft or anything important, and be patient.
Don’t hold others to your own standards. Another dear lesson I learned in my 20s. I gave a lot to former friendships and relationships, and always ended up bitter because it never felt reciprocated at the same level. Realized that was more of an issue with myself rather than others.
Don’t be afraid to leave your bubble. For me this meant leaving home and experiencing other parts of the world. One of the best decisions I’ve made was moving to a place where I had zero connections or relatives. It can be scary but I personally grew a lot from it.
Sometimes it can be ok that a friendship has ended. It sucks to move apart but you have to remember and enjoy the time you did have.
I have sat back and pondered why so and so wasnt in the my life anymore all too much. It can be nice to think of t he good times and close that individual chapter in your life.
Try to appreciate what you have in life while you can
Life is filled with both good and bad. Its important to not let the bad make you forget whats good in your life, but also important to not let the good takeover so you’re blindsided by the bad. Its all about balance.
Having close relationships with friends and family doesn’t necessarily mean you have close relationships with them. It could just as easily mean that you are stuck and have nowhere else to go.
Talk is infinitely, profoundly cheap, and in no way an indicator of how far people will go for you. Half the time you can’t even depend on it to describe someone’s intentions.
I only turned 30 in the past while, but I reflected on my 20s quite a bit and these are probably the top things that I take from it:
Try to find meaning/purpose in your life outside of career/education and whatever else everyone is chasing. Try and join a community where you actually interact in-person, maybe even if it’s something you don’t think you would want to be part of. Treat things more like an adventure. It’s so easy to get caught up in the race to the top of the mountain everyone is trying to climb at times with your career or education, but in my experience I found a lot more enjoyment outside of this by getting out of my comfort zone so to speak and just being part of something different and trying new things.
Having a network is very valuable. Even in Pokemon collecting, I feel being part of E4 has paid off tremendously. I have some good connections through here and it’s saved me a lot of money/time along the way and have learned so much. This same thing applies to my career and other aspects of life. By maintaining a network, I always have something to fall back on or work towards if I want to now.
Learn to manage stress/relax. This honestly took me a few years to get a handle of when I started working a lot. It’s very easy to get caught up in the endless race of life/career and you can quickly miss out on so much as well. It can also lead to massive burnout at times. Try and break up your day when you can with some type of escape even if it’s only 5 or 10 mins. I really get a lot out of mediation & prayer with calm music or complete silence and it doesn’t cost me a dime. It greatly reduced my anxiety and day to day stress and I also sleep way better than I used to as well.
Less is often more in life. I have just a small social circle these days, but it’s time spent with people who actually value each others time. I had more “friends” in college, but very few of them I’ll probably ever talk to or even see again. I don’t drive a fancy car, even though I could. I simply get way more out of living a more relaxed/modest life this way. Money and stuff is nice, but in my experience not the answer to life either. You need to have a balanced approach with things I find.
Take risks/make mistakes, but also learn from it. I had many failures in life/career/investments before finally succeeding more and it really started to pay off more the past few years. Just try things, you never know until you try. I can think of so many missed opportunities along the way, but it’s all valuable lessons for me to build on now. Treat life and everything else more like a marathon and not like a sprint, that’s how I’ve gotten the most out of it all so far.
I know nothing and feel as though I’m not in a position to give any advice etc. But these are a few things I try to practice in life in general and I by no means do this daily but I try to remember these things every now and then.
Be kind. You never know what others are going through and you doing something as simple as saying hello or smiling can be a big deal for someone. A lot don’t get good reactions in life and walk this world alone.
Forgive and move forward. I believe that holding on to anger or grudges really harms yourself the most. Having a sense of peace inside can be worth more than any material thing in this world.
Be grateful for what you have. Yes keep trying to improve in whatever area you so choose but I believe it’s good to every now and then look at where we are and smell the roses sort of speak.
Give people their flowers while you can or a better way of saying it is thank those around you and let them know how much you care about hem. You never know when you won’t have the chance to do so.
I love these! Having a valuable 2-3 friend group is 500% more rewarding than 50+ friends you hang out with every once in a while.
Also yes, too many people are AFRAID to take risks because they are AFRAID OF FAILURE. People don’t realize that when you fail at something you LEARN from it, or have the opportunity to. NO ONES perfect, so why try to be? Fail at as many things as possible so that you have the opportunity to grow from them and become a better you!
Yes, a lot of people get weird when it comes to money. Just as when the illustrator sells for a next higher amount, people start to bash on the card and start unnecessary drama. People tie too much of their feelings with items that “use to be” a certain value, but now are valued higher.
This can be a great lesson in people hating you for your success due to jealousy or their own self worth tied to their ability to succeed themselves.
I love to keep the idea in the back of my head that “Happiness is a choice.”
It takes me no effort to wake up in the morning and be miserable. It is the EASY thing to do, but is it someone you want to be?
I love the book “How to be miserable”
It really sheds a LOT of light on things we do day to day that keep us miserable such as “setting unrealistic goals that we will never accomplish.” Or “Blame everything and everyone else for your misfortunes.” It is a FENOMINAL book for those who want to have a different perspective on things :]
I gotta go to more events like Collectacon… my job has a ball and chain around my leg lol. this is a goal for this next year to go to at least 1 event :]
Recently discovered I’m very good at resource management. Not the best, but that comes with experience, and better than many. I suspect it’s because of TCGs. haha.
Also, when I studied for my professional certs (and in future) I realized playing TCGs at release parties was the perfect way to practice attitude and mindset. It’s pretty cool, and sounds strange, but it works!
