I feel it is an obligation for any older folk to pass wisdom to those not-in-the-know of things regarding life. Some people are born directionless and they get lost in their lives and before they know it, they’re knee-deep in debt, they’re in awful minimal-wage jobs, they make poor decisions regarding their love lives .etc
I have several and my more prominent one is;
- Know Your Numbers
This is a key and must-have piece of knowledge. You must know your numbers. How much you’ll earn a month, how much your expenses are, how much is in your bank account, interests and much more. I don’t care if you’ve hated math growing up, you will need to know this. Because going off on guesswork and estimations, only gets you so far before you slip up. Once you slip up financially, missing a payment, you will fall behind faster than you’ll get back ahead or break even. As someone said, everyone is one car repair or medical emergency away from being in poverty.
- Do not get kids in your teens and 20s
Your teenage and young adolescent years, are better spent figuring out who you are and what you want to achieve. Recklessly getting kids with someone who you thought you loved or poor planning are reasons people end up paying child support and having to go to family court and having to deal with custody battles for the rest of their lives. Supporting a kid is $250k PER child, that’s the average, moreso because of the economy. Is it really worth the few minutes of sex at all for that expense?
- Avoid Jail
Going to jail, over anything, is a bad setback to have in life. If you think finding a job is hard normally with the way the job market is, it’ll be twice that if you have a criminal record. That is just shit not a lot will be ignored.
You’ll lose time, you’re likely to lose any jobs you’ve had at the time of going to jail, you may polarize family and friends even. It’s just not worth it, regardless. The more times you end up in jail too, consider your life over.
- Thrift and Thrift Away!
Thrifting can be a dirty word to some who prefer to get things new, which I understand. But it is a money-saver in the long run. For example, my apartment is 85% of thrifted items and I have a hard time recalling anything I’ve spent more than $10 for, aside from select things I bought new because I wanted them new, like some appliances.
Just try not to be a hoarder if it can be helped.
Read books, get off the internet.
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Party all the time. Use all drugs. Fuck with everyone you can.
If you’re romantically interested in someone, say “hey, I’m romantically interested in you”.
Do not have a “crush”, do not have a friend you’re secretly in love with, do not secretly pine for anyone. It is not interesting, it does not make you stronger, you are not the protagonist in a romance novel, and you are dumb if you want to try to “save our friendship”.
If the other person is not interested, say “Thank you for your honesty. It’s been nice knowing you” and move on with your life. Stop wasting time. Life is too short.
Say what you mean and mean what you say. Don’t waste precious time on imaginary scenarios.
Drink water… seriously. Make tea if needed. No sodas.
Invest heavily in a good mattress, you spend 1/3 of your life on it.
Try and make something. Woodworking, painting, music, anything that makes you feel happy.
Find 2 or 3 good friends and keep them for life.
Stay away from religions and cults.
(optional) get a dog. Man and dog evolved together, we need each other.
It’s not easy.
Don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t use recreational drugs.
No sugar, no processed foods. Make all your own meals from the freshest ingredients you can afford, mostly vegetables. Food is not entertainment, food is not reward.
Avoid antibiotics in your cleaning products and food, so when you need them to save your life, they work better.
Exercise, move, get up off your ass.
Pay attention to your body, don’t avoid doctors because you don’t want bad news. The longer you wait, the worse it gets. The older you get, the more issues you have. Doing the previous things above, makes this part much easier.
Put yourself first, if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of anyone else.
Read books, go to therapy,
Reject defensiveness and self righteousness. Embrace humility and human connection.
Say the thing.
Don’t apologize, couch, caveat, joke, fuss, start with context, equivocate, mumble, bumble or talk around the subject. Just say it.
Yes. This.
Say what you mean and mean what you say.
Find something you love to make your goal in life. Only finding motivation in stressors to escape rather than something to move towards will burn you out and drive you to the depths of depression, even if you’re successful at it.
I asked this same question to my older coworkers back when I was 20. The main answer I got was: travel, travel, travel! “Travel before you have kids.” “Travel before you start a long-term career.” “Travel before you buy a house.”
Naturally, being a Millennial, all three of those things became non-issues. 🙃
So let me give some advice for the ages instead, regardless of what the future may hold for you:
• Never stop learning
• It’s okay to not know what you want to do with life
• And, especially in a post-truth, AI-infested world, question everything!
Take the time to learn what logical fallacies are (at least the common ones.) You WILL encounter them, and knowing when you or someone else is using faulty logic can keep you from harm, whether it be from another person (like what we see in politics) or from yourself (like the “Sunk Cost Fallacy,” which might otherwise lead you to stick with bad jobs, bad relationships, and more.)
Tangentially, it’s okay to say, “I don’t know.” Nobody knows everything. Anyone who expects you to know any given thing (unless you’re known to have studied it, of course) isn’t someone worth the admiration of. People with realistic expectations will see you as genuine, and being genuine can carry you far.
I could probably think of more if given the time, but those are the most important things off the top of my head. I’m open to questions in the comments; I’ve lived quite a peculiar life, so I’ve got a range of experiences, from being a homeless vandweller, to being a pilot, to pivoting 90° to working with kids and making art. I’m more than happy to answer any questions that might help people out!
I’ve spent my whole adulthood working in hospitals. They’re shitholes, every single last one of them. Do every single thing you can to never be in one.
Drink water, plain water. Eat whole grains and leafy vegetables. Treat red meat like a dessert (and if you’re morally opposed to meat, make sure you’re still getting all your essential proteins). Find a physical activity you enjoy and do it at least three times a week. Either join an organized religion or specifically curate a group of people you do a weekly activity with who will come check on you if you suddenly stop showing up. And while you’re at it pick a mindfulness activity that you either enjoy or that brings you peace (prayer qualifies but so can yoga or a lot of other things). Avoid nicotine and alcohol at all costs. Go easy on the weed, and avoid anything more interesting without guidance from either a medical professional or some kind of traditional expert on those substances. And if a competent doctor listens to your specific situation and tells you to do or not do something I’ve mentioned, listen to them instead of me.
Decide who you would want to speak for you on your death or near-deathbed. Choose people both trustworthy and level-headed who will put your wishes over their own emotions. Choose multiple people, because it’s not unlikely that any one person will be in the car wreck with you. Talk to those people about what you want to happen or not happen so they can best carry out your wishes. Sign some kind of legally binding paperwork that cements them as the decision maker, especially if your first choice is not the default the state would choose (parent, spouse, sibling, adult child, etc). You can write whatever you want then to do on the paper, but the chosen person will have the right to override it if they think you would want them to. So sign the paper but don’t forget to TALK to them about it.
And good luck because while this will give you the best odds, the universe might also just decide to fuck you in particular anyway.
Find a physical activity you enjoy and do it at least three times a week. Either join an organized religion or specifically curate a group of people you do a weekly activity with who will come check on you if you suddenly stop showing up.
I managed to get both these with sport teams. (At least in my area), the local sports competitions are actively looking for players, and if you have skills or enjoy a role others don’t, you can even just volunteer (instead of pay fees) in a few teams before joining one you like. And one foot in the door will likely get you invited to other teams and competitions when someone’s team needs a substitute player (or you can just ask, “Does anyone have a team that play on Thursday nights?”).
In my favorite team, I became de-facto captain of because I showed up most reliably and was the remaining member of the original team as people left and joined. One week I forgot to tell them I would be away for the match due to travel, and the next day I wake up to a couple of check-in messages just to make sure I haven’t vanished or had a bookshelf fall on me. And it’s a reassuring feeling to realize you’re part of a community that cares about each other.
When you are now below 30, you have reasonable chance to live way beyond 100 in good health! Well, if you choose to use the new medicine interventions (that are now in research and development or concepted) after they are available. I mean decades beyond 100!
Most current people above 50 does not understand it because they are too socially programmed. But you, with fresher mind, can break from their dogma.
Learn a little bit about Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV) to understand it. Because it is going to be one of the most defining things in your life!
If you want also your parents to be alive very long, the progress must be much quicker. You may request your government to invest heavily into real aging-reversal therapies. And ask your friends and random people on internet (😉) to do so. But chances are that your parents are too old to have good chance to get to LEV. In that case you may talk with them about cryopreservation and help them to sign for some provider. Currently it is far from certain that we will be able to revive them in the future, but alternative is a grave / cremation with total clarity of no revival at all.
More anarchy. I’m too old so have to live vicariously through you.
Cut out social media from your life completely. No, I swear to god, this is life changing advice not some boomer platitudes about how kids these days are always in their phones.
You don’t realize how much life you are missing by being completely stuck to your phone. I promise the world will continue to turn if you ignore your phone for a few hours at a time.
Quit Facebook, quit Instagram, quit X, quit TikTok. If you feel like you are bored and want to open the apps, try something else. Read a book, start a creative writing project, listen to music while meditating, play video games, do some woodworking, go for a walk or a hike with your dog, learn a new language, go out to the bar or club and socialize, go to the gym and work out, draw stuff from your imagination.
I promise promise promise you will feel better. Not right away, but very soon after you start doing these things instead of the vapid doomscrolling, shitposting, clout-chasing, self-aggrandizing social media spiral you will realize that you don’t need your phone. You are able to live your best life when you aren’t thinking about what’s being posted online or taking constant selfies or photographing every meal you eat.
Your future self will thank me.
Best advice, dont break 2 laws at once. If you are going to drink alcohol underage, dont drive. If you are going to smoke weed, dont do it while you are trespassing somewhere etc etc.
