20 Things I’d Tell 20 Year Old Me

“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.”
~ Guillaume Apollinaire

A list popped up in my Facebook memories recently. As I recall, I found it somewhere online a few years ago and used it as a blueprint to make one that felt a little more like me. I believe that a person needs to be careful with their regrets, but they can be useful if you use them as a tool to be better, do better and not just as a stick to hit yourself with.

I definitely have a few regrets but I try to be cautious with them because I love where I am in life right now and the path I took, including some of the rough patches, is what got me here.

With that, here’s my updated 2022 list of …

20 Things I’d Tell 20 Year Old Me

1. Spend your time wisely … that might mean having a nap.
2. Talk less, smile more.
3. Be where you are.
4. Be kind.
5. If you want to be happy, do something for someone else.
6. No one knows everything. Literally everyone is faking it, just like you.
7. Fall in love with your best friend.
8. Go outside and play!
9. Laugh, as often as you can.
10. Life’s not fair. Left foot, right foot.
11. Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone else’s inability to see your worth.
12. Music … make it, listen to it, love it.
13. Save some money.
14. Run, but take care of your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
15. Breathe.
16. Collect experiences not stuff.
17. You can’t protect yourself from sadness, without also protecting yourself from happiness. Sometimes you’ll just have to go for it.
18. I want to tell you to stop worrying but I know you won’t so find someone great you can talk too.
19. Forgive … others yes, but also yourself.
20. Eat a salad.

What’s something you’d like to tell your 20 year old self?

A few images to wrap this week. This is me trying to be in the moment by enjoying the simple beauty of sail boats on the lake in Bayfield and Goderich.
“Just a dream and the wind to carry me and soon I will be free” ~ Carter Burwell (Sailing – C. Cross)

Categorised in: Blogs, Mornings

This post was written by Phil Main