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| Image via Gary Pepper Girl |
I just came across this brilliant list of advice from Reddit user livefast6221 – and I am in LOVE:
- None of the things you think are important now are important at all.
- You WILL look back at the things you stressed over the most in high school and regret the time you wasted on it.
- I don’t care how close to your friends you are, you will be in touch with very few of them in 5 years and maybe 1 or 2 of them in 10 years.
- You don’t know what love is. You know lust. And there is nothing wrong with that. But don’t confuse the two. Love is when you find your best friend in your preferred gender. You want to spend your time with them, listen to them, make them happy all for nothing in return. Sex is just a bonus.
- College is expensive. If you don’t know what you want to do or you don’t have scholarships or a college fund, there is absolutely nothing wrong with banging out your required core classes at a local community college and then transferring to your school of choice as a junior with all his reqs completed.
- Student loans will cripple you in the future. They will limit your options and force you to base all decisions on money.
- Your credit is important. Both with credit agencies and with friends. Never borrow money you can’t return. Never buy anything on credit if you don’t have the cash to pay for it when the bill comes. When you lend money just assume you will never see it again. Pay your bills on time. Never forget that you are one illness/firing/tragedy away from being in a rough way. So save and plan.
- Work at least one job in food service and one job in retail. You will never look at the world the same way again.
- Never assume you know a person’s reasons, motivations or background.
- The world owes you nothing. Not even a fighting chance. Anything you have in this world you have to earn for yourself and protect it. There is no such thing as fair.
- You have the right to believe what you want. You do not have the right to have those beliefs respected.
- There is no training manual on how to be an adult. You learn by failing. Being older doesn’t mean you know more. Do not accept something just because an adult said it. Question. Research. Learn. Analyze. Admit when you’re wrong. No one has all the answers. The smartest thing you can say is “I don’t know but I’m willing to learn.”
- Everyone has an agenda.
- Learn how to argue. Do not attack the other person. Do not raise your voice. Do not get sidetracked. Be armed with facts. Cite your sources. Do not grant a premise without asking for proof. Do not make assumptions. The louder your opponent gets, the quieter you should get.
- If it is online it’s there forever. Before you post ANYTHING online ask yourself if you would want your parents, siblings, friends, teachers, employers, coworkers, significant others or your children seeing it.
- No one has ever laid on their deathbed wishing they had spent more time on reddit or playing video games. No one has ever wished they spent less time with loved ones.
- The only thing that is truly and irrevocably yours is your reputation. Cherish it. Never make a promise you can’t keep. Never break a promise. Always show up when and where you say you will.
- Respect people’s time. If you’re going to be late, let them know. If you can’t make it, let them know. Do not keep people waiting to hear back from you when you promised to respond.
- Stop playing games. The world responds to confidence but not cockiness. If you like a woman, go up to her and tell her so. Ask her out. If she says no, thank her for her time and move on. Pining for weeks and months is torturing yourself for no reason.
- Looks fade. Marry someone whose company you will always treasure.
- There is no such thing as “out of your league”. Treat women the way you would want them to treat your sister or mother (assuming you like your family). Listen to them. Pay attention to what they are saying. Put their well-being above your own. Be genuine and honest. Don’t bullshit them. Any woman worth being with will respond to those qualities.
- There is no god.
- The memory of a slap fades. The sting of a hurtful word will linger forever.
- You choose your own family. You are born with a “starter pack” but you will pick up more family throughout your life. Blood family will take you for granted at times. Chosen family never will.
- Learn to assess the consequences of your actions and inactions. Learn to weigh risk versus reward.
- Normal biological functions are not something to be embarrassed about. This includes sex, nudity, masturbation, menstruation and going to the bathroom. That said, they all have their time and place and so does their discussion.
- Do not be afraid or offended by people challenging your beliefs. Defending the things you believe in will either lead to learning you were wrong or strengthening your beliefs. Either way, you will learn. You should welcome intelligent debate. Avoid people who only seek to insult and belittle you though. It is only worth debating someone whose mind is open to being changed.
- Set goals. Short term and long term. Write them down. Work towards them. Do not be afraid to modify them or change them. But always be working toward something.
- Anything worth doing is worth doing right and doing well.
- Whether writing the great American novel, an IM, a text or a handwritten note, use proper spelling, grammar, capitalization and punctuation.
- Learn how to apologize. Acknowledge the mistake/offense, understand why what you did merits an apology, sincerely convey your apologies, ask the person to forgive you and most importantly, don’t do it again. An apology for a repeated mistake means less and less every time.
- Learn to recognize the difference between criticism and abuse. Then learn to accept criticism. It is people trying to help you to improve yourself. They will not always be right, but to always dismiss criticism as abuse is to claim you are perfect and without need to improve.
- When you make a mistake, own it. Admit your error and work to fix it. The cost of being caught lying about the mistake will always be worse than the cost of making and admitting the mistake. People respect honesty and they respect a person who owns up to his mistakes.
- There are 7 billion people in the world and every one of them is different than you in some way. Just because they don’t look, think or act the way you do does not make them lesser than you or wrong. To believe that you have it all figured out and everyone else is wrong is arrogance of indefensible proportion.
- Do not take pride in anything that was an accident of birth. This includes the color of your skin, your race, culture, birthplace or ethnicity. And since nearly every believer was born into their religion, this includes religion. Be proud of your accomplishments. Not the results of a genetic lottery.
Found in THIS post. Do you agree? Disagree?
What would you add?
