Advice for my younger self

Have you ever thought about what advice you would give to your younger self? I have often thought about what advice I would give my younger self because I have a tendency to live in the past. It’s not like we can go back in time and give ourselves that advice. But what if that advice can help someone now? Not only that but maybe you’re still going through some of the things that you were going through back then.

I know you’re probably asking who in the world is still going through the same things that they were going through when they were younger. Well, the quickest answer to that is me. I have noticed that even though I’m in my thirties I have noticed that I really deal with a lot of the same things that I went through back in high school.

Certain things that I went through back then I still kind of do today and that’s okay. They are things that I have kind of come to terms with and at times I don’t really care to work on. Maybe that will change as I get older!

So, here is some advice for my younger self that I can still work on today.

Try new things

Growing up I was always called my family’s little old lady. I always stayed in my room and watched movies. On top of that, I didn’t really have much of a social life. I’m slowly starting to realize that that’s okay. I probably saved myself a lot of heartache and drama. I probably avoided a lot of things that could have been traumatic.

But now that I’m older I do wish I would have tried new things back then. Whether I had friends to do those things with or I just outright did them alone. I do wish I had pushed myself to get out and experience things and just overall be independent. I never had to have people around me to go and do things and have fun. And this is where it kind of ties in with the next advice.

The sooner I had started the better I would probably be now in my thirties. I would be able to push myself to try different things now rather than being nervous about them.

It’s okay to do things alone

Growing up I never really wanted to do things alone. I never really had anyone to do anything with. Back then I didn’t really have a lot of friends and some of the things that I had wanted to do my family never really wanted to do. So for the most part I was stuck doing things alone. I honestly hated it.

But I have slowly realized that I’m more of a family person rather than a person who wants a great social life. I want to have a close family relationship and only a few friends. To me, your family is always going to be there unless you’re just a horrible person to your family.

Doing things alone is something I’m still trying to learn today. My parents are getting older and they don’t want to do as much as they use to. On top of that right now my husband is almost always gone with work and going back to school. Granted I can do things with my son but he’s still young. At this age going to do some things with him makes my anxiety spike because I’m worried about him acting out.

I know I know that’s something I’m going to have to get over because I can just as easily leave and most of the people around us we probably won’t see again anyways.

It’s okay to not have much of a social life

Sometimes I really wish that social media was never created. I feel like social media has only made our lives worse and made us feel like we need to have a big social life. We’re always stuck on what other people are doing and feeling like we aren’t doing enough at all.

It’s okay to not have many friends or have much of a social life. It’s okay that for the past couple of months you have been at home rather than always going out and doing things. Social media has caused us to want to compete with one another. We’re trying to see who can do the most and who can have the most experiences.

It’s okay to live a slower life. You do not have to go out every single weekend. It’s okay you’re not having the same experiences as someone else. We’re not the same and you don’t want to have all of the same experiences as everyone else. That’s what makes us unique.

This is definitely great advice for my younger self because I would beat myself up because I was always home. I never really did anything unless I did it with my family. I’m starting to realize that that is absolutely okay. I know my family will always be there for me.

Stick with your hobbies

Sticking with my hobbies is something I really wish I could tell my younger self. I use to love drawing and even though I wasn’t really the best at it I still wasn’t that bad at it either. It was a hobby that I really enjoyed. I wish it was something that I had kind of pushed to keep doing and put in the time to get better.

This is something that I might try pushing now because I think I would still enjoy it. Now that I’m a mom I really need a hobby and something for myself. I mean something other than my blogs and reading. That’s mostly because I feel like this is “work” especially since I’m trying to earn an income from this sort of thing.

On top of that, I feel like I can’t escape for hours on end from blogging like I could with reading or drawing.

I would try to push myself with writing as well. Back then I had all of the time in the world. I wish I would have pushed myself to actually write a book and finish it. This is something that I’m also trying to work on now. I may go a little slow when it comes to my progress but I want to accomplish something that I grew up wanting to do.

Don’t put your faith in a guy is advice for my younger self and every other girl

Back in high school, I wish I was more confident and independent in myself. I wish I didn’t feel like I needed to date and had just focused on myself. Back then I didn’t really know myself and didn’t know what I wanted from life. Here I am at 32 and I still don’t really know myself but now I am a mom and it seems hard to find myself now.

But I wish I would have taken more interest in myself and gotten better at things I enjoyed doing back then. I wasn’t even really all that interested in dating but felt like I had to because everyone else was. It was peer pressure of sorts and I wish I hadn’t fallen for it.

Now that that’s behind me I’ll probably try to put a lot of focus on myself if I’m able to anyways.

Don’t be scared to get out of your comfort zone

This is something that I’m actually still kind of working on. I have never wanted to get out of my comfort zone. As a result, I don’t really do a whole lot. There are so many things that I want to try and do but I always want someone to come with me.

I have always been bad about this and as a result, I’m stuck at home a lot. I mean that’s not the only reason but its part of the reason. Honestly, I’m tired of letting things pass me by and this is one of the few habits that I don’t want my son to pick up.

Life goes by way too fast to not ever really do anything or just let it pass by while we sit in the house.

Finish things you start is great advice for my younger self and other procrastinators

Yet again this is another thing that I kind of need to work on. I’m sure there are so many people out there who need to do the same as well.

For years now I have loved to write. Back in high school, I loved writing poems and I wanted to turn them into songs. Even back then I loved writing stories as well.

I have a bad habit of being super excited about the books that I start and want to finish them. Once I get a decent amount of words in it I wind up stopping. I lose all motivation and think that I’m just rambling in the story. So, I just stop altogether.

This is something that I actually kind of want to turn around because I would love to see one of my stories actually get published. Now I just need to push myself to do it.

Life wasn’t all that scary (still isn’t)

This is something that I think has gotten worse as I have gotten older. I was actually a little braver in high school and even in my early twenties.

Now that I have gotten older and have a kid a lot more makes me nervous. I close up and tend to overthink a lot of things. This is something I really need to work on because life really isn’t all that scary.

Life has just turned into a monster in my mind because too many people have treated me wrong and have basically bullied me. So, I have closed up to any new experiences and life. I would rather just not deal with the drama or risk getting hurt.

Learn to manage my money and how to make it grow

This is something that I really wish I had taken more interest in back in high school. This is advice for my younger self I wish I could take advantage of. Don’t get me wrong though because I wasn’t really the type of kid that would pretty much spend all of my money on things that I didn’t need.

Actually, I was really good at saving my money and I was pretty tight with it. What I wish I had taken advantage of is learning how to invest. Putting my money in my savings is not helping me when it comes to working my money to my advantage.

My dad had completely pushed putting money into my savings which is okay. But now I wish I had looked more into how to make my money work for me. I don’t want to always worry about money like we are now. On top of that, I want to have the freedom to be able to do the things that I want.

Don’t worry about what others are doing is big advice I’d give to my younger self

This is something I’m still working on as well. To be honest, if I was able to give this advice to my younger self I still don’t know if I would even listen. I was stubborn and wanted to do my own thing.

Ever since social media became a big part of our lives I think we all tend to worry a little more about what others are doing.

We may say we don’t really care what others are doing but I think a good chunk of us do. Everyone’s happiest moments are plastered all over social media. Not only that but everyone is always talking about the fun things that they are doing.

It’s not really their fault that we get triggered by this sort of thing but if you don’t have the money to really do things it gets exhausting. I always worry about my son not really having the childhood that he deserves but I know we’ll make it up when we both start earning more money.

What is some advice that you would give to your younger self? Is there anything on my list that you kind of relate to?

Let me know in the comments if there is anything that you did to work on some of these things and actually overcome them. I would love to hear your thoughts! Even though this is advice to my younger self I still hope that it may help those that are younger than me. Who knows what you’ll regret when you get older?

If you like this advice then you might like the advice in this article as well.

If this post caught your attention then make sure to check out my post on Self Care ideas for women with anxiety.