What Would You Tell Your 16-Year-Old Self?

If you’ve read Change Your Thinking, Ignite Your Life or any of my previous Blog Posts you likely know that I tend to not endorse living in the past. While the past is filled with valuable lessons, it is not a healthy place to live and dwell. So, when I was asked recently, what would I tell my 16-year-old self, I must admit I was hesitant to go through the exercise, because I thought “what’s the point”?

But I thought about it and decided I would give my 16-year-old self some advice. Even though when I was discussing this exercise with one of my friends, they reminded me that “go ahead and give the advice but your 16-year-old self probably won’t listen to you”. She had a valid point.

It made me think that since I am older now and have a more refined perspective, value learning and don’t have the 16-year-old Bravado where I think I know everything, what if I changed this question slightly? What if I think about my future self and can come back to today? What advice do I want to hear from my future self that helps me get to my desired future life?

Obviously, I don’t know what lessons I will learn between now and that point in the future when I give my today-self advice, so it became obvious what advice I should give my today self. Never stop learning. Take every opportunity to learn. No matter what happens there is a lesson to be found. Seek it!

While this would also benefit my 16-year-old self, I think an equally valuable bit of advice would be that the only opinion of me that matters is my own. Don’t be unfaithful to yourself to try and please others.

What advice would you give your 16-year-old self?