- Workout. Doesn’t have to be a lot but be consistent
- No matter what everyone says, keep on learning.
- Try to be in contact with your close friends
- Don’t compare yourself to someone else. There will always be someone better.
- Develop some hobbies which doesn’t involve a mobile phone or other people
- Read books. Even two books a year is great.
- Don’t do drugs or smoke. It’s not worth it.
Enjoy your life, studying is free, you probably won’t be a radically different person as an adult, so don’t be ashamed of who you are.
The greatest temptation is to use ALL the old school phrases that we got as kids. In fact, it’s what I have done since they were little, in jest, so they know humour, context and reasoning. Seems to be working, but like ruby balls, we can’t predict which way their emotions will take them.
If you have ADHD, never quit taking your meds
-Get off social media, comparison is the thief of joy. People post their best moments and they make them look better than they are in reality. It’ll make you feel bad or FOMO and subconsciously damage your confidence and happiness. The insidious thing is even though we all know social media is fake, our lizard brain deep down doesn’t so even though you know it’s all bullshit your subconscious reads it as real. Best thing to do is to get off it completely but that can be impossible socially so limit your time and exposure to it. Use it to make real world plans with friends and then call it quits for the day.
-You’re young, now is the best time to increase your bone density! Work out, lift weights, train with a weighted vest. Do so safely and your bones will thank you, that way when you’re in your 80s you won’t be so brittle. A broken hip is a life changing event- and not for the better!
-Start to play a team sport, football, netball, hockey, baseball whatever. If you git gud now as teen you’ll have the confidence to join your chosen sports amateur club in whatever city or town you end up in though your life, it’s a cheat code. You get to move to a new place and immediately have 5+ mates who are local. That’s SO good. If you can’t find a team sport, try getting into running, and join a running club, same reason, but team sports are better for bonding.
Never stop learning. Life is an adventure.
Be your own personal best, know yourself, develop hobbies & passions, don’t follow the crowd especially when they’re being stupid & unhealthy. Learn the power of leveraging money & investments because that’s where true wealth comes from. A little hard smart work. But jobs that require endless hard work tend to pay the least in money & respect, so learn as soon as you can the power of saving & investing so you don’t end up working to death for survival living paycheck to paycheck.
Fail fast and fail forward. Don’t be afraid to start, be afraid of looking back having never done anything. Regret is poison.
Learn what the pareto principle is and live by it. Be efficient.
When life gets hard focus on what’s in front of you not on the world, ideology, news, thats all distraction. Learn to stay in the moment, what’s right here, right now, infront of you.
Cherish loved ones. Focus on your health now. Your health can be gone at a moments notice, life is about balance. Every action has a reaction.
Focus on your strengths not your weaknesses. You have infinite weaknesses. Your strengths will be your lynchpin at times.
Always be curious. Don’t lose the will to learn and ask questions. Knowledge is everything.
Always stay moving physically that is biggest key to health diet and exercise and good sleep. Stay doing something productive. Being idle is the devils playground.
Listen to your gut during times of uncertainty. Trust very little of others. Words mean nothing. Actions never lie.
If it makes you happy it’s cool. Cringe is defined arbitrarily and means nothing. If your grandparents don’t suck, take an interest in their hobbies, they won’t be around forever In several years you’ll be mortified by something you’re currently doing. Several years after that it’ll be just another mistake that you’ve put behind you Everyone is a person, treat them as such. Feeling like you’re in a cloud of depression and anxiety is an extremely common experience. Help is available. You are not doomed. You should get really into The Mountain Goats. If you’re a guy, make friends with girls without any ulterior motives. Trust no influencer.
Do whatever the fuck you want to do. Most things aren’t irreversible at this point, and the future is never guaranteed anyway. Give your love generously. Tell your friends how you feel about them.
Don’t too much about grades or college admissions. It’s really not worth it, especially with how it’s pushed as the only important thing. Make sure you pass all your classes but don’t worry about getting all A’s or getting into the ivy leagues
Don’t take out student loans. Ever. It’s a scam
Community college rocks. Don’t be afraid to.go, but it’s not a silver bullet
Read books. Especially the ones that they’re banning and pulling from libraries. Get a good eBook reader for your phone, use Anna’s archive.
Self education is more useful than school, make sure to do a lot of it. Teach yourself stuff, learn skills
Learn how to tell which adults are full of crap and which ones are worth listening to
Don’t let the fascists take away your rights, including whatever “protect the children” moral panic is going on, that’s just a scam to control you
Speaking of scams to control you, question the religion you were raised in
Learn the signs of abusive relationships, it’s super important and no one ever emphasizes it. Don’t tolerate abusive treatment from anyone
Don’t gamble
High school is like prison, the social scene is totally artificial. The only people you’ll even talk to afterwards are the friends you made, and even then only if the friendship was deeper than “we had the same class together”
Internet friends are just as good as IRL friends, especially if you are having trouble making IRL friends because your school/neighborhood sucks.
Traditional life paths don’t work anymore, our time is one of radical transformation. Feel free to experiment and see what works for you
Vote. For what little it seems to matter never skip an election. Always vote. Sometimes things change.
Check advice matching your age in https://heyfromthefuture.com/
Take the fun electives in school, there’s no guarantee it’ll still be there next year and graduation requirements may change in your last year.
99% of what sucks now won’t bother you later in life.
Just the collapse of society and climate change.
True, but that’s only two of exactly two hundred recognized problems in our time. That’s why I left that last percentage open.