Advice for Your Younger Self (That You Need to Take Now)

What advice would you give your younger self? I know you can’t go back in time, but maybe you can take that advice and live a bit better today.

Do you follow @GoodType on Instagram? If you’re a fan of fonts, it’s eye candy all day long. I can’t stay looking too long at their amazing feed because I don’t want to start comparing my beginning to their masterings.  Every week they put out a prompt, and their followers create their own interpretations for the weekly prompt. (Similar to the “perfection” prompt I did a while ago). Sometimes I contribute, and sometimes I come up blank so I admire other’s participation.

Advice For Your Younger Self

A prompt from a several months ago was “advice you’d give your younger self.” Now, I’m not a fan of living in the past. I personally strive to move on from the past. Whether I do move on is neither here nor there, but it’s something I strive to do (#goals right?). Nearly two years ago, I wrote a post on this same topic. I had no idea that I would come back later realize that I still need to take my own advice.

When I first wrote my advice, it was to “be more patient with my kids” because regret never solves anything. I still agree. I can’t go back and change it, but I can move forward.

This time around, I decided to focus on my personal self-development. What advice would you give past self? What advice can you take now and move forward?

My Advice for my Younger Self: IGNORE THEM

Back in high school, I’d pack the whole day’s worth of books with me to every class in my backpack, so I didn’t have to go down the hall where my locker was so I could avoid the group of peers that sat near my locker. I literally quit singing because of them. I believed that I was stupid because of them. When someone smashed my ceramics piece before it made it into the kiln, I let them win because I didn’t rebuild it. (It was darn cute too! A polar bear mama & cub with an igloo.)

What would have I done had I ignored them?

No Matter Who

No matter who it is, peers, teachers, siblings, whoever makes your heart ache, don’t listen to them. Ignore what they say, you have wings.

Don’t clip your wings because they can’t fly.

I freehand drew this piece. It’s on black paper, and I grabbed a Sakura Gelly Roll pen and started drawing.

Now, I’m not saying that I’ll freehand every piece without measurements, but sometimes those whiny little voices in the back of my head that say “what if you fail” or “what if you mess up”? IGNORE THEM.

Why Does It Matter to You?

Why do you care about the advice I’m giving myself? Because you’ve probably been there too. Hesitated, because you worried about what others might think of you. Fretted that you weren’t good enough or even felt the fear of impostor syndrome.

Here’s the deal: if someone thinks or says something negative about you and what you’re doing to find your own happy state, they probably are too self-absorbed in their own plight to really care past the fleeting moment anyway. And the real question you need to ask yourself: Are you going to let them clip your wings?

No matter what advice you might give your past self, take the advice and move to a better you.

I don’t have to give my past-self advice. I can give it to myself now and move forward to a better me. And so can you.

Pushing Yourself Outside Your Comfort Zone

Whenever I sway outside my comfort zone, I always learn something new and beneficial. Whether it’s freehanding a doodle on an unforgiving black piece of paper or deciding to draw watercolor portraits, there’s always a benefit. So if you don’t succeed the first time or if you absolutely hate the project, look for the good. Find a snippet of something you learned. That’s what getting out of your comfort zone is all about, because next time, you’ll find another lesson.

Now, go fly!

Note: I originally found the prompt in the 300 Writing Prompts by Piccadilly, and decided to ask myself the same question every year.

What is the advice you’d give your younger self? And how will you take that advice now?

~Tricia

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