25 things I wish I knew when I was 20

How many times have you heard someone say, “If I only knew then what I know now”?

As you get older you begin to understand what that means. Call it experience. This hub offers you the benefit of my experience. All twenty-five will not apply to you, but if one helps you avoid a big mistake, then you win.

So let’s get started.

If you can’t explain something in a few sentences, then you don’t understand it. You can easily test this one yourself. Ask some questions. See what you get back, long and windy or short and to the point. Generally the longer the answer is the less substance it contains. Pay attention here if you are the one talking.

Friends are the best currency. You cannot make new old friends. Only time and experience can build true friendship. Keep in touch with your friends; they are the currency of your life.

Challenge yourself, no one else really will. No one can push you like you can push yourself. They will try, but only you can do it.

Love is only the beginning. I will not even attempt to explain this one. Go see for yourself. Think commitment.

Mistakes are learning tools. Mistakes happen. You can’t take back what’s done or what’s said. Take responsibility for what you did and move on. Learn from it. Apologize if necessary, but learn from it or you will repeat it. Taking responsibility for the mistake puts you in control.

You only have one family. Yes they are yours. They are not going away. Get use to it.

Every little bit counts. A little each day will get most things done.

Education only begins with graduation. It never ends.

There is always more than one side to anything. The biggest mistakes you will ever make will be taking actions or making decisions based on one side. Period. Get the whole story.

Most communication is not verbal. Shut up and observe.

Everyone has an agenda. If you know yours, you control yourself; if you know theirs, you control them.

Laugh at yourself first. If it is funny, it is funny. So what if it happened to you.

Learn your job. Whatever your job is, learn it. Be the person co-workers come to when things go wrong.

What people remember about you most is how you made them feel. We are emotional beings.

Do what you say you will do. This is an important measure of a person; do they do what they say they will do? Do you do what you say you will do?

Ethics are what you do when someone is looking. Morals are what you do when no one is looking. Ethics are imposed. Morals come from within.

You will never understand the opposite sex, just enjoy them. I would like to say more but that is all I know.

If you have children, you have a lifetime responsibility. They are eighteen once, but yours forever.

You will get older. Time is not your friend or your enemy. Continue to live, learn, love, laugh, and you will make the best of it. How you spend your time says more about you than your age.

If you want to argue bring up politics or religion, otherwise don’t. You are not going to change someone’s politics or religion with a conversation.

You can learn something from everyone you meet. If you cannot learn from someone, it is your fault, not theirs. It is your loss, not theirs.

Admit your mistakes and share your successes. This is not as easy as it sounds, but it pays future dividends.

Everyone has an ego. Too much or too little is guaranteed trouble. Put simply, don’t believe yourself, believe in yourself.

If someone continually says the same thing over and over, you can bet it is not entirely true. Examples: I don’t drink that much. I don’t fool around on my wife. I do most of the work around here.

If someone talks about others to you then they talk about you to others. You can only trust a gossip to gossip, use them when you need to. Don’t be one.

One last bit of advice, it is easier to learn from someone else’s mistakes, but it is not always possible. If you read one of the 25 and think, “What fool didn’t know that?” Grab a mirror and take a good look and memorize that one for future use.

Enjoy your mistakes as well as your successes because that is life!