What Would You Say to Your Younger Self?

Someone working on the PR side of things for insurance and investment management group, Legal & General, emailed me recently to see if I’d like to take part in L&G’s “What would you say to your younger self?” campaign and blog some advice to my younger self. I said sure – which led to thinking about all sorts of stuff … namely that, despite a bumpy road and all sorts of messes, if what I’ve done over the years has led me to where I am today then so be it. Life is good.

I’m 42 years old. So there’s an amble bit of ‘younger self’ behind me. Certainly, four decades of living has amounted to plenty of mistakes big and small. I screw things up less often than I used to, but I’m still capable of pulling a doozy now and again. I’ve seen my share of setbacks as well as lots of surprises. As a kid back in Georgia, I never would have guessed I’d end up living in London, for example. And blogs didn’t even exist when I was growing up.

Still I must admit I’m generally happy with my ‘station’ in life. I reckon to a large degree the ups and downs of life (especially the downs) all shaped the person I’ve become and directed me toward my current situation. More than anything, the mistakes, disappointments and surprises are what’s led to me being me … and to having a wonderful girlfriend, living in an amazing city, regularly doing in large part what I want to do for a living, travelling the world … and so on. I don’t know if I’m lucky or just have a positive attitude, but life has turned out alright for me.

So .. if there were some magic mirror or time machine or whatever device to allow me to impart advice to my younger self, I’d probably not tell him much more than to just hang in there and trust his (my) gut.

What would you say to your younger self?