The 3 things you wished you had known when you were younger

What three pieces of advice would you give to your younger self today? Hi, I’m Martin Sharp Award-winning speaker, coach, mentor and consultant. And today we can be looking at what are the three critical pieces of advice that you would possibly give your younger self.

CLICK HERE to watch or listen on YouTube

Now, for me, this was a question posed to me by a good friend of mine, Dean Stewart, leadership and business coach who helps leaders become the best they possibly can be. This question benefited me by being able to reflect on the past, and how it influenced me today, by doing this, it also helped sharpen my future goals and visions.

This self-reflection is also one of the things many people think about on their deathbeds. There’s a story that when they were interviewing 80-year-olds on their deathbeds, the one thing many responded with was they would like to advise their younger self and what they would have done differently.

So, what are the three things that you would give your younger self as advice today?

Now for me, I’ve got three simple things that I would tell myself younger self.

The Now!

My first piece of advice would be to concentrate on the now! Because now is important. Today is the only time you can Make a difference, right now, right this minute. Because as soon as now has gone, it’s in the past, and you can’t change. I cannot take back the words I have just said. I cannot change the meaning of what I have just spoken.

Because today right now is when this happens, this is the time I can act. Now is a time I can make a difference. Now is the time that I can change what’s going on. And this is the same for you. Now is your time, your time that you can make a difference. You must do it now. Right now, today. Make that difference? Because you can’t yearn of what happened yesterday, yesterday is gone lost in the past as a memory, and we can no longer change it like we can’t change the weather.

And we can’t worry about what’s happening Tomorrow all the time. Because Tomorrow isn’t here yet, all we can do is make the changes now to make a difference. Because if we put in place the plan ready for Tomorrow, if we set the groundwork prepared for Tomorrow, if we take the actions today that sets us up for Tomorrow, then when Tomorrow comes, is going to be great. So, concentrate on the now I would say, make a difference in your future.

Listen More

The next piece of advice I’d give my younger self is to listen more and question more. Why would I say this? Listening is because, you know, people love to talk about themselves. People love it when you ask them questions, and they get to give you their answers, their opinion, their thoughts, their insights, and what they have done today People live to be listened to and valued. Generally, people have many problems and worries that they’re willing or desperate to share. And that gives you many opportunities as a business owner, to help make things different. There are so many opportunities you as a human being can have to make a difference in someone’s life. So, if you spend time to listen more, you never know the difference you could be making somebody else’s life. And also, you never know what difference you’re going to make in your own life. So, God, it was said, gave us two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as hard as we can speak.

Live life to the full

My last piece of advice so younger me would be to say life is for living, so enjoy it. Many many people in today’s societies are living a life they don’t enjoy, and they go through the drudgery each day. They don’t look for ways to find the enjoyment in what they’re doing. How horrible is that as an existence where you don’t find satisfaction in what you do. So, look hard for enjoyment, in every single engagement, find ways to make things interesting, find ways of just living your life, no matter where you are. Take that time to enjoy that moment. Because, when it’s gone, it’s gone forever. So why not find and seize that moment, treasure that time, seek out that thing that’s going to make a big difference in your life, to make you feel happy and live your life to the fullest.

Can I leave you with one last thought an adage from Bill King, which is

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today is the gift of God, which is why we call it the present.