What Would You Tell Your 18-Year-Old Self? 12 Powerful Answers | #600

[Agi Keramidas]
Welcome to episode 600 of personal development mastery. 600 episodes. I will let that sink in for a moment and then we'll move on because this episode isn't really about the number.

Over the course of this podcast, I have asked almost every single guest the same question. If you could go back in time and meet your 18 year old self, what's one piece of advice you would give them? I have collected hundreds and hundreds of answers.

Today, you are going to hear 12 of them. These are outliers, not what I was expecting to hear. And because of that, they stayed with me.

Some of them will make you laugh. Some will stop you in your tracks. And at least one, I promise you, will resonate and stay with you longer than you think.

If you could go back in time and meet your 18 year old self, what's one piece of advice you would give them? Let's begin.

[Owen Hunt] 01:32
Yeah, don't go to college. Oh my God. I had a great time.
I have no regrets, but if I could go back to my 18 year old self, I'd be like, dude, you know, just don't even go. Don't go to, don't pay all that money to go to college.

[Allyson Chavez] 01:55
Invest in Apple. Quickly followed by really everything always works out for you and you are going to love your life. So just have fun.
Let it be an experiment. Don't take yourself too seriously. That's really what I would have told her.

[Robin Hills] 02:21
Well, one thing I would go along and say to him is there's a great future ahead of you. Just enjoy every moment of it. And Robin, you are incredibly naive.

[Agi Keramidas]
And then every so often, someone said something that made me put my pen down.

[Marlo Higgins] 02:51
Don't get yourself into something you can't get yourself out of. You know, that's a rule that I probably adopted when I was 12 years old. You know, don't get yourself into something you can't get yourself out of.
And that's become a personal family mantra. So when I say that, you know, don't get yourself into financial debt that you can't get out of. Don't get yourself into addiction of anything that you can't pull yourself up out of.
Don't get yourself into those spaces, you know, business partnerships or decisions. So really living by that mantra, you know, as long as you can make the decision and you can enter in with conviction, just make sure that it's something that you can get yourself out of. And I think just having that awareness has been a saving grace in my life.
You know, for an example, when I was 19 years old, I rented a U-Haul. I moved out of state with the premise of, if it doesn't work out and I don't like it, guess what? I can rent a U-Haul and I bet I can move back.
So that's an example of, you know, making a decision to do something big, but knowing that I always had an out.

[Andy Ramage] 03:58
If I could meet my 18 year old self, I would have told him to challenge conventional thinking. And that's really important. And I've discovered that throughout my life.
Every time I've challenged the conventional thinking, I've often found pots of gold, whether that was to not drink because the conventional thinking is to drink, whether that was to nourish my body purely on plants, the conventional thinking, you know, historically has been that you need me. All of these things consistently, I think, and as an 18 year old, I was a professional footballer. I wish I'd had the courage again to challenge all of the ideas that were being thrown at me and actually research and find out what was really working.
Because I think there was probably a real opportunity to have trained in a different way that could have accelerated my career in all sorts of different directions. I didn't quite have that courage or that confidence as an 18 year old. So yeah, that would definitely be the advice.

[Brenden Kumarasamy] 04:53
The advice I would give that person is be insane or be the same. If you want to be like everyone else, that's totally fine. But if you want to do something meaningful, magical with your life, it implies you need to do what most people don't do with their lives.
Don't you find it bizarre, Agi, that you're having a conversation with a 26 year old who started a YouTube channel on – not on pranks, not on skits, not on music, but on executive communication tips in his mother's basement at the age of 22, then wanted to coach high level – we're talking $10 million, $5 million CEOs the year after, yet he still lives in his mother's basement. He bought a nice car, but his sister drives it for him because he's too scared to drive it. He's in the top 1% of all listeners on Spotify for Justin Bieber and he can karaoke in eight different languages.
That's the point, Agi. When every decision in your life makes sense to the only person that it should, which is you, you're probably making the right decisions.

[Cornell Thomas] 05:59
I wouldn't tell him anything. How come? Because if I say something to him and it changes the way he thinks, he might not go down the path that I went down.
One little change in that path might take someone out of my life that is crucial to my life right now.

[David Wood] 06:22
I would say there are going to be times when you don't know if you're going to make it. You literally don't know if you're going to live. I feel things are so intense and you're just worried that your anxiety, depression, you're going to worry you're going to have a nervous breakdown.
You don't know what your limits are. You're stronger than you think. You are going to learn.
You are going to get through it until the point where you do actually die, but you've got a lot more capacity than you think. If you want, and you remember this advice, you might be able to relax a little bit, even when it seems like things are so bad.

[Kerie Logan] 07:05
I would tell her, learn about trauma bonding relationships, learn about narcissism, learn about attachment styles. Learn about all that stuff because I didn't know anything about that. And if I would have known all of that, I would have picked different partners. 100%.

[Daphne Michaels] 07:29
I would say just keep going. Your time will come. Because I've been on this path since I was 19.
And for a long time, I didn't feel like I belonged anywhere. But now everybody is getting it, it seems, and I could not be happier.

[Richard Friesen] 07:56
Oh my gosh. I think of that 18-year-old boy, so naive, tall, 6'2", skinny, 170 pounds, unsure of himself in the world. I'd put my arms around him and give him a hug and just say, you're okay, Rich. 
You're okay.

[Grace Najean] 08:17
You're doing well. Keep going.

[Agi Keramidas] 08:28
You just heard 12 answers to one question from 12 different people at 12 different points in their lives. And yet somehow, the final voice said it all for them. You're doing well.

Keep going. That's what 600 episodes of this podcast have been trying to say to you in every possible way. Thank you for being here.

I'm Agi Keramidas and this is Personal Development Mastery. Take care of yourself and I'll see you in the next one.