10 Lessons in Life People Learn TOO LATE

What are the lessons in life people learn too late? What do the 100-year-olds and elders among us regret from their lives? Do they regret the things they did or the things they didn’t do? Learn this and more in the article.

Today we’re going to learn about ten lessons in life people learn too late. Now, let’s begin.

1. Time doesn’t last forever

Procrastinators like to say that you have all the time in the world. When you look at all the years you have left, it’s tempting to believe it. The time doesn’t last forever – a lifetime only feels long until you’ve lived it until those years have passed you by because that’s when you realize how little you actually accomplished or how few of your goals you really achieve.

You spent so much time saving your dreams for later but later never came and your dreams fell by the wayside. In life, countless people take their time for granted. They’re so concentrated on money, cars and other luxuries that they forget how valuable that every hour of their time really is.

Unlike those material goods, time is something you can only experience once. When an hour of your life has passed you by, you’re never going get it back. Just think about all that time that you’ve spent mindlessly browsing social media. Mm-hmm, it’s gone, or the four hours that you wasted playing video games. Those are four hours that you’ll never see again.

So, the next time you’re distracted or procrastinating just remember this important lesson. No matter how you slice it, time doesn’t last forever.

2. Change requires your best

Change isn’t easy. It doesn’t happen naturally. You can’t sit around and wait for the universe to hand you the life that you’ve always imagined. There’s only one way to make any kind of real progress – you need to take the initiative, and you have to commit a hundred per cent.

So, that means taking whatever risks that you need to take and working as long as you have to because if you’re not willing to give something your all, then you’ll never come out on top.

Imagine, for example, that you want to be a professional athlete. You might think all you need to do is go to practice and play well during the games, but that’s not enough. The more you want to achieve, the more sacrifices that you need to make, the more time and effort you need to dedicate to realize your dreams.

Now, of course, that can be scary. What happens if you invest everything you have but you don’t make it as an athlete? You might spend extra time at the gym, change your entire diet and learn all kinds of new techniques and you still might fail. That’s a big reason why so many people stop trying or they take the easy road.

They don’t want to find out that all of their hard work was for nothing, but if you ever hope to accomplish your goals, that is a risk that you have to be willing to take.

Also read: 7 key principles of planning change

3. Complaining solves nothing

The average person wastes an unbelievable amount of their time complaining but complaining never solved anything. Yeah, sure it can be a good way to let off steam but complaining will never fix your issues or motivate you to make a change.

Every time you complain, it’s like you’re burying yourself under this mountain of negativity. On their own, those little comments about your boss or the traffic on the freeway don’t seem like much, but over time that negativity really piles up, and it gets harder and harder to dig yourself out.

So, instead of whining about your problems, do something about them. Figure out what’s wrong and find a lasting solution because complaining isn’t doing you any favors.

4. Regretting missed opportunities

Regret has been a really popular subject in psychology. Over the last few years, several studies have tried to figure out what experiences people regret the most in life. One of the most interesting discoveries was that younger and older people tend to regret very different things.

Younger people were embarrassed about the mistakes they made. They might regret spilling coffee all over them or hurting someone else’s feelings, but older people had regrets about something completely different.

Looking back on their lives, older participants actually valued those mistakes and bad experiences. Their regrets revolved entirely around the chances that they didn’t take. So, that means in 10, 20 or 50 years you might look back and wish you’d done more. So, take those risks now. Be willing to make mistakes because as scary or embarrassing as it seems in the moment, you’ll be proud of yourself in the long run.

5. Value your spontaneity

Few people understand how valuable spontaneity really is.

Now, this may not sound like a life-changing lesson but just think about this. How much of your life do you plan out ahead of time? You might schedule everything from the work you do, to the food you eat and usually, that’s a good thing.

Predictable routines are comfortable and safe. They give us a much-needed sense of stability in our busy lives, but too much stability will suck the excitement right out of your life. That’s why you need spontaneity to get inspired and try new things.

A single spontaneous adventure can nurture the more creative and passionate sides of your personality. It forces you to be vulnerable, which may be something that you rarely do.

Just remember that being spontaneous and being reckless are two very different things. You shouldn’t make big expensive decisions without thinking, but you also shouldn’t be afraid to set aside your routines and face the unknown.

6. Discover your niche

Our lives are filled with all kinds of norms and expectations. People expect you to wear certain clothes, they expect you to know certain words, and they even expect you to watch certain movies.

Over the years, you’ve been taught to blend into the crowd. You learned that the best way to find success is to be as normal and mainstream as possible. It takes decades for people to realize just how worthless those social norms really are because the things that actually mean something to you come directly from you.

No one tells you that life is about finding a unique niche to call your own. The rest of the world may not notice or care, but that’s not what’s important. As long as you find something that’s meaningful to you, then it will always be worth doing.

7. Choose passion over money

Many people base their entire lives around their paycheck. They choose whatever field earns them the most money, and then they struggle through years and years of schooling. However, when they finally get there, they realize that a big paycheck isn’t as fulfilling as they thought.

Money can buy you a lot of things: a fancy house, expensive clothes, the fastest coolest cars but happiness is something you can’t buy with all the money in the world.

So, as you’re searching for your path in life, don’t base your decision on the number of zeros in your salary. Choose a path that sparks your interest, that gets you excited, and that leaves you feeling fulfilled at the end of your day because that’s the kind of work that you’re truly passionate about.

Also read: 8 Principles To Live By For Success and Happiness

8. Skip the shortcuts

Everyone has heard “work smarter not harder“ but what does that phrase mean to you? It’s telling you to take a more innovative approach to your work, to think through your problems instead of doing it the hard way.

But that’s not what most people hear. To them work smarter not harder is an excuse to take shortcuts and cut corners. So, that’s exactly what they do without realizing just how destructive those shortcuts can be.

As you’re learning and growing, you need to do things the hard way. You need to weather the storm and experience the ups and downs. Why? Well, because working hard shows you what working smart actually looks like.

9. Healthy habits are a lifelong battle

Just take a minute to imagine your ideal self. Most people think about their dream job or their perfect home, but I want you to focus on something else. What does your lifestyle look like? You might picture yourself with all kinds of healthy habits.

Maybe, you’ve started running every morning, or you see yourself reading a new book every week. However, those healthy habits don’t just appear out of nowhere. It takes years to build routines that foster your mental and physical health. So, even if your ideal self is 20 years down the road, start developing your healthy habits right now.

Also read: 12 Shocking Habits of Successful People

10. Expect the unexpected

No one tells you how inevitable failure really is. Your teachers and your mentors fill your head with lofty goals and big dreams, but they don’t prepare you for the roadblocks standing in your way.

No matter what path you choose, it’s safe to assume that something will go wrong. Maybe you won’t climb the ladder as quickly as you thought or you might have trouble, standing out feeling like a little fish in a big pond.

My point here is you can’t expect everything to go your way. Something is going to throw a wrench in your plans. So, be prepared, be ready to recover and adapt. Otherwise, each failure is going to cut you down and destroy your motivation. If you let that happen, you’ll never be able to pick yourself back up again.

So, expect the unexpected, persevere through failure and when things don’t go the way you planned, always try again.

Sources

Regret in later life: exploring relationships between regret frequency, secondary interpretive control beliefs, and health in older individuals.

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