Nov 4, 2022
5 Things I Learned Later in Life That I Should’ve Known Earlier
We should learn more from life, and use it to grow.
Next February I will turn 22. The age when I at last will finish my graduation and get out of the most hectic phase of my life — college. Although I am just going to hit the 22-year mark it always feels like I have learned so much in life which most guys my age very rarely face.
Out of all the lessons that I have learned, some of them I learned late (and I always think I should’ve learned them earlier) and many of the realizations came to me fast. Where there are many lessons I feel confident enough to share with the world, whereas others I do not have the courage to speak yet.
But no matter what it is, I have come so far in life tackling huge storms that came in my path. That is why I want to share the most important lessons with my fellow brothers and sisters so that they can also learn something from me. It will make me worthy enough to still exist in the world.
In this blog, I will share the 5 most important lessons that I have learned later in life. Hope you get something valuable out of it.
Never share what you are doing with others
Being bigmouth was one of the biggest problems in my childhood. This is a problem that I have recently overcome. By recently I meant in the last 1–2 years. I never kept my mouth shut about my goals, and if I was unable to achieve them, others used to make fun of my dreams. Let me tell you one of the stories where being a bigmouth caused me to become fun in front of my relatives.
See I have been training for the last 4–5 years. As you might tell I have a huge craze for fitness. Because of that in the early days of my journey, I always wanted to be a gym/fitness trainer. So, one day I decided to speak about that to my parents, which was certainly the worst decision of my life. My parents told that to one of my relatives who eventually spread that to others. From that day I was a victim of constant laughter for almost 2–3 months.
Although in the beginning, I thought I will not share my goal with others (not even parents, cause not everyone gets supportive parents) but I still did it. I thought they need to know what I want to do in life.
Family over anything
“We do not learn a lesson until we lose something.”
— this quote hit me so hard. I was always the type of guy who will any day cancel a plan with family just for an outing with friends. That time I gave more priority to my friends.
My mother always wanted to go on a puja hopping to Kolkata (a city in India), but I always denied to go. At that time for me going out with family on Durga Puja is too boring. But this mentality changed the day I lost my mother. She lost her life after being diagnosed with cancer.
The only regret I have now is I gave more priority to my friends who do not even exist in my life anymore and always neglected my mother. Now as she left us I always dreamt of getting her back.
Anxiety and depression will eat you up later, so enjoy it now
If you grow up in an Indian family this quote might be very familiar to you.
“Life will be smoot after you finish your 12th”
We have always been told that after a particular phase life gets easier. But back then as we were kids, we never had an idea that those are all lies that were thrown on our faces by elders. I have skipped many important moments of my life thinking I can experience that later.
We were never told as we grow older, anxiety and depression are going to eat us up. All we had is our childhood to enjoy life to its fullest. Whoever thinks the happy faces on social media are actually real, they are certainly living in an illusion.
So you should be enjoying the present because as you turn old, your mental health going to get fucked up.
Start early, or pay the price to be late
I quit Medium twice before actually being consistent with it. First, it was at the end of 2020, and later in the middle of 2021. Both times the reason was a lack of motivation and laziness.
But now when I think back I feel I should have never stopped in 2020. Most of the writers here who have around 10k+ followers started back then. So, if I never quitted that time, I would have had the same type of audience as them.
Although I know it is never too late to start. But, starting early can give an extra edge against others on the same field. Also sooner you start with something, the less competition you have to face.
Kind of the same happened for YouTube too. After hitting 1.5k subs we took a 6month gap. Where back then getting 1k views per video was not a big deal for us, now we barely hit 100 view mark.
Not everyone sorts their life at 18
Today’s social media is completely filled with early success stories. On places like LinkedIn 17–18-year-olds claim to earn what a normal Software Developer can not make in this country. And as someone who still figuring out their life at 22, it may seem depressing.
But one reality you need to see is that not everyone is able to make millions at 18. There are quite a few lucky ones who were able to hit the mark.
So, if you are in your 17s or 18s and still confused, do not be worried. You have a whole life in front of you. Try out different fields until you find out what works best for you.
Bonus
Even if you learn these lessons from me you will still make mistakes. And if you did make a mistake learn from it. Do not get pissed saying — why this happened to me.
Always believe one thing,
In life, everything happens for a reason. You may not be able to see it now, but eventually, it will make sense later.
Enough for the article.
Subscribe to my mailing list to get all these articles directly to your inbox.
