Hello!
I am Male, 19 years and I wanted to ask what is the best way to live life?
There are many ways to live in my opinion and everybody has to find his way but I am not sure which one would give me a happy look back and thinking “damn I had a good life”.
– Working hard and live later
You work to become a good employee or boss and maybe get a lot of money ( but you sacrifice your young age and experience)
– Living know and don’t care what comes at you
You travel around, meet new people when you young but will it pay off later?Or do I just get lost in a 9-5 with less money?
I am right know on a way to find myself and I’m lost ngl. Hopefully somebody wants to say something about this.
26 comments
Balance is the key in all things including life.
Value your time and relationships more than money
Simple answer, by doing whatever makes you happy 🤷🏻♂️
You can have both.
Here is the problem. The world is changing around us faster than we can follow the old “ways” or stereotypes.
Get a job and aim for retirement is not an option and was not even for my generation (Gen X, 50 years old).
For my generation there was still be a drop out and travel the world never settling down but that is harder in today’s world.
So, my advice is this and I also live by this:
1. Find something you love doing.
2. Find how doing that thing can contribute to society and you can make enough money doing it.
1. By enough money, I mean how much money you need at the time. For a single person who say wants to travel and does not want to have an expensive house and car, this could be a little money. For somebody who wants three kids and a luxury house and life, it will be more money. Find what your lifestyle is and what it is going to cost you.
3. Find other things that you love doing and balance them with the thing you are going to earn money doing.
4. Throw the ideas about this being a nine to five traditional “job” out of the window.
5. Be curious about the world around you. Those that notice changes first often get the opportunities to take advantage of them. I got into IT early and it really helped me. Look at the trends.
6. Keep learning and adapting. Any career or non-career (beach bum for instance) choice that you make today will most likely change significantly within the next 5 years. Commit but stay flexible.
7. Very important, have fun. How should you live your life? Like it is the only one you have and having as much fun as possible while contributing something valuable to society is the only answer.
8. Don’t let them get you down. Be the change you think is needed in the world. You are young and the whole adventure is in front of you. Try and stay positive about it. Being positive about life and the future is the best gift I ever gave myself. And yes, it is a choice.
9. Learn through your mistakes. We all make them. Don’t make them twice. Pick new mistakes to make each time…lol. That way you learn and the successes will come with practice.
10. Peer review your life! Ask your trusted friends, older people, younger people, sometimes strangers, “How am I doing? What would you do differently if you were me? Do you have any useful tips?” Do it, it is liberating to have an outside perspective on your life. You have taken the first step with this post. Keep up the good work.
11. Find a good mentor and keep looking for them your whole life. There are some things that you will be amazing at, some that you will do okay and somethings that you will be shit at. Focus on what you are good and and PEER Review!
Hope these things help. I was so full of “oh, fuck, what the fuck am I going to do” at 19 and it all worked out okay. Life is fun and every decade I get through I enjoy more and more.
Good luck out there.
There’s a middle ground and that is where the answer is at. Well, it will mostly depend from people to people, but that’s basically it.
Try to work hard at school to get a nice job. A nice job will be interesting, and will allow you some free time along some money to spend. That way you can have time for yourself, for hobbies and meditation/philosophy.
To me life is meant to let me accumulate knowledge, and I need spirituality and philosophy in my life. I like to think, basically. Free time and a decent amount of money allows for that, like it will for most things.
Yes, it’s a fine line to walk on but somehow you’ll have to do both. Present is all we have but it’s important to think about future as well because very soon it will become your present. You don’t have to divide your life into either of the two options that you are considering. Life is composed of seasons including the season to sow and the season to reap. You must try to be better everyday in everything you do because you owe it to yourself to see what your mind and body are capable of. And of course, you need people by your side who will be there with you always. You’ll have to plan and manage your everyday to see that you can accommodate both. Obviously nothing in life ever goes completely as planned but one must be prepared. Somedays will consist of days when your professional life will take up all your time and somedays you will find yourself surrounded by family and friends. Both of those are good times in my opinion.
Living out of your backpack, I’d imagine.
For you. Live it for you.
Do what you enjoy (as long as it doesn’t negatively impact others). Travel, hang out with friends, take classes that interest you. Be wild and adventurous while you’re young, so you’ve got those stories to look back on when you’re old.
Aside from work, don’t do shit that doesn’t fulfill you and make you happy. Don’t stay in a relationship that you have doubts about, platonic or romantic.
Let people talk. Not everyone will like you, and that’s okay. People will talk shit, and that’s okay too. They just want you to be as miserable as they are.
Stay healthy. Make your health and fitness a top priority. I’m 52, I look 35-40, and feel like I’m 25.
At the age of 19 you should be living a selfish, train wreck of a life, people don’t expect different from you. My late teen years were a mix of bad drugs, poorly advised sex, living in shitholes and daydreaming about changing the world with my writing.
Plenty of time to settle into drudgery, leave that for your mid-twenties.
To me, you should focus more on the people in your life rather than the job.
For a job, you’re an asset. Useful until you aren’t. For people, you’re a valuable part of their life.
Life is about balance. Find a job you can tolerate, that’ll make you the money to actually live your life with the people who matter. You need money to survive, but work doesn’t need to be the be all end all.
As a 58 y/o atheist the best advice I’ve ever heard for life is, “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.”
One doesn’t need to believe in a mythical supreme being to follow this rule. Personally I‘ve found this philosophy to be very sound for personal success.
It’s a balancing act for sure. I’m 49 and traveled and partied while I was younger. But now, due to a disability and an unfortunate event, my earning potential has dropped significantly from what I expected it to be at this point in my life. So I’m happy that I spent my youth having fun but also regret not having much saved for retirement. My suggestion is to do what makes you happy but also plan for the future as best you can. Remember though, life is unpredictable and we can never know with certainty what tomorrow will bring. We might live to be 100 or die well before then, it’s one of the mysteries of life. So live every day knowing that life is precious as well as precarious.
I’d reccomend getting an easy well paying job. If you can find a job in tech that let’s you work from home making good money that doesn’t stress you out too bad, you can have a work life balance. If you have to go to an office to work, you’ll have to do your chores on the weekend and it eats into your free time rapidly.
All about perspective brother, I have met people who are not very wealthy and are the happiest. I have met millionaires who are depressed with their life’s surprisingly.
Yeah that’s the great debate isn’t it? I’d say the ideal is balance and harmony between the two. Don’t throw everything you have into a career only to wake up one day at 45 and realize you’re too old to do the things you actually wanted to do with your life. But at the same time, you need to plan a little bit. You don’t want to wake up at 45 and realize you’re gonna have to work until you die. That said, as someone who worked his ass off during his 20s and missed out on a lot of life experience, I’d say fuck around and follow passions until your late 20s and then if it’s not cutting it settle for a career that pays the bills and you can stand to do. Sowing your oats and traveling a lot is very important to being a happy, satisfied adult later in life. You wanna feel like you got those urges out or you’ll be wondering what could have been until the day you die. I will say all the people I know with really cool “How the hell did you get this job?” types were people who followed their passions when young and fucked around a lot and saw the world.
I’d say find out what you enjoy doing and do it if it can make you a good income. Life isn’t all about money but your life will suck if your broke. Either get a degree(that can pay well after earning a BS degree) or learn a trade.
I was in retail until last year due to starting college late, and trust me your gonna be miserable without any skills that pay well. Your dating life will also suck since girls aren’t going to want a broke guy. Put in the work now and reap the rewards later.
Live honestly, otherwise you’re just wasting your time.
Money and peace of mind are your friends. Getting both becomes easier as you age so just try to enjoy the process of finding them.
IMO, relationships are very overrated and typically are mostly negative than positive emotions, dont overfocus on them.
Ah youth. Like most things in life the answer is, a bit of both. Also, that balance will mean different things to different people.
Colin wheeler said it well. Live for BOTH today and tomorrow. Don’t concentrate on either too much or you’ll regret it.
There is a saying that everyone will interpret differently based on what they value.
“Do something today that you will thank yourself for tomorrow.”
If traveling and making memories and meeting people is what you value, then you will thank yourself later in life for having those experiences.
If working less as you get older, and possibly retiring younger and having financial security is something you value then work hard now so that your future self will thank your younger self for doing that while you’re young and have the energy.
There is no one right answer to your question, it applies differently to everyone so you have to ask yourself who you are and what you value.
Get selfish.
There are no clear answers. The best thing you can do is know what you’re about, what you want and simply go for it.
What I did, and it’s worked out very well for me, was spent 20-32 absolutely getting after it professionally. I work in the trades. I built myself up what I view as a very strong financial foundation. No mistake about it, it was not fun. I worked at least 60 hours every week. I never went on trips. I made the sacrifices.
Coming out the other side though, I don’t pay a mortgage or rent, I don’t have a vehicle payment. I’ve got enough money in retirement accounts to do the bare minimum for the rest of my life and be very well off in old age. I can quit my job at any time for any reason if I feel like it. I have freedom.
It’s awesome to live life like this. The cost to get here was high. Need to carefully weigh those options.
Live fast and leave a pretty corpse, that’s what I always say
Spend time and money on experiences and services as opposed to products