What I Wish I Had Known as a Teenager
July 13th, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff
This is a personal post today. I have two girls rapidly heading towards teen years (one is counting the days). I started putting together some motherly advice to them on coping with the teenage years, so they could read it when they needed it (even if they weren’t talking with me that day) and then had a thought …
As a parent I know what my experience of being a teenager was like – but that is just my side of the story. I would really love to be able to share with Rachel & Teagan a whole stack of wisdom and experience from different people (not just mum).
So … “What do you wish you had known when you were a teenager?”
It could be about anything – pimples, dating, dealing with PMT, body image, High School, choosing a career, working at a job, dealing with peer pressure, friends, drugs, money … anything that you wish you had known when you were a teenager.
For me I wish I had known the importance of saving 10% of every pay cheque starting from your first pay cheque for investing. I also wish I had known that what I focus on I get more of – which included pimples! I wish I had known that the subjects that you love and find easiest carry the seeds of your future career and not what you think you “should” be doing. I wish I had known that it is OK to be a Geek and not in the popular crowd because then you can be yourself more easily.
What about you? What do you wish you had known when you were a teenager? Feel free to share this post with your friends – the more input the better!
Ingrid
Putting your business into words
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 9:40 am and is filed under Heart Harmony. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I love the look of your new blog!!! It looks great! I am in the process of converting from Blogger to Wordpress but it isn’t looking very pretty. LOL
July 15th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Hello from far away. It’s interesting to see that your issues were much the same as mine even though we were on a different continent! Hope this helps — it struck a chord.
I wish I’d known how little it matters what people thought of you in high school. It’s better to develop who YOU are than to change to fit in.
I wish I’d known that developing a habit of study instead of having to gain those skills in college.
I wish I’d stood up for more of what I believed, defended those who needed defending and never stood idle when I could make a difference.
Probably all a lot to ask from a teen dealing with all the other stuff that goes on in your high school years, but my husband seems to have managed much of this!
July 15th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I agree with the above comment. I wish I’d know how little popularity matters when you leave school.
I also wish I knew who I was as a person, instead of just going along with whatever fad was in – even if I hated it, or didn’t believe in it.
I wish I had found business earlier, rather than going along with the schools and the education systems thinking that you leave school, go to UNI and get a job working your life away for someone else.
Fortunately for me, I’m still young and got to realise this early.
But I honestly wish someone would change the thinking of the education system!!
Good luck Ingrid!
July 17th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I wish I had known how much personal power I had as a young woman. What I mean is that I found my self ‘reacting’ to people and situations instead of ‘acting’ because I didn’t realise that I had a choice about what happened to me. I had no idea about being ‘at Cause’ and felt I was always at ‘Effect’ which meant a sense of powerlessness that didn’t have to be.
I wish I had realised that I was intelligent instead of assuming I wasn’t and acting accordingly.
I wish I had known about how to build rapport with others and equally how to un-build it and save myself the hassle of unwanted attention – all because I felt I shouldn’t hurt someone elses feelings by being true to myself.
I wish I had taken more photos.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:29 am
Gordon Ramsay has his feel well and truly on the ground. I have learnt so much from watching him and I am now a fan of his business processes.