The Life-Changing Advice Women Over 40 Are Giving Young People

And, lastly, here is a mega-list that was shared:

“1) Smoking will give you lip wrinkles. 

2) Never leave the house without sunscreen and a hat. 

3) If you’ve drunk to the point of blacking out at any point, stop drinking. 

4) A great fuck does not equal a good partner. 

5) The men you are thinking about are not thinking about you. They’re thinking about their careers, and so should you. 

6) You can work hard OR play hard, but if you do both, you will reach a point where you cannot do either. 

7) Travel as much as you can, on your own. You’ll find yourself at your destination. 

8) Freeze as many eggs as you can. Then you will not have to make choices later under pressure. 

9) Develop relationships with the children who are already in your life; they’ll be adults sooner than you think.

10) An education is the one thing no one will ever be able to take away from you. 

11) Follow the year-on-year rule: Date for a whole year before moving in together, live together for a year before discussing marriage, be married for a year before doing anything permanent.

12) Fuck as many people as you want, but don’t cheat. 

13) Any man who asks you your ‘body count’ is not mature enough to have sex with ANYONE. 

14) Never get talked into doing something with your body that makes you uncomfortable, because your body will remember it. 

15) Learn how your money works; your bank account, loans, budgets, repayments, insurance, whatever. Never hand these over to someone else to manage because it bores you. 

16) If someone says, ‘You should get that checked out,’ make the appointment RIGHT THEN. 

17) Never pack more than carry on. 

18) If you have good parents, spend as much time as you can with them. Take their calls. Turn up for them. 

19) If you have bad parents, cut them off. The ‘family’ you need will turn up in time. 

20) It’s worth waiting indefinitely for a great partner. Life is not a barn dance; you are not made to sit against a wall until someone picks you. 

21) Voting is not a joke or a popularity contest. Take it seriously, every time. 

22) Don’t monetize your hobbies, or they’ll stop being fun. 

23) Ask for help when you’re sad or lonely. 

24) Read more books. 

25) Get eight hours of sleep a night. 

26) Never lend a friend or family member money. Either give it to them no strings attached or not at all. 

27) Let go of anything that makes you sad or angry. There will always be new stuff to make you sad or angry coming anyway. 

28) Make time for live music, theatre, the cinema, and art. That’s where your brain starts applying your education to your thoughts.

29) Fight for the existence of every tree. 

30) Sit down with pen, paper, and the internet and work out what you have to do to solve the problems you complain about. 

31) Buy a tool set and make sure you know how to use it. 

32) Get a driver’s license as soon as you can. 

33) Laugh at yourself at least once a day. 

34) After a breakup, force yourself to cry until you have no tears left. Then you’ll be fine. 

35) Don’t fight grief. It has its own timetable. 

36) Put the things you love in direct view.

37) Realise that you’ll never be poor if you’re happy. 

38) Have recriminations, or regrets, be jealous, or unreasonable…but on your own, and only for a maximum of ten minutes. Then you just have to get up and get the fuck on with it. 

39) Join a trade union. 

40) Give yourself permission to change your mind. 

41) Be kind. 

42) Start doing that thing you want to do right now. 

43) Be the friend you want to have. 

44) Swim more. 

45) You have to live with the life you have, so don’t live anyone else’s. 

46) Remember if they rat on you once, they’ll rat on you twice. 

47) Never believe someone’s dead until you’re present at the funeral.

48) You can achieve anything politically if you do all the work and take none of the credit. 

49) There is no proportional relationship between victory and sacrifice. 

50) Ideas are useless; turn up with a plan.

51) Get vaccinated for everything. 

52) Take advice from experts, because when facts emerge and advice changes, the experts are always the first to know.”

—vanbadham