Today I’m guest posting on Money Saving Mom with 3 Pieces of Advice I Wish I Could Give my 23 year old self. I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. This year marked my 20th year in Philadelphia and I find myself reflecting on that time and the years since. Not in a way where I have regretted choices, but more in a curious way of asking myself, “how did I/we get here?”
I am making choices this year to intentionally simplify my life and the life of our family. As I’ve been decluttering, the questions that consistently come up are:
“Why do we have this?”
“Can we get rid of this?”
While I am glad for the changes we are implementing as a family now, I can’t help but wonder, what if we had made these changes a long time ago? What if we had agreed on a different paradigm when we merged our lives and set our course from there?
My husband and I were pretty intentional about some things when we got engaged, but we were much more relaxed about most things in our life together. We took things as they came versus being very proactive and purposeful.
I’ve shared before that I tend to lean towards the “woulda, coulda, shouldas” in life. That’s not what these reflections are about. It is not about regret. It is recognizing that those who are starting out might be able to use these bits of wisdom from someone further down the road. There is some truth to the saying that with age comes wisdom. I’m not sure if it’s the aging process or the benefit of hindsight, probably a little of both.
This is the first of two guest posts I’ll be sharing in the next month about my reflections. This first one, 3 Pieces of Advice for my 23-year-old Self, is very practical. Let me know what you think! I’d love to know what you would tell your younger self!
I think you make a great point about setting purpose and intention in our lives. We tend to make goals and then accept things spontaneously as they come up and also seek them out. It makes life an adventure, but we definitely could do better making sure everything we do is more purposeful!
Thanks Autumn for sharing your thoughts and commenting! I agree that a balance of purposefulness and spontaneity is important.
I love posts like this. Share the wisdom! 🙂
Thanks for dropping by and commenting Betty!
OMG THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS I would tell my younger self if I could!!!!
But the # 1 this is definitely stop stressing out so much about school work (I hardly remember all the classes that I stressed over)
So true! Thanks for coming by and commenting!
There are many, many things I would tell my younger self. Wow. I’m trying to live with more intention and purpose now, since I can’t go back. Congrats on your guest posts!
I agree Shann. We can take these lessons and apply it to today and the future. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Love this! Went over to Money saving Mom, and looked around there.
Melinda
Hi Melinda! There is so much good information there isn’t there?
To live with intention is the best tip for a younger me!
Yes Cynthia! And to figure out what that looks like at a younger age.