What advice would you give your younger self?

I ran across a link by Elysa Rice to a blog post, " What Advice Would You Give To Your 18 Year Old Self? ", and thought that would be a great discussion for what advice we would give ourselves when we first started in our career.

For me, I would tell myself to stop being so cautious and jump right into it. Failure is the best learning tool.

What about you? What advice would you give?

I tried to pull up this site and it came up as an error... Don't know if it's on my end or not but I would love to read it!

I will say this if I could go back and give my younger self some advice I think I would definately tell myself to appreciate the training classes that they sent me on... really take in the knowledge instead of just looking at my watch for it to be over. The other advice I would give myself... not to take myself so damn seriously all the time, have some fun and nothing is the end of the world... took me 15 years to actually live up to that one!

Great topic!!

Chrissy here's the link again: www.lifehack.org/articles/miscellaneous/...8-year-old-self.html

Wait to make decisions until you have consulted and listened to those who have more experience in a certain area.
Take bette care of yourself, nutritionally.
Push hard and get your education early in life.
Find a mentor or hero that you admire and watch what they do.
Start saving money early, and often.
Check out those "potential mates" longer to really get to know that person better in ALL types of situations.

7/7 is always a special day for me so it appropriate that I am reading this today. When I was 18, it was on this day that I started my first job (for a paycheck). I was scared to death. The best advice then and now is "go for it!" You don't ever want to look back on your life and say "I wish I had...."

I have a couple of items of advice I would give my younger self.

1) When you find yourself in some sort of conflict or debate, check to make sure that your motivation in the conflict is not your ego. If you are just trying to be right, to save face, or to get your way...let it go. On the other hand, if you have a valuable point of view that needs to be heard and considered, keep with that debate. In the long run, people will respect you and your opinions a whole lot more.

2.) There is room for everyone to be good. Surround yourself with good people and encourage them to perform. They won't show you up...they will motivate you to be better.

Thank you Elysa! Good Article!

My advice would be to be healthier, be better at saving money and learn to destress better...Oh and not to marry that first husband... :dry:

Not to wait so long before going to college...travel more...

My advice to my younger self for this job...don't stress out over the little things...start a resident retention program before resident retention became cool...and learn to keep your mouth shut, so you don't have to walk around with your foot in your mouth all the time...

Get an education. It will be worth more than the student loans you repay.

Being in this business for over 20 years, my advise would be:

1.) Listen to the advise your mother gives you (trust me, she was right all along)
2.) Take every opportunity to learn as much as you can, even if it doesn't directly apply to your current position.
3.) Open yourself up to new opportunities
5.) Join Organizations - Network - Meet new people
6.) Remember that Work is not what life is all about!

Her goes...
1.) Learn - not just reactively, but PROACTIVELY.
2.) Breathe. More.
3.) Jump in and learn to swim by doing, not watching.
4.) Pigeon-holing doesn't even work for pigeons. Expand the horizons of your interests and your skills will follow.

Jackie Ramstedt wrote:

Wait to make decisions until you have consulted and listened to those who have more experience in a certain area.
Take bette care of yourself, nutritionally.
Push hard and get your education early in life.
Find a mentor or hero that you admire and watch what they do.
Start saving money early, and often.
Check out those "potential mates" longer to really get to know that person better in ALL types of situations.

I believe you have the personality to walk the tight rope of advising our youngsters great. What i consider best of all any young professional is know who you are in the inner self and develop it to a mature conscience that can demonstrate what you are made of and why.