Those of you over 30: If you were 25 again, what would you change?

What would you handle differently? How would you live your life?

I know you are going to hate me for this, but I couldn't help feeling at little sad at my 25th.. Perhaps not from the personal standpoint, but from the career standpoint. I've done well for myself, but I could have done better. But I still feel like I am trying to find my ideal life instead of living it.

What do you guys think?

On the other hand, I look at myself, and I am not married, I am educated, no kids to pay child support for, no convictions, relatively well off and so on. So why do I feel a little weird?

edit: i think my problem is this - if i died tomorrow, I would really be pissed for not having lived life to the max.

Nothing

I was still in college at age 25 and I graduated 2 weeks after my 25th birthday. No regrets for me.

The thing is, you can't change what happened in the past. Yeah I think we all wish we had made better decisions when we were younger but that's what being young is all about. You still have the opportunity to live life to the fullest now so what's stopping you?

Regret: Not being relaxed enough and having fun

I regret not dating more. I dated a fair amount, but I got really hung up on a couple of gals, who stunted my personal and professional growth. I would've dated around more, slept around more (not in a negative way and yeah, I would've protected myself), and not taken myself for freaking serious.

Youth is wasted on the young. We're told ages 20-30 is when you get married. Wrong! Ages 20-30 is when you should be developing yourself educationally (college or trade school), professionally (getting those early jobs that you build a career on), and personally (not marrying, but travelling, dating a lot, not settling down, perhaps getting drunk now and then, establishing your life philosophies, etc.).

Most guys I know -- including me -- took themselves and these stupid break-ups way too seriously. I regret being serious when I should've just been fun and relaxed. So go out, have fun, have one on me, go to Europe, pick up a hottie tonight! Don't worry if she's gonna be your gf or not, just have some freaking fun.

AFC society nearly destroyed me in my 20's, don't let it destroy you!

WestCoaster said:

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Most guys I know -- including me -- took themselves and these stupid break-ups way too seriously. I regret being serious when I should've just been fun and relaxed. So go out, have fun, have one on me, go to Europe, pick up a hottie tonight! Don't worry if she's gonna be your gf or not, just have some freaking fun.

AFC society nearly destroyed me in my 20's, don't let it destroy you!

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I am totally tempted sometimes to just sell my place for the time being, and take off to like asia for a couple months.. a year.. who knows.

I'm 26.
Some things I wish I did in my early 20s are.
- Not take everything so seriously
- Date more, have sex more and enjoy life alot more
- Move on from sh1t that makes you unhappy
- School and education
- Go out and make friends in all places and appraoch and date girls
- Take more risks and chances, this is your only chance in life.

I just started to follow this philosophy and I hope you come up with something similar too. It is never too late.

Egoist said:

edit: i think my problem is this - if i died tomorrow, I would really be pissed for not having lived life to the max.

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A person's future is not defined by what he does tomorrow, it's defined by what he does today. Yeah, I know it has nothing to do with death but come on, why worry about it? It's inevitable.

Francisco d'Anconia said:

A person's future is not defined by what he does tomorrow, it's defined by what he does today. Yeah, I know it has nothing to do with death but come on, why worry about it? It's inevitable.

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When I was 25 I acted like I was 35. Now that I'm 34 I act like I'm 25.

If I step back and look at the reasons for this it's easy to see that a big part of the reason I am able to get away with living the life of a younger guy is because I did take things so seriously back then.

You are at a turning point in your life that most people (myself included) go through when you are in your mid 20's. Kind of like an "early life crisis" of sorts. You are at an age where you start to look at things from a more adult perspective. This is why it's VERY difficult to have a relationship with a girl who is under 25. Thay haven't yet been forced to look at who they really are and whether or not they have realistic expectations of what to expect out of life.

What would I do differently?

Like most others I would have played the field more and not been so focused on a handful of relationships that no matter how good, were all destined to fail because I didn't know what I really wanted.

Financially I would have devoted more effort into real estate, and not gotten sidetracked into business. If I would have done this I would be a millionaire MANY times over today. Although I learned a TON from being in business, by the time I really figured out the secret to success I also came to the conclusion that it wasn't a good fit for my presonality.

Honestly though....at this point I feel like I am getting close to the best time of my life. Although there are plenty of things I could have done differently, if the end result is as good as the light I see at the end o the tunnel, it was all worth it and I wouldn't change a thing. You always have to take a few bad steps on the way to becoming the person you are destined to be.

i wouldnt change anything.
all the good things, all the bad things and everything in between made me who i am today and they built character.

Westcoaster is amusing. Day trading is not the pinnacle of investment. Sarging is not the pinnacle of DJism. Have I managed to offend anyone?

25 again. Invest in real estate, let equity and time do the work. Think more carefully about life plans especially marriage. Read more books. Still should read more books. Date many many more women.

Part of your post is very good. This part ...

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Where do you begin?

a. wealth building: enormous literature here.
b. seduction: enormous literature here.
c. spirituality: you get the picture...

Conclusion: look to the classic writings and teachers in any or all of these fields. Then DO it! It doesn't make sense to me to say, or imply: how do I avoid making mistakes? The mistakes are necessary. Don't TRY to avoid them. They are an inherent part of the growth process.

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If you would've posted this in the first place, that would've been a good thing, IMO!

Passion

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Okay people, back on topic please.

Wow, major cleanup.

Guess its for the better.

Wow, major cleanup.

Guess its for the better.

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It's a good question, and reflecting on our past mistakes (or inexperience) is a way to grow.

Looking back, I wished I would have invested in real estate before buying my own house, but my living conditions at home were horrible. I had to get out and fend for myself. Now that I think about it, I may have been better off renting and then selling since I saw where the market was going. However, I'm not getting rid of my house. I like it too much

I still hope to get into Real Estate, even though it won't be until a bit later in my life.

I have no regrets about my mid 20s. I don't even have regrets about my early 20s that I "wasted" in a LTR. I don't consider it a waste, I consider it experience.

There's some things that I cannot regret since I didn't ask for the family I was born into.

Desdinova said:

I have no regrets about my mid 20s. I don't even have regrets about my early 20s that I "wasted" in a LTR. I don't consider it a waste, I consider it experience.

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funny enough, I really don't mind having spent my early 20s, the party years, in a relationship either. I think I learned so much, matured, learned to understand the world and relationships better, what to look for in a woman, etc, etc, etc.

Even when it comes to DJ stuff, I think I have a better understanding because I can better understand women after knowing one so well from every aspect of male-female interaction.

I wish I never went to see The Blair Witch Project. That movie sucked balls.

Simply put, I wish that I started living for MYSELF sooner instead of molding my life around others. I've made several decisions based on the wishes of other people in my life, and penalized myself by doing so.

But, there has been a lot of "that which does not kill us..." that's molded me into Vulpine v4.1.3. This current version hasn't crashed yet. Plus, it comes with built in spam blocker, virus control, and the energy saver and networking functions have been upgraded too! (Not available in any stores, check your local listings for showtimes)

Egoist said:

funny enough, I really don't mind having spent my early 20s, the party years, in a relationship either. I think I learned so much, matured, learned to understand the world and relationships better, what to look for in a woman, etc, etc, etc.

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If nothing else good came of spending my 20's in a handfull of LTR's, at least I have a VERY good idea by now of what I like in a woman.

I would have dated more. Held onto to certain ladies longer. Moved out sooner. Stopped trippin off of these birds. Stacked more of my paper.

On Not Dating

Curious, I hear a lot of you guys in your 30s say that you wish you would have gone out and dated more. What did you mean by that and what else did you occupy your time with besides dating?