What life lessons do you wish you knew when you were younger?

Question

Looking back on my career, I don’t have any regrets. However, there are things I wish I would have known.

I wish I had started taking a canine companion on the road with me earlier in my career. I think having animals around makes life more comfortable and keeps you in a place that is somehow healthier and more rewarding. I took my first dog on the road in 1992 and it's made all the difference in the world to have that companionship and that unconditional love. I wasted a lot of years out there in a hotel room by myself.

In trying to select songs for Songbird, my upcoming box set, I came to realize that between albums, live tracks, unreleased songs and collaborations, I never really took any time off. I suppose that’s one thing I would have tried to do more of; but then maybe I wouldn’t have this box set.

What are your life lessons?

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Answer 1

I wish I'd known to hold on to each moment that mattered with the people I loved the most. I wished I'd had the wisdom to realize that those moments can be so fleeting...
I wish I'd known that there is no magic formula, no secret to "success" that others have...persistence is the only key.
I wish I'd known that strength isn't a gift some are given, while others are not - the strength to overcome and thrive lies in each of us. I only found my own when faced with crisis - what amazing things might I have accomplished in my youth had I known I carried it all along!
In the end, though - no regrets. What I've lived without knowing what I didn't helped shape who I am now, the life I love at this moment.....and I'm loving every second of it!

Answer 2

I live my life by my standards and that is to just be me.I have worked too hard to be who I am and where I am at in my life to be content. But I think that life lessons are learned everyday! There isn't one, now that I am looking back, that I wish I knew when I was younger. I mean yeah I was a bad teenager but I learned everything when I made mistakes and I think that, that is part of growing up. If I knew all that I do now then..I don't think that I could be the strong minded, confident, head strong women that I am now. I learned it the first time around, I would have explained just how much control I had over that life, even when I was a child. I did not realize until it was too late in many respects that I had a say in the way things went and turned out, and for a long time, that was a great source of guilt and regret. I have long since gotten over most of those feelings, but things would have turned out vastly different with the knowledge that I was always far from helpless. There is one benefit from the experience though, I now know the true value of empowering children to look at their world and see what they can do to effect it, and I hope to pass that strength on to my own kids. I'll start with the one I'm cooking now that's due in January. Here's crossing my fingers I get it right!

Answer 3

I think that life lessons are learned everyday! There isn't one, now that I am looking back, that I wish I knew when I was younger. I mean yeah I was a bad teenager but I learned everything when I made mistakes and I think that, that is part of growing up. If I knew all that I do now then..I don't think that I could be the strong minded, confident, head strong women that I am now.
Everyday brings new lessons to gain as we go. Even when we are content and happy in life there is still a lesson to be learned. Whether its making a small mistake at work, to being pregnant again with the 7th child in an abusive relation that you have been trying to get out of (no this is not me I'm using it as an example). Its all lessons that we learn and it doesn't stop with age. I believe that the older you get the wiser but the wiser you are the more things you learn!

Answer 4

I learned it the first time around, I would have explained just how much control I had over that life, even when I was a child. I did not realize until it was too late in many respects that I had a say in the way things went and turned out, and for a long time, that was a great source of guilt and regret. I have long since gotten over most of those feelings, but things would have turned out vastly different with the knowledge that I was always far from helpless. There is one benefit from the experience though, I now know the true value of empowering children to look at their world and see what they can do to effect it, and I hope to pass that strength on to my own kids. I'll start with the one I'm cooking now that's due in January. Here's crossing my fingers I get it right!I realized that it was a new and wonderful phase of my life! My family and friends were aghast that I was approaching this life passage with such a giddy attitude. But I didn't care. It was the first real moment in my life that I realized how important my opinion and feelings are and how having them does not discount other people; it just brings it into balance. I feel so positive, energetic and hopeful for the future. I wish I had realized all of this when I was younger, but now is even more exciting and important to me than the past. My time is now and I won't waste one minute of it looking back. My life lesson is that I am still young, that the opinions that matter most are mine, and that the best is yet to come!

Answer 5

I have worked too hard to be who I am and where I am at in my life to be content. But I think that life lessons are learned everyday! There isn't one, now that I am looking back, that I wish I knew when I was younger. I mean yeah I was a bad teenager but I learned everything when I made mistakes and I think that, that is part of growing up. If I knew all that I do now then..I don't think that I could be the strong minded, confident, head strong women that I am now.
Everyday brings new lessons to gain as we go. Even when we are content and happy in life there is still a lesson to be learned. Whether its making a small mistake at work, to being pregnant again with the 7th child in an abusive relation that you have been trying to get out of (no this is not me I'm using it as an example). Its all lessons that we learn and it doesn't stop with age. I believe that the older you get the wiser but the wiser you are the more things you learn!

Answer 6

Everyday brings new lessons to gain as we go. Even when we are content and happy in life there is still a lesson to be learned. Whether its making a small mistake at work, to being pregnant again with the 7th child in an abusive relation that you have been trying to get out of (no this is not me I'm using it as an example). Its all lessons that we learn and it doesn't stop with age. I believe that the older you get the wiser but the wiser you are the more things you learn!
No I don't wish that I would have known what I know now then! Everything happens for a reason and sometimes the reasoning is against us or for us, its all on how you see the glass? Mine is always half full!

Answer 7

I think the two most important life lessons I've only recently learned (and am trying to impress upon my 11 year old son) are: 1) learn to love yourself for who you are. As soon as I became comfortable in my own skin and comfortable with the kind of person I was, it became very easy for me to grow and to evolve into a better version of the person I'd come to love. A wacky little concept, but it's true. And 2) learn how to forgive and forget. I had wasted a lot of years holding grudges that I should have let go of, and because of that I missed out on developing a stronger relationship with those against whom I held the grudges. The past is the past, and when apologies have been made, let the past go. Be the bigger person and grow a little.

It's pretty easy to teach a child how to look both ways before crossing the street, how to say please and thank you at the appropriate times, and how to use the recycling bin rather than the trash can. But it's not so easy to teach the things that we, as parents, have struggled with a good portion of our own lives. However, those things are probably the most important life lessons we need to make sure we teach them. How else can we truly make a difference in their lives and help them through something that has been hard for us?

Had I known, truly known, these two things when I was younger, I wonder how much sooner I would have grown up and become the person I am today? Maybe it's the learning part that has taken so long that has molded me into the me I am now... maybe it's not the end result or the final realization of the lesson after all...??

Answer 8

I sincerely wish I had know how really smart my stupid Mother was. I wish I had had the wisdom to listen to people who had already made life's mistakes and wanted to share that information with me.

Fortunately I did learn very fast that I liked myself and could make reasonable decisions. I did what I wanted to do and took the consequence it it was wrong. I have lived everyday as if it could be my last and squeeze out the most I could. I don't regret anything I've done because it made me a whole person. The mistakes I made were done with honesty and dedication and I learned from them.

I still like who I am and I DO NOT LOOK BACK. Forward to new adventures is the only way. That motto has service me well in the past 65 years and hopefully at the end of my days I will feel the same.

If it feels good "do it" and if it feels really good "do it again". Do the best you can at the time with what you have to work with and don't look back and regret. You can't change it anyway.

And as you mentioned I've always been an animal lover and I have enjoyed my sojourn with my dog friends. To get me to cry all you have to do is tell me about any animal abuse. Unfortunately my very best friends only live 12 years or so, but I would not trade away that love.I know when I pass from this carbon based world I have lots of 4 legged fuzzy friends waiting for me.

Answer 9

to look both ways before crossing the street, how to say please and thank you at the appropriate times, and how to use the recycling bin rather than the trash can. But it's not so easy to teach the things that we, as parents, have struggled with a good portion of our own lives. However, those things are probably the most important life lessons we need to make sure we teach them. How else can we truly make a difference in their lives and help them through something that has been hard for us?

Had I known, truly known, these two things when I was younger, I wonder how much sooner I would have grown up and become the person I am today? Maybe it's the learning part that has taken so long that has molded me into the me I am now... maybe it's not the end result or the final realizatio

Answer 10

It's pretty easy to teach a child how to look both ways before crossing the street, how to say please and thank you at the appropriate times, and how to use the recycling bin rather than the trash can. But it's not so easy to teach the things that we, as parents, have struggled with a good portion of our own lives. However, those things are probably the most important life lessons we need to make sure we teach them. How else can we truly make a difference in their lives and help them through something that has been hard for us?

Had I known, truly known, these two things when I was younger, I wonder how much sooner I would have grown up and become the person I am today? Maybe it's the learning part that has taken so long that has molded me into the me I am now... maybe it's not the end result or the final realization of the lesson after all...??

Answer 11

There is one benefit from the experience though, I now know the true value of empowering children to look at their world and see what they can do to effect it, and I hope to pass that strength on to my own kids. I'll start with the one I'm cooking now that's due in January. Here's crossing my fingers I get it right!I realized that it was a new and wonderful phase of my life! My family and friends were aghast that I was approaching this life passage with such a giddy attitude. But I didn't care. It was the first real moment in my life that I realized how important my opinion and feelings are and how having them does not discount other people; it just brings it into balance. I feel so positive, energetic and hopeful for the future. I wish I had realized all of this when I was younger, but now is even more exciting and important to me than the past. My time is now and I won't waste one minute of it looking back. My life lesson is that I am still young, that the opinions that matter most are mine, and that the best is yet to come!