Life comes at you fast — and I'm sure there are things in life that you reflect back on and wish you did things differently. Like, stressing about something minor when you're young only to get older and realize that it's not worth wasting your energy sweating the small stuff.
I recently came across this Reddit thread where u/DENNIS_System88 asked "What's your blind spot in life? Something you realized far, far too late?" Here are some of the eye-opening responses people shared.
1. "How to properly set and maintain boundaries. I should not set myself on fire to keep others warm, especially when they wouldn't do the same for me."
2. "You usually value relationships and memories far more than the people that were involved in those memories and relationships. Move on and don’t let 'the good old days' be your only good days."
3. "If you can’t talk about uncomfortable things, the uncomfortable things win and get worse."
"My boyfriend is telling me this every day and it has made my life so much easier! Also, if you have been through some shit in your life, please share it with other people. It helps you and helps others."
4. "People do not pay as much attention to you as you think."
5. "Nothing matters as much as you think it does. Stop stressing about the little things."
6. "That it’s okay to cut people out of your life. I’ve been a lot happier since cutting ties with my toxic abusive father. Sometimes you just have to let a person go — even family in some cases."
7. "Not everyone shares the same values as you."
8. "Get comfortable with uncertainty. It’s all you got."
9. "Doing homework and taking school seriously can drastically improve your life as an adult."
10. "Just because they’re family doesn’t mean they have your best interest in mind."
11. "'No' is a complete sentence."
12. "Keeping shitty people around because you’re scared to be alone is a guaranteed way to end up alone. The time I spent trying to make toxic friendships work, and then complaining about how I was treated, is time I could’ve spent cultivating healthy ones. But instead, I gave all my energy to a group of people who ended up treating me like shit and even excluding me. In the end, I stopped speaking to them, and now only have one friend. The irony."
13. "Self love, self care, and self compassion are invaluable and should be cultivated early and often. This is the key to true happiness and good choices."
14. "Being a people pleaser isn’t a good way to live. You can refuse to take shit from anyone and still be the kind person you are. But you will see, as soon as you start being assertive, people are either proud of you or they’re annoyed — might even tell you you’ve 'changed.' Drop the people who say the latter — it’ll do you so much good.
15. "Time is the only thing we don't get back. Don't waste it. Don't tell yourself, 'later.' All you have is now. Dig in."
16. "You know those embarrassing things you did, cringe, and get depressed over once in a while? Not one other person remembers or thinks about them."
