At that age, I was trying my hardest to figure out what I'm doing, to be together like the older adults.

I'm 39, I don't have a clue what I'm doing and I'm more together than most of my coworkers, many who are older than me.

We're all just trying to figure it out, so when you look up and think you don't know what you're doing, you're with everyone. And if you know someone who says they have everything together and don't have any issues, be wary as they likely have a lot of blind spots to their life.

Everybody else is just faking it, too.

Don't drink a lot. I've forgotten a lot of good times due to excessive drinking, and it's taken a toll on my mental health. I'm 35 now and trying to make some changes, but I've wasted about 15 years of my life just partying and being hungover. Not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars spent.

On a positive note: find something to volunteer your time doing. Even an hour or two a week is great. It's a great way to meet people, and there is so much good work being done by organizations who always need extra help.

Good luck to you dude, I know you have a bright future ahead of you!

Stay away from gambling sites. If you’ve got extra money and want to watch it grow, invest in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) with a low/no fee trading account. Stay away from meme stocks as well.

If you do invest, diversify your portfolio. SPY is very exciting but it’s heavily tied up in the AI bubble. Try to more international markets, clean energy, minerals, heavy industry. No matter what happens to the AI companies, we still need energy and resources to build stuff and keep our economy going.

Read about taxable and non taxable trading accounts in your country. Try to use those to avoid having your savings eroded by taxes. You will pay plenty of taxes on your income, so don’t worry about that!

Don't drink and smoke.

Don't put your dick in crazy

Learn to shop, cook and eat without highly procesed foods

Clean the toilet when you are done

Use sunscreen.

don't make a kid

Start building credit if you’re in the US, but don’t treat your credit card like free money.

Don’t let yourself get addicted to alcohol (or any other drug).

Spend a decade commuting by bike if you can (rain or shine).

Get radicalized by the terrorists (people who just wanna have a nice safe society free of bigotry and hate).

Live in the present, take time to analyse things. It's ok if you are slower at some things. Every time spent reflecting will enrich your next reflection and bring more peace and comprehension. Be patient. Try new things. Meet people. Hold your own opinions to scrutiny, back them up with evidence. Do the work. Trust the right people. Don't give in to fear or anger. Allow yourself to feel sad. Analyse your frustration and feelings. Talk to yourself if no one is listening. Keep some of your hobbies especially if it's skill dependant going.

Also ffs don't start smoking.

Don't do drugs. But if you're going to do drugs avoid anything you have to inject with needles. There are plenty of fun things you can smoke, eat or snort.

Strengthen your core. Lower back pain in your mid-30s is a bitch. Also, take care of your teeth and floss everyday. Start investing early. Any amount you can set aside, no matter how small, will payoff if you start early.

Buy a plunger BEFORE you need one

Exercise, have a salad for dinner sometimes, be careful who you date and keep friends you can trust to tell you when you're fucking up.

Meaning can be found in pain and we all face that.

If you haven't yet, question what being a man means to you, and what being a good person means to you.

You will, throughout your life, find those definitions challenged. How you respond to the first will help you to develop a stronger sense of how you relate to your gender, and how it effects the way you interact with yourself and the world. How you respond to the second determines your character, which is how the world will see you as a person, and with sufficient introspection how you will see yourself.

Keep growing. Keep learning.

Upload posts to appropriate communities.

The biggest advice I can give you is, you need to try to be social. It's easy to hang out with friends in high school because everyone's locked into the same building every weekday for 6 hours.

Once you're an adult, you no longer have that limitation. Even college is more of a "go to class for 2 hours a day then leave afterwards" type of experience. It's certainly liberating to not be forced to be someplace for long periods of time, but it also means that the primary reason that you hang out with your friends (ie, because they're already there with you) is now gone. It can make for a very lonely experience.

You need to go out of your way and actively maintain your friendships. Make plans to meet up at least once a week or something. Otherwise, you won't really get another chance to make deep friendships

Don't take advice from people on the internet.

The fact you had the initiative to ask this shows you're probably pretty intelligent. All I'll add is the perfect life doesn't exist. Do your best to enjoy it and be kind to people.

If you aren't already, start going to the gym now and don't ever stop, or you will regret it by your late 30s. I stopped going at age 30; it's only been seven years since but I can already feel my body falling apart. Everything hurts all the time and it doesn't stop hurting.

Live below your means.

18yo old

That's like "ATM Machine"

I just have one. Smart people learn from their mistakes. Wise people learn from the mistakes of others. You won't leave long enough to make all the mistakes yourself.

Some of the other comments touch on it, but usually mixed with other items, so let me reiterate. Your metabolism is going to slowly wane. Keep an eye on your weight and reduce your calorie intake now. It’s really easy to think “meh, so I’m 10 extra pounds, I can easily lose that later” but by later you will be 15 extra pounds. If you’re gaining muscle, that’s one thing, but keep yourself from gaining fat as much as you can.

Lots of good advice here and I am not THAT old but here are a few things I wish I had realized sooner in life (in no particular order or theme):

• No one really knows what they are doing, more experienced people usually have just made the mistakes already.
• There is a difference between being correct and getting someone to agree you are correct, the former is the most important and the latter is not always possible or desired and when to argue and when to let someone be wrong is a skill that takes practice.
• The less time spent worrying about what other people think of you the happier you will be and the easier life will feel. In almost all situations you spend more time thinking about whatever it is than the other person does.
• Always strive to be a good and like-able person but always remember that it’s impossible to be liked by everyone, sometimes people just won’t like you and that is okay.
• One friend you can count on is more valuable than 100 acquaintances, guard and nurture your valued friendships like your life depends on it because it might some day.

The biggest thing though, there isn’t one correct way to live your life and anyone telling you differently is probably selling you something. Always try to learn something from every situation and you will be fine, mistakes are a part of life. Anyway, hope at least some of that is helpful!

Practice your hobbies, I didnt start taking photos or playing guitar until I was 21, I'm pretty good now, good enough to find enjoyment in them

learn a language?

oh and also, therapy

Don't try and "make it" by 22 and realize that those who appear to do so are faking it.

USE A CONDOM!

Wear condoms every time

Also it's okay to not know exactly what you are gonna do with your life. No one else actually does either, as much as they think they might.

get a dishwasher, always read contracts, be confident during interviews, hydrate your skin, do regular exercise

Let go of any fear of others expectations for you as soon as you can. Explore what interests you and don’t let others stop you. People come and go, but they’ll come to you faster than they leave if you’re a confident and passionate person. You can only be that if you work on figuring out how you want to live and chase that life.

Do the things. Do them. Don't leave them until later. There are always things. If you don't do the now things, thinking you can do them later, there will be other things later.

Not doing the things only puts you behind, possibly forever.

Do the things.

Buy quality things that will last a long time.

Paraphrasing Terry Pratchett, the man who buys a good pair of boots will have dry feet for ten years, and the man who buys a pair of cheap shoes every year will spend more and still have wet feet.

Do not discard advice from older people because you think "the world has changed" and old people are out of touch.

ALL the advice that the older people in my life gave me in my teens about money/college/jobs/people/relationships was right, but I refused to listen to any of it because they were old and didn't understand my life.

Don't force yourself to learn every life lesson the hard way, like I did.

You'll probably learn everything the hard way...but I tried to tell you.

• Take care of your teeth.
• Wash your butthole every chance you get.