A few weeks ago, I was talking about something during one of the live streams in the Duomo Initiative app, and it got me thinking.

“What if I could go back in time and talk to a 20 year old Nicholas. What piece of advice would I give?”

20 year old me followed all the usual advice like work hard, be patient, set ambitious goals etc. But there’s one piece of advice that I wish I’d followed more and that’s what I want to share in this article.

Making big decisions at a young age

If you think back to when you were at school, at the age of 14 or 15 you’re suddenly supposed to know what you want to do when you leave school at 16.

Do you want to go to college? Get a job? Start an apprenticeship? 

It doesn’t end there either. You need to think even further ahead than that. Will you want to go to university? What qualifications will you need for the career you want?

As a young teen at that age, how can you really know what the adult version of yourself is going to want to do?

We're making all of these decisions that influence the direction of our lives without having the experience or knowledge to be able to make the right calls.

Making big decisions now for things far in the future

These sort of decisions continue throughout our life, even in the sort of goals we set for ourselves.

When I was in my early twenties and I left my job in banking to trade full-time, I set a goal of being retired at 27 so I could spend my time travelling the world.

But when I did hit 27, I thought to myself, "why would I have wanted to stop now? I'm just getting started!" Instead, I moved it to be when I'm 30.

Then the same thing happened again. At 30, I'd experienced new things and knew I still had more things I wanted to achieve. Why would I stop here?

The same thing happens again and again. We set goals and work towards them, but when we get there we realise there's something more we want. We move onto the next thing.

Over time we change. We gain experience, learn new things and the context of our lives shift.

What I would tell myself

With all of this in mind, my advice to myself would be to enjoy the moment more.

It's a cliché, but life is about the journey not the destination.

If we always think to ourselves that we will be happy once we achieve a goal we're working towards, we may never allow ourselves to be happy. Why? Because by the time we achieve the goal, it might not even be something we want anymore and we'll have our sights set on the next thing.

If you live your life like that, you'll soon find that time has passed you by and although you achieved a lot, it was never truly what you wanted at the time you got it.

Instead, you should enjoy the moment. Enjoy the process, the small steps along the way and the hard work it takes to progress.

But also, enjoy your family and friends, enjoy the experiences you're going through and the wisdom you're acquiring.

Enjoy your life.