How to not waste your youth

I'm not 30+ but wanted to point out that the "youth is wasted on the young" is not about young people not having fun. It refers to young people being self conscious, awkward and fretting over inane shit that doesn't matter. Old people are relaxed and at ease with themselves and thus have the mental ability to completely let go and have wild crazy fun... but no longer the physical condition or the life circumstances to allow it.

But a piece of advice anyway, my rule of thumb is that you want to do stuff that is exclusive to the stage of life you're in. You can always fuck around online, but stumbling by and fucking up in real life is still very much the norm at your age and won't always be acceptable.
Also, if your social skills aren't that great, it will only be more difficult with time to tackle that and gain more experience. It is normal for someone your age to be awkward, but again, that changes relatively quickly and you will stick out a lot more at twenty-five.

>>17419503
>no friends
>spends all his time on 4chan

you should find a way to fix this

also everyone dies so who gives a shit

Learn valuable things, that will be useful to you. Programming, art, how to extract DMT, digital art, how to grow cannabis, 3D modelling...

Find some hobbies and spend your time on them. The things I suggested learning, are all fun but not always good for socialising. Pick up something outdoorsy. Biking, skateboarding, freerunning, break dancing... Then surround yourself with good people you can draw inspiration from.

That's pretty much it.

The answer will vary depending on who you ask.
Some will wish they spent more time having fun.
Others will regret not working on life goals sooner.

I wish I had started working on my goals sooner instead of wasting so many years hanging out with friends who just wanted to play vidya, smoke weed, drink, chase sluts, etc.
I also wasted a lot of time in bad relationships which I also regret.

As a guess I'd be worth about $3-4M right now had I not wasted so much of my younger years. Money = Freedom IMO, others will disagree based on their goals in life.
I'm 34 btw.

File: travel_HD.jpg (205KB, 1980x1080px) Image search: [Google]

205KB, 1980x1080px

25 y/o

My advice consists of the following:
- Get out! Go outside, walk around town, don't spend your whole day inside unless you got a really severe hangover or you're really ill or something. Go for a walk, a bike, whatever.
- Get out of your comfort zone! Do things that scare you. Talk to a stranger in the park, go to a concert alone. Meditate, it's not only for older people.
- Travel! While you still can and you're not confined by work days or vacation days bullshit or whatever, go ahead and travel! Spend a couple of months in Asia, on your own. Learn to meet new people and interact with local people, eat new foods, discover places unknown for you, see how other people live. Small weekends here and there, or just a long week away with friends is also great.
- Live in the here and now! Too many people worry and worry about 'what if' and what will happen between now and a year's time. Not worth it. Just go with the flow, but do have some sort of plan of where you want to go and what you would like to do! What's in the past is in the past, you can't change it, but you can handle how it will impact you and which lessons you learn from it.
- Be good to yourself! YOU are the most important person in your life, you better take care of that one. Both mentally and physically.

>>17419503
26 here. To me, youth is wasted is on unproductive short term pleasures. Video games, drugs, partying. It doesnt grow you as a person nor give you proper skills.

What id suggest is
>drop video games
>drop 4chan
>learn a new language
>take up a real hobby i.e golf, football, chess
>focus on your studies
>get a real degree: business, cs, finance, , medicine, engineering
>outside of linkedin dont get sucked into social media

Those are off the top of my head. People who focused on skills as young like instruments and language always did 100 times better in life than party going druggies or frat boys. Education and building skills is life, the social falls into play with this level of growth.

Dont waste your time in consumerist crap, have goals and focus on them.

Work out, get into good eating habits. Staying in shape is getting harder the older I get. When I was young and had an amazing metabolism, I was skinnyfat because I didn't bother taking care of myself. I could've been so hot.

I also regret not being single. From the time I was 17 to 24 I was in a relationship. I wish I had spent that time alone, working on myself, learning new skills, and just having platonic friendships.

Go outside from time to time. Go on some short hikes, go to a park.

I feel like I've started really living too late, even though I guess I'm still young. I wasted my peak.

>>17419503
There's no particular list of things to absolutely do, but personally I wish I'd tried harder with the things I did attempt, rather than wondering if it was worth the effort (in the end, effort is practically worthless and infinite, not something to conserve). Likewise I wish I hadn't let people talk me out of trying things I felt like doing.
Basically, I wish I'd made more mistakes to learn from. You can waste infinite time hesitating, much more than a couple of attempts ending in failure would take. It's cliche to say, but fucking up at least still generates some experience, and it's experience that lets you weigh options in life against each other.

Also, what this guy said >>17419563

One thing that people often look back at the end of their lives and regret is losing touch with their friends. Since you don't have any you're technically safe from this but you should probably get some regardless. That shit gets harder with age, as does finding a (sane) girlfriend. (Another reason to have hobbies where you meet people).

>>17419503

Pushing 40 here. My advice is to make a bucket list now and start actively checking them off now while you're young and have no responsibilities.

I turn 30 in two weeks. Luckily I can say I did a pretty good job of "living," so I don't have a ton of regrets, but letting depression get the best of me and keep me inside during college was one of them. If I'd forced myself outside more, I wouldn't have been so sad, I don't think. I spent a good part of my early 20s "making up" for missing a chunk of college fun, by drinking and partying all of the time, which was fun, but for a part of it, I was homeless and or sleeping on couches/air mattresses.

I disagree with those who say spend your time learning skills - that's not to say, don't pick up any skills, but as you get older, you'll learn that you can't have the freedoms of your youth back, no matter how much money is in your bank account. You lose friends to them moving away for jobs, having kids, a heavy workload, whatever. The money = freedom guy can probably afford to do most whatever he wants, but he's still only got 2-4 weeks of vacation time to do it. And even then, what're his options? A trip by himself? Maybe with his wife/girlfriend?

Go on some crazy adventures. Build stories to tell.

I'm 21 and kind of feeling the same way as you, but in my opinion I feel there's more a luck/fate based approach to this. Some people have to work harder than others, life aint fair and you just have to deal with the cards you get. Therefore depending on where you are in life to begin with, there are some aspects of "youth" you will have to waste, because its either irresponsible towards your future to do or it's just flat out impossible. For example, I've grown up in a relatively wealthy household, and I'm very grateful for it I'm not trying to brag or anything. I've gotten to experience nearly everything worth seeing in the United States, every major city and landmark, before I was even finished with high school. I've even been out of the country on 3 different occasions before I hit 21. I've been given that gift of travel that some of my poorer friends would kill to experience. I use this as an example because this is a common wish of youth, to travel the world, and because of my luck of being born into wealth it was just given to me without much if any effort on my part. My friends however, had to either sacrifice their educations, or go into massive debt, to get those same travel experiences while they were young enough to enjoy them.
I feel, like it or not, life is entirely about compromise. You can't have a perfect world, you have to pick and choose which things you want to do and which you're ok with giving up. There will be things you "waste" or miss out on for various reasons.
My personal story is that I chose to go to a college that was well known for academics in a tiny rural ass town with little nightlife, or anything at all to do for fun really, rather than the party schools my friends went to. (Cont)

>>17419896
Sometimes I'm envious of them, I wish I had more to do on a saturday night other than study or go to whatever special SJW lecture my school is hosting designed to get me to check muh straight/white/cis privilege or whatever, but this is what I chose. To put social life on the back burner for a few years to ensure I can be as wealthy as my parents and as I'm used to living, so that I can continue the experiences I want to have when I'm older.
Now this isn't to say you can't have a happy medium, or that my friends at the party schools won't have a better degree than me and make more money than me in the future anyways, but you gotta make the best out of your own unique situation. You can't look at other's goals or their views on what "youth" is wasted, because you've lived a completely different life than them. As far as I'm concerned, you can sit on 4chins throughout your entire 20's and have not wasted a thing. It's about doing what makes you happy, doing the things you want out of life.
However, I also believe it's just a universal truth that you will look back and regret things. Like, I always remember getting my pictures done for school as a middle/high schooler. My parent's always told me whenever I pulled out an outfit that was over the top "Anon, you'll look back at that picture and regret it!". I wonder if that's really avoidable, especially with things like that. Fashion changes so quickly, I doubt even if I wore the classic black dress, minimal make up, and safe straight down hair style if I still wouldn't look back and regret that picture. However, even if I look at that picture 30 years from now and say "Oh my god I looked so dumb", at least I can remember how I enjoyed myself at the time.
The same applies here, no matter what you do, things will change in the future that you have no way of knowing about now. You'll always wish you had done something with knowledge you never had before. (cont)

>>17419896
>>17419916
So the only thing you can do is just whatever your gut is telling you now. If you feel the only reason you shouldn't be sitting around on 4chan friendless is because you might regret it later, or others are telling you you're wasting your life, then frankly I think you should just keep doing it.
Now, I doubt thats the only reason, as rarely are people actually genuinely ok with living this kind of life. So what you should spend this time doing is a little soul searching. You have to think about what you want to experience, and I'm talking broadly. Everyone's got a bucket list, write out yours to completion, everything you want to experience before you die. Then after that, pick out the items you think can either only be done in youth, or would be monumentally better as a youth, and do everything in your power to get there.
I've always wanted to LIVE in another country, not just vacation in it. I know I'd enjoy this better as a youth, but I'd also never be able to afford such a life without a job, so I looked into jobs I could get straight out of college that would let me work overseas. I made a plan to get there, and even if I never do, at least I tried you know?
Basically, TL;DR, do what makes you happy. Do the things you think you want to do, fuck everyone else's ideas of what makes youth "fulfilled" because no matter what you do you will always look back and regret something. The only thing you can do is have fun while you're here.

There's no universal advice. Everyone's situation is different. There are lots of things I'd tell my 20yr old self. But many of them wouldn't really apply to others.

In very general terms... have fun. Don't take everything so seriously. Chill. Don't be afraid of trying things and failing.

>>17419503
My biggest regret is not living in china for 3 years, fuck getting a degree which you spent half your life working to pay off, 3 years in china spending your days learning various martial arts and earning black belts and instructor certifications, learning other languages and living like a monk could get you far in business as a translator or anything, plus you have a kick ass story to share, much better than "I got pissed for 3 years lol".
I'm 31 now, I can't do that sort of stuff because I have a wife and kid and even spending a month away would be unfair on them.
If you want to sight see, earn money and travel, if you want to experience life, save up and do that, you can't leave a family behind for a month, 6 or 12 once you have one, and your workplace won't appreciate you fucking off for that long either.

Do the shit you can't do when you get older, or have kids and get them out of the way by the time you are 50 and hope you are in good enough health to travel and experience life.

There is only so much you can learn sat at your computer, if you want to do something or learn something, find a way of learning it and go out and do it.

OP here, thank you for all the responses.

>>17419652
>>drop 4chan
Really? I realize it's unproductive, but if not for this place I'd just be reading or doing miscellaneous things by myself all the time. I suppose it would be beneficial, but it sounds a bit dull.