Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Confess Which Things They Wish They Started Doing Sooner In Life

Person holding a handful of coins
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

No matter how happy we are with our lives, most of us can think of at least one thing that we wish we could have done differently.

Even if that just means starting to do the same things a little bit sooner.


Feeling reflective, Redditor AbortiveBases1 asked:

"What's something you wish you started doing sooner?"

Letting People Go

"Learning that just because someone is your friend for a long time doesn't mean you have to deal with their toxicity or narcissistic behavior."

"You can leave those friendships. It sucks at first but it's worse staying friends with people like that."

- SadStone2265

Getting Divorced

"My mom and dad got divorced in 2022 when my siblings and I were all between the ages of 27 and 31."

"We couldn't be happier. It could (and should) have happened way earlier, like 10 to 15 years earlier. Our childhood definitely suffered for it."

"I have no complaints about my mom, she's the best lady ever, but things would've been a lot more pleasant at home if they divorced then."

- doomed_danny

Creative Outlet

"Making things."

"I 3D print, do woodwork, and do home renovations. It’s made me more self-confident (I now usually believe I can do anything), more creative, and changed the way my brain works."

"I can’t imagine what kind of person I’d be today if I had been doing this all throughout my 20s."

- AirZurk

Sugar Intake

"Weaning myself off sugar."

- CouldMurderACarvery

The Perfect Partner

"My wife. She's the granddaughter of a friend of my aunt, so I could have met her a lot sooner, but we only met when I was 29."

"The way we clicked together and got lost in conversation with each other... I only wish it had started sooner."

- netheroth

"You can't guarantee that you would have clicked earlier."

"It was the same with my wife, I had met a bunch of her close friends over the years through friends and vice versa. There are pictures of us at the same events when we were 17, 18, and 20, but we just never met. Ships passing in the night."

"We met finally at 29 and realized we had all the things in common and clicked immediately and are happily married with a beautiful two-year-old."

"Looking back, had we met at 17, I don't think we would have gotten together. We both had a lot of growing to do before we were right for each other."

- sirhcdobo

Ditch the Hustle

"Focusing on friends instead of the grind."

"I worked two jobs through the 2010s. As a freelance digital artist at night, I made a lot of 'friends' through conventions, online chat groups, and social media."

"However, the pandemic hit, and the conventions closed. Freelance business dried up. Our clients disappeared. With my evenings more open, I focused more intently on ascending in my day job, and now only have one or two contacts left from my digital art years."

"They're all I have left. And we don't even talk that much."

"I'm working on rebuilding a friends circle, trying to reconnect with everyone who still remembers me, lives close enough, and didn't die years ago unbeknownst."

"It's an awkward process, trying to again find similar interests now that everyone has a wife, kids, and home to take care of, while I seem to have dropped out of a time portal from 2003."

- QuarantineTitans

Understanding Mental Health

"My wife."

"But seriously, endorphins."

"And understanding the importance of endorphins on mental health."

"Even a small amount of physical activity has a major improvement on my mental health, energy, and moods."

- ksozay

Work History

"I wish I'd started working sooner."

"My mom sent me money for food and essentials while I was in college because she said a job would just distract me from getting good grades. Unfortunately, she simply forgot to send the money, a lot."

- stellathewizard

Home Yoga Sessions

"At-home yoga. It's free AND my back doesn't hurt anymore!"

- mekkimegz

Prioritizing Sleep

"Enforcing my own bedtime. My mood is 1,000% better on days when I get enough sleep."

- lights_camera_pizza

The Value of Therapy

"Therapy. Seriously, if you are considering seeing a therapist, then just do it."

- Avjycjc8ttghu478

Exercise Routine

"Two-a-day workouts. Once you figure out intensity pacing and treating one as a 'light' workout, it’s not hard."

"Getting up at 5:30 most days isn’t awesome, but I get 14, 45-min hits of exercise almost every week, and I’ve never had as much energy, positivity, and overall health. Plus, weight management-wise, I can eat d**n near anything I want to. I had a 'mostly' clean diet before, so I wasn’t going bonkers. But it makes eating pretty enjoyable."

- superstarrrr99

Better Self-Talk

"Replacing self-depreciative jokes with sarcastic compliments on myself."

"For example, instead of saying, 'My hair looks like something died in it,' say, 'I was born a queen. Look how great I look on a bad hair day too!'"

"Fake it till you make it kinda works. Eventually, I'm not feeling as insecure about myself as I used to."

- saagarammm

Sentimental Photos

​"Taking pictures with my husband and kids. I hate the way I look in pictures so usually, I’m the one behind the camera. It wasn’t until last year that I read a post here on Reddit that made me change my way of thinking."

"It said something along the lines of, kids don't see wrinkles, extra fat, or bad hair. You know, all the things we nitpick about ourselves. They just see Mom."

- Dazzling-Nature-6380

The Next Phase

"Retirement. Did it at 68 but was enjoying running my own publishing business, so I stayed on."

"Now in retirement, I’m having a blast doing so many things I never previously had time for that I wish I’d taken the plunge at 60, or earlier. (Let that be a lesson to all you young ‘uns out there.)"

- SkepticalSenior9133

While it's so easy to regret things in our lives, sometimes it's important to think about the things we're doing right.

Sometimes we'll be so proud of what we're doing, we'll only regret not getting a jump on it sooner.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Screenshot of Seth Moulton; Donald Trump
MS Now; Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images

Dem Rep. Offers Brutally Accurate Reason For Why He Can't Understand 'The Mind Of Donald Trump'

Massachusetts Democratic Representative Seth Moulton made a fitting observation about President Donald Trump's mind after Trump gave a 20-minute address to the nation about his war in Iran on Wednesday evening.

Trump claimed “core strategic objectives are nearing completion” in the Iran war and vowed to strike Iran "extremely hard" over the next two to three weeks. He said that he would finish the job "very fast," without setting any timeline for ending the war. He pledged to "bring them [Iranians] back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Solicitor General Sparks Alarm After Telling Supreme Court He's 'Not Sure' If Native Americans Are Birthright Citizens

Solicitor General Sparks Alarm After Telling Supreme Court He's 'Not Sure' If Native Americans Are Birthright Citizens

The relationship between Indigenous American nations and the colonizers and later settlers who arrived and established the United States is complicated.

Indigenous peoples were integral parts of the survival and success of early colonizers. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy's Great Law of Peace offered a blueprint for the United States Constitution and the structure of the federal government including the three independent branches offering checks and balances, ideally.

Keep ReadingShow less
Iraqi soccer fans hold a banner at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport as a man in an orange jacket confronts them and tears it down.
@hussein_pepe96/Instagram

Racist Guy Caught On Video Tearing Through Iraqi Soccer Fans' Banner At Dallas Airport: 'Don't Come To America'

With the United States set to host the 2026 World Cup, a video out of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is drawing attention for a very different reason: showing a man ripping apart an Iraqi soccer fan’s banner and telling them, “Don’t come to America.”

The video, posted on Instagram, shows a group of Iraqi sports fans standing in an airport holding a banner with Arabic and Spanish writing. The fans were there to support Iraq during their World Cup qualifier against Bolivia, which resulted in a 2-1 upset victory earlier that day.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @themouselets' TikTok video
@themouselets/TikTok

TikToker Edits Dad's Disney Vacation Into Horror Movie After It Keeps Getting Interrupted By 'Work Emergency'

Sometimes you can only realize how bad a situation has gotten when you see it in a photo or video.

TikToker @themouselets works in civil engineering and is a part-time Disney content creator, making frequent trips to the park, but it's still a rare occurrence for her to be able to go with her entire family.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @tts_tiktok22's TikTok video
@tts_tiktok22/TikTok

Videos Of Squirrels Trying To 'Vape' Are Going Viral—And We Don't Know Whether To Laugh Or Cry

Some viral videos come along that leave us unsure whether we should laugh or cry. In the case of squirrels trying to vape, crying is unfortunately the more likely outcome.

E-cigarettes have dramatically increased in popularity in recent years and are often even portrayed as a cool accessory on social media. Unfortunately, disposable, one-time-use e-cigarettes have been made affordable and easily accessible, and instead of properly disposing of them, people often leave them on the ground like cigarette butts.

Keep ReadingShow less