I’m curious to hear about what lessons or habits you wish you had picked up earlier, whether it’s about health, mindset, relationships, or anything else.
Men, what’s something you wish you learned earlier in life?
r/AskMen
I’m curious to hear about what lessons or habits you wish you had picked up earlier, whether it’s about health, mindset, relationships, or anything else.
Comments
No one cares about superficial stuff as much as you imagine in your head
Hypergamy
Especially in your 20s, travel, move where you want to live
Granted I didn’t start too late, but foreskin restoration if applicable is worth the effort
Therapy is beneficial if you think you can benefit and are willing to put your feelings out there
Ability to say no and be firm on it
Life isn’t fair, don’t expect it to be
Investing. The early you start and if you are smart and leave it grow over the years the better the returns will be.
This is not financial advice.
Foreskin retraction. I didn’t know that was a thing until I was 14.
You can’t just stick it in.
Not everyone is dateable.
Kind of a personal rant, but here’s what I wish I had learned earlier in life
Religion and philosophy often exist to comfort or confuse people, not necessarily to reveal any deep truths. The idea of love, for example, is often just societal conditioning—a tool to encourage behaviors that benefit society as a whole, not necessarily the individual. Harsh truth? Maybe. But the earlier you realize that life has no inherent meaning or purpose, the better. We’re here by chance. That’s it.
So what should you do with that knowledge? Make the best of your time. Go after what you want. Don’t wait around hoping the universe will reward you for being “good.” Life doesn’t work like that. Want something? Go for it. Like someone? Talk to them. Being a “nice guy” in the hopes that life will repay you with happiness is a losing strategy.
I spent 20 years searching for meaning only to realize: meaning is what you make of it. Life is short—do what excites you, push your boundaries, take risks, and prioritize yourself. That doesn’t mean you should be cruel or inconsiderate—respect others’ perspectives, avoid unnecessary harm—but when it comes down to you vs. the world, choose yourself. Sacrifice and heroism are often glorified myths. In most real-life cases, they’re not rewarded.
Once you accept that, you can start building your own kind of beauty in life. Focus on long-term happiness. Train your mind to find joy in growth, discipline, and challenge. Build your purpose, chase it relentlessly, and see what you’re capable of when you stop playing by rules meant to keep you small.
Capitalism may be flawed, but it offers a clear rulebook: work smart, work hard, and you’ll be rewarded. It’s not easy—but that’s what makes it worth it.
I wish I learned discipline and self control earlier in life
The concept of money as a tool to be used and not something to be horded away.
Over the years I’ve convinced several of my friends to trade their savings in for investments, on the merit that if they ever actually need the money they can just re-liquidate those assets.
One of those friends I convinced to turn almost his entire life savings into 8 Bitcoins, and I just never heard the end of it after that.
“Bitcoins are selling for £500! Should I sell now!? – No.”
“Bitcoins are selling for £1000!!! Should I sell now!!!??? – No!”
“OMG!!! Bitcoins are selling for £20000!!!!! Should I sell now!?!?!? – NO!”
Last I heard Bitcoins were selling for £90000, but it’s still far too early to sell.
If people are hounding you with conversation you don’t want, get into the conversation, ask questions, be interested. They leave you alone super quick. This is my goblin advice.
relationship, is way more than cute dated and being there, WAYYY MOREE
don’t genuinely care. you live your life and what people say or do can’t make your day bad cuz life’s too short to feel negative and overthink
You’re not always right. And you need to be able to accept when you’re wrong.
How to chat up girls. I had to teach myself.
There’s a good chance that most of your family’s expectations of you are just you projecting.
Sometimes you lose and thats fine. The stereotypical loser isn’t someone who lose every time its someone who never tries anything.
My parents were sorta perfectionist always finding flaws and nothing being good ebough, they say it was so i’d strive harder but it made just never try and thats how i was into my early 20s. Wish i had been able to just zone them out and do my own thing earlier.
How to budget properly. Never too late I guess
It took me a strangely long time to realize that nothing is ever going to just “happen”, I have to MAKE it happen through sheer determination and force of will. As a kid I was always like “When I grow up I want to be an inventor!” because of watching the Robots movie, or any of the dozen other career aspirations really, but I never realized that if I wanted to end up over Here I had to actually start Walking There y’know? So here I am two decades later having had half my life stolen by a narcissist and the other half almost completely wasted by me with nothing to show for it…and somehow I have to figure out how to make something worthwhile of the time I have left… would’ve been a lot easier if I had started walking sooner.
How to flirt successfully. I kinda learned that as a 25yo and got enormous attention and pretty quickly met her that is now my wife. Because of that I have very few sexual experiences with anyone but my wife. Kissing different girls was very different I just wonder if sex with different girls would have been that different.