If you could go back in time and give your younger self advice, what would it be?
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Most of us would hand our younger selves a long list of warnings. I think I would say far less. I would give him a compass instead of a map that dodges every storm, and there is one rule I would break without hesitation. What would you withhold?
The Advice I Would Withhold From My Younger Self
Most answers to this question arrive as a list of warnings. Avoid that mistake. Seize that chance. Beware of that person. Behind the kindness lies a quiet wish to edit the past.
If I could sit across from the young John Britto, I suspect I would disappoint him. I would say far less than he expected. This is not because I have nothing to offer. It is because most of what the years have taught me could never have been handed to him. He had to walk into it.
So my answer begins with what I would withhold.
1. Wisdom does not travel backwards
Confucius once traced his own life in stages. At fifteen he set his heart on learning. At forty he was free from doubt. At sixty his ear had learned to listen. Only at seventy could he follow his heart without straying from what was right.1 The passage carries a quiet implication: the ear of sixty cannot be lent to the boy of fifteen. Each stage is earned by living through the one before it.
Had I told my younger self everything I know today, he would have nodded politely and carried on in his own way. I know this because I would have done exactly the same.
2. I would not warn him away from the detours
The delays that tested his patience, the responsibilities he did not choose, and the years that seemed to lead nowhere in particular were not obstacles on the road. They were the road. Friction is what allows a tyre to grip. Take every difficulty out of a young life, and you take out the strength that difficulty builds.
So I would not hand him a map that routes around every storm. I would hand him a compass.
3. The compass: three bearings
The first bearing is people before positions. Titles are borrowed for a season and then returned. What remains is how you treated those who could do nothing for you.
The second is the daily over the dramatic. Success rarely arrives like lightning. It accumulates quietly, through the page written, the walk taken, the promise kept on an ordinary afternoon.
The third is curiosity without an expiry date. No one told the young man that some of the most satisfying work of his life would begin after retirement. For me, it began with Rise & Inspire.
A compass does not tell you where to go. It only tells you when you are drifting. That, I think, is all a younger self can really use.
4. Where I would break my own rule
There is one kind of advice I would give without hesitation: advice about the things time does not return.
The Naladiyar, a collection of Tamil moral verse composed more than a thousand years ago,2 devotes an entire chapter to the impermanence of youth. It urges its readers to do good while their strength lasts. The Psalmist prays to be taught to number his days, that he may gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12). Two traditions, separated by language, geography, and centuries, arrive at the same urgency.
So I would tell him to care for his health before it demands his attention. I would tell him to speak his gratitude now, to the people who will not always be there to hear it. Failure does not teach these lessons well. Loss teaches them, and loss teaches too late.
5. Perhaps the advice was never meant for him
Søren Kierkegaard wrote that life can only be understood backwards, yet it must be lived forwards. I cannot reach the young man behind me. But the older man I am yet to become is still within reach.
Whatever I would have said to my younger self, I can still say to myself today. I will never again be as young as I am this morning.
If I were permitted just one sentence across the years, it would be this: Live honestly, love generously, keep learning, and do not let regret about yesterday rob you of the opportunities of today.
Notes for readers
1. Analects 2.4. The Analects is a collection of the sayings of Confucius, compiled by his disciples and later followers.
2. The Naladiyar is an anthology of four hundred quatrains attributed to Jain monks. It is counted among the Eighteen Minor Classics (Pathinenkilkanakku) of Tamil literature. Its opening chapters reflect on the impermanence of wealth, youth, and the body.
A Question for You
If you could sit beside your younger self for five minutes, would you hand over a map or a compass? And what is the one thing you would refuse to tell? Share your answer in the comments. It may be the very bearing someone else needs today.
Strive to elevate in life.
John Britto Kurusumuthu
Rise & Inspire · riseandinspire.co.in
In response to the WordPress Daily Writing Prompt, 18 October 2026: If you could go back in time and give your younger self advice, what would it be?
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