There are a lot of things I wish I could tell my younger self. There are a lot of regrets, a lot of missed opportunities, a lot of mistakes.Of course, all the bad things that have happened have gotten me to where I am now, so I suppose I wouldn’t change anything. However, there’s some really solid life advice that I’ve learned over the years, and I really wish I could have known about these things for longer than I have. To the past me, here’s what you should know.

You don’t have to be conventional. Contrary to popular belief, there is no right or wrong way to go about life. There’s no one clear-cut path everyone must follow to be successful, and there’s no one definition of what success truly is either. If you do what makes you happy, and you make more time for what you love to do, then things become much more clear, and you’ll know what path you should be taking.

Life isn’t always fair. You can’t expect good things to come to you just because you deserve them. You can be doing everything right and bad things will still happen to you. Likewise, you can really mess up once in awhile and amazing things will happen. Nothing is guaranteed, so don’t expect anything is set in stone.

You don’t have to be happy all the time, but you can’t give yourself excuses to always be angry and sad either. The world is a pretty messed up place, and you will always find something to be upset about if you go looking. It’s okay to be sensitive and have those hard feelings, but you can’t give in to negativity. Even when everything is going wrong, there is always something you can be happy, or at least hopeful about.

Worrying does nothing for you, but it’s an inescapable thing. People will tell you all the time that worrying is pointless, and those people are right. However, there’s no talking yourself down from it sometimes. Stressful times will come and go, and it’s impossible to be worry free 100% of the time. Just make sure you aren’t letting stress and worry control your life, and always have a support system that will be there for you in those hard times.

Listening to other people’s opinions is really overrated. Someone will always have something bad to say about you, and you probably have someone to say things about too. Don’t let any of it go to your head. No one knows your life or what you need more than you do, even if it’s someone you’re close with. Your decisions have to be your own, or you’ll spend your whole life thinking of what could have been if you would have just done your own thing.

I’ve been pretty lucky with the life I’ve had so far, and I’m glad I have learned these important lessons along the way. My life may have been completely different if I had known these things since the beginning, but I’m glad I have them now to carry on with me.