The Mercury / Thursday
If you are between 12 and 20 and apply these principles, in a few short years you will reap quantum, life-long benefits:
• Save a fixed amount of money in a reputable financial institution every month and let it stack up. Increase the monthly amount annually.
• Talk to your parents or guardian(s) about things important to you and important to your parents. Be very intentional or it won’t happen. Two or three device-less “check-ins” a week is probably sufficient. By the way, if you don’t know what are matters you parents find important, ask them.
• When it comes to friends and to romance trust your parents. If your parents are uncomfortable with the time you spend with any particular person honor and respect their intuition. Accept it without adopting an oppositional stance. The people who’ve known you longest and loved you from before you breathed your first breath will probably have uncanny insights into what’s really good for you.
• Commit to keeping “clean” habits. Don’t begin activities (smoking, vaping, drinking, gambling) other people are currently in rehabilitation facilities struggling to stop.
• Find and use and your voice (understand who you are and who you are not), your creative mind, and your backbone (courage and determination). Employ all three in concert as you make a decision to always defend the weak, speak up to evil (bullying, demeaning others, using others) when you encounter it.
If any of these points seem impossible, finding the courage within you and beginning somewhere will reap almost immediate benefits and the courage itself will become the fuel that empowers your further growth.
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