STOP ASKING THIS QUESTION : “What will you tell your younger self?”

I do not understand why people ask that question. I usually don’t have an answer for that without being less “philosophical” about it. I hate to be the analytical one; they can be very annoying sometimes (yeah, I find them annoying too); they think too deep about everything. I mean, it’s not even that deep.
Hey, what do you know? I am going to be that person now.

Here is what I think ;
When you ask people that question, you are forcing them to think about their past, think about what they could have done. What if I don’t want to think about that now? No, I don’t want to dwell on what could have been, when I am more focused on what is happening now and in the future.

A young lady when asked the question; I paraphrase;
I don’t have a message for my younger self because it means I am not happy where I am which I am…… my younger self would not even understand.

She made a valid point there.

You might say you are overthinking this; you are right because in simple terms, what the question means is “ what advice would you give younger people out there”.

If I think about my younger self, I genuinely do not have a message for her.
Every day I am discovering myself, so if my younger self knew what I know now, it would be too much for me to handle and just like the lady said, I probably would not even understand it. Honestly, I am still trying to understand myself now. We live and learn.

I don’t want to say I have no regrets, but as I write this now, not a single one pops into my head; but I am pretty sure if I think hard enough, I will remember. I am not happy where I am now, but I am not sad about it either. I believe everything I have learnt so far has brought me thus far; I am content and grateful more than anything.

Stop asking people what they will tell their younger self; it makes no difference whichever way. Could it be due to insecurity? Maybe? Could it be that they don’t want to think about it or talk about it for whatever reason? None of that matters. When you ask that question, it somehow forces people to go way back to when they were young, some people don’t want to go that far back. However, when you ask them “what advice have they got for younger people” or something similar, it allows them to choose whatever direction they want to take or how far back they want to go with it.

PS: This is only to raise awareness. Many people are not bothered if you ask them that question. There are still people who do not like that question. I have never seen it addressed before so I wanted to address it.