There are moments when the universe hands you a front-row seat to your own enlightenment, slapping you with the undeniable truth that you’ve been missing out on something spectacular for far too long. Ah, the classic “holy moly, why haven’t I done this sooner” revelation, a lightning bolt of self-realization that jolts through your system like a caffeine-fueled epiphany. It’s the kind of moment that makes you question your life choices with a mix of disbelief and a dash of self-deprecating humor. We’ve all been there, standing at the intersection of hindsight and newfound wisdom, wondering how on earth we managed to overlook something so blatantly obvious for so long.
Whether it’s discovering the magic of avocado toast, realizing the life-altering potential of a quality mattress, or finally embracing the wonders of a well-organized to-do list, these moments are the pearls of adulting wisdom that make us laugh at our former selves. So, dear reader, prepare for a trip down memory lane as we explore the tales of those unforgettable “holy sh*t” moments when the light bulb of revelation flickered to life, illuminating the path to a better, albeit slightly tardy, version of ourselves. After all, life’s too short not to revel in the humor of our belated aha moments.
I realized I cared more about what I did with my free time than whatever work I did, so I got a job where my SO and I wanted to live. We live in a cute mountain town now and every day watching the sunrise at home gives me 1000% more happiness than anything ever in Illinois.
Wearing earplugs to bed. I’m a very light sleeper and from early childhood until my 20s, I don’t think I had more than a handful of solid nights of sleep — some random noise in the middle of the night would always jolt me awake, and if anyone else in the vicinity got up early and started walking around, I’d be awake that early as well.
I still wonder if I would have had an easier time in my school years if I’d thought about earplugs at age 6 instead of waiting until adulthood. I spent most of my school career staring off into space in a drowsy daze during class.
On the plus side, now that I’m older I operate better than most people on way too little sleep because coping mechanisms are deeply ingrained, but I think I would have been better off with the extra rest.
Year past, I had been using it incorrectly, so I assumed all dishwashers sucked and washing by hand was superior. Turns out it was a user error! Making sure the tap is HOT before starting the machine, making sure the trap is clean and nozzles are not blocked, putting 1 tablespoon of vinegar in each wash, and buying semi-decent dishwasher detergent made ALL the difference in the world! Now my dishes look just as good as if I had washed them by hand, and more importantly, I save upwards of 45 minutes each day after making dinner for five people!
Shaving my head. I had been losing hair and decided to cut it really short. I see so many baldies around these days so I thought I would give it a go. I save on shampoo and use clippers instead of a razor so I don’t spend a fortune on blades either. I don’t get my hair messed up in the wind. I generally cut it once a week.
Too many guys are in denial about their thinning hair. Just chop it off!
Not really a “why haven’t I done it sooner” as much as it is a “why did I never consider this sooner”. You do have to be 16 to donate and I donated after I turned 16, but I never gave any thought to doing it until my friends pointed out that it’s easy, fast, and incredibly useful.
Seriously though. There’s little to no pain, it takes like an hour out of your day and can even get you out of work so you can go relax, and saves countless lives. Go find a local drive or a Red Cross center and donate. It’s pretty rewarding.
I have lost about 60 pounds in the last six months. I really should have done it sooner. Holy sh*t, what a difference! I feel incredible. I was a fool to have waited so long. I still have a ways to go, but the progress I have made is more than enough incentive to keep working at it.
The dentist always asked me how often I flossed, and I would lie. Then my gums would bleed from him vigorously flossing them for me. I soon learned how to properly floss, and how to remove any gunk in my teeth. To this day, my teeth ALWAYS look perfect!
Adopted an adult animal from the shelter. My cat was listed as being 7 months old but was actually closer to two years old. Turns out he was abused, too. He’s gone from a cat that didn’t trust anyone enough to be petted and having no idea what to do with toys to demanding tummy rubs and chasing mousies all day long. Best feeling ever.
Stopped drinking. I was putting down over 3 pints of whiskey per day. Went to detox and I’m so glad I did. I didn’t realize just how badly it was affecting multiple aspects of my life. Haven’t had a drink in over three weeks. Lost a few pounds too.
They did check my liver in detox and it was pretty bad but most of the levels would go back to normal if I abstained from alcohol. I have a very addictive personality and can’t just have “one” of anything. It’s either 0 or 100 for me. As soon as I down one drink, I want another. Then my inhibitions are lowered, and I want more. This cycle continues until I black out. I just can’t touch the stuff.
I quit smoking cigarettes 2 years ago and I’ve honestly never felt better about myself.
No more feeling like death in the morning. No more standing in the cold or rain to have a smoke. Plus this has been said before but I have so much extra money to spend on beer now.
I am unsure if I will ever take another office job. I mean who knows, I am not going to let it get in the way of making a living. But if I have to look for a new job I will actively be looking for WFH.
Commutes stress me out. I love being home to bake bread, make stock with scraps, vacuum in my break, and eat from the fridge at lunch.
Life is cheaper and more fulfilling for me working from home.
I am happier. I sleep longer. I wake up and start my day stress-free.
I used to have ugly skin throughout most of my life, no matter the face wash I used I had painfully red pimples and those aggravated ones that sort of form like Mount Olympus on my cheeks and forehead. So my confidence was nonexistent and for the majority of the day, all I did was hide my face from people and try to find different ways to cover it up. All it took was rather than using my hands I swapped over to a washcloth with deep-cleaning facial soap, it was rough at first and hurt because my skin was always sensitive to acne. But now I rarely ever get breakouts anymore, the extra exfoliant from the texture of the handtowel must’ve worked in the soap more. Sounds simple but it was like a breakthrough for me.
Squats. Just 30-50 squats a day and my bum is so much higher and firmer after only a month! It’s kind of crazy. And now I feel stronger and my knees don’t click as much. Who knew?
Meditating every day. In the beginning, it’s like why am I doing this I look like a spiritual wannabe, this is pointless, this is stupid… My mind is racing and seems I can’t get through the thought storm they just pop up out of nowhere very fast and there’s such a mess… After five minutes thoughts lose intensity. After ten minutes I’m calm. After fifteen minutes I’m like “This is working, wow!”. After 20 minutes I forgot why I was thinking so much in the first place and forgot about the I. After some months of everyday practice, I notice how thoughts are tools that can make a better and happier me. And I started to recognize the patterns. I call them “thought traps”. So I meditate every day to remind myself that thoughts are not me.
Riding a motorcycle! I thought about it since I was like 20 years old. But that time my father disagreed. Later on (about 25 yo), I brought up that subject again but then my GF was against it. Then when I was 28 went through some hard breakup and I said to myself you only live once. In 1 month I bought a Honda cb600n and I can honestly say that this was one of my best decisions ever. Riding a motorcycle is so much fun! Everyone should try it.
I truly regret that I didn’t start it when I was 20.
I have had the same computer for like 4 years now. In 2013 I really got into Steam and buying games and such, but I couldn’t play most of them, and the ones I did I played with everything on low or off. I didn’t mind, the gameplay experience was the same (or so I thought). If I was lucky I could bump one or two settings in Dota to Medium.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to buy a graphics card so my games could run a bit better. Since I was planning on buying just the graphics card I knew I wouldn’t be getting anything high end and I was fine with that, after all, I’ve been playing everything on low, so this purchase was a luxury. So I did some research, trying to see if I needed another part, and I learned that my processor is still pretty decent, as well as the RAM. So I searched and asked around and I was recommended a card that didn’t require external power, a GTX 750TI. I saw it for $100 and thought that it was perfect, not too expensive, wouldn’t need to buy anything else, and would make the graphics a bit better.
I play lots of stuff, but mostly Dota and Rocket League, again, settings are always on low or off. I received the card, hooked it up, and spent around 2 hours troubleshooting. Wouldn’t move past the BIOS, would reset, and multiple beeps which meant something was wrong, all in all, a myriad of issues. I updated the drivers of the card, the adapter, and the monitor, updated the BIOS, and downloaded everything I could find. In the end, it worked, and I was working on fixing the resolution. At this point, I was happy, even if it looked pixelated because it meant that the card worked! So I’m tweaking settings, and I do the last download, the driver for the card. When the bar was around 90% the monitor turned off for a couple of seconds and when it came back on everything was sharp, I was like “Holy sh*t, everything looks crisp”.
I booted up Dota, which would slow down to a crawl every time I tried to have more than one character on the screen (like when previewing a chest). I turned everything to max, picked the character with the most amount of particles, and turned on the FPS counter. I always played at 25 FPS max, when I saw that the counter didn’t go below 90 I almost cried with excitement.
Everything looks so good now, I don’t know if it’s like a placebo effect or what but I’m actually even playing better. I played like 15 Rocket League matches and lost one, and due to teammate lag. I know the card isn’t a super card, it’s pretty low-end. I know I’m not trying very demanding games. I tried to play Most Wanted and it stuttered a bit with everything on high, but it still ran amazingly with like one or two settings on medium. I know I may be ranting, but most people who have a decent computer won’t even think twice about this because of all of the above, but going from playing with everything looking pixelated to everything looking so good has me so happy and excited. I had to work at 7 and stayed up until like 3 because I just couldn’t stop. That feeling of opening the case and putting and screwing everything in was so fun, I can’t wait to make an actual computer with all the parts.
Meal plan for the week and cooking with leftovers to take for lunches. I used to overspend on groceries, half of which would go bad before I figured out what to make with it. Then I would forget to put together a lunch and easily spend ten to fifteen dollars of take-out lunch. Such a waste of money, and I eat so much healthier now, fast food actually makes me feel terrible. Crock pots are your friend!
Making music probably. I used to have piano lessons but like any kid, I did it half-heartedly and usually just replayed songs I heard somewhere. In retrospect, I’m glad I had the opportunity to do it. The Clavinova is a MIDI controller now, got me a little setup and an electric bass to make music, preferably hip-hop. It’s my passion, and hobby and I got away from wasting my time on games to making beats whenever I have time. 8 months in and I just created music on SoundCloud. It fulfills me and my buddies have something to spit their stupid rhymes over, which always makes for a fun time.
Be proactively happy. I was depressed for most of the first 18 years of my life. I hear the first two were pretty great, but I changed around two. I tried Paxil and Wellbutrin for a little bit around my senior year in high school and freshmen year in college and I thought I was happy. It turns out I wasn’t happy, I just wasn’t depressed and I thought that’s what happiness was.
I realized I wasn’t happy because I didn’t know how to be happy as well as acknowledging I’m just not one of those people that wakes up and everything is sunshine and daisies. I wish I was, but I’m not.
I was fortunate enough to have some really incredible people in my life who spread love and happiness around and made an effort to be happy. I realized that that’s what I had to do if I wanted to be happy and started actively directing my thoughts from a focus on the negative to the positive. I how pervasive negativity and depression were in my thought patterns and when I changed those, most of that went away. It’s still a struggle to maintain my focus and not fall back into the patterns that I think I am biologically biased toward, but it’s worth it.
Buying an Oral-B 5000 electric toothbrush. It feels like I just got out of the dentist’s chair after each use. I only wish I had used it sooner as my gums have receded a bit and while I think I managed to stop it I haven’t been able to reverse it. I would add flossing to this but I still haven’t made it a daily habit even though I know I should. The good news is my gums no longer bleed when I actually do floss so I’m making progress on that front as well.
The first time I sat behind a drum kit was almost a revelation. I remember thinking, “You get to beat the sh*t out of these things and they call it music? “
Been hooked ever since. Definitely the most fun instrument to play.
As a hairy man, a very very hairy man, my superpower is growing beard and body hair… I can grow a 5-inch beard in 1 week from my cheekbones to my chest.
Ok so now that you know how annoying it can be to have to shave your face every single day… what I should have done sooner was find a quality straight razor barber shop and get a clean straight razor shave from a professional.
My god, talk about being pampered. Skin so smooth I could go 2-3 days without needing to touch my face with a blade.
The trick is you need to find a skilled barber shop, not all barbers will attempt or even offer straight razors, then you gotta find a guy who takes his time and knows his job.. but trust me it will be worth it.
The warm towel, the lather, the cold towel, the aftershave, It is Spa day for men, so good. Brodin approved.
Scuba Diving. Took it as a Physical Education elective from my university. That is amazing. The first moment you put on all your equipment, jump in the water, and take that first breath from your reg underwater your perspective on life changes. You realize you aren’t tethered to the surface, that there are whole areas of the world that are unexplored. It truly is a fantastic experience and I’d recommend it to anyone. Plus, the whole dive community is one big family and in the 4 months I was in the class I made some lifelong friends.
Steak cooked at medium/medium-rare. As a child, I was always forced to have steak cooked well by my mom, so I grew up thinking I didn’t like steak. When my mom went on a business trip, my stepdad and I took her to the airport and then went straight to Outback Steakhouse. He forced me to get my steak cooked to medium. It was the most delicious thing I think I had ever eaten in my entire life up until that point.
Buying art that I like and surrounding myself with it.
I live in a college dorm/apartment and last year I decided to make my place a home, somewhere that I liked coming back to, that was visually stimulating and I felt comfortable doing work and entertaining guests in. After I got my first piece of framed work and put it on my wall…well it fell, but then I got some of those adhesive hooks and I felt proud of my living space.
Euro/indie board games. If you look beyond popular American games like Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, there is a fascinating world of games to explore. You could start with contemporary classics like Pandemic, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Dominion, etc., but that’s literally just the tip of a very deep iceberg.
Skateboarding. Always wanted to know how, and thought it’d suck learning, but I got a board from the tip that didn’t go too fast and in a week I was confident enough to start skating around. It’s so much faster and easier – and it’s so much more fun than driving.
Roller Coasters. I was 22 when I went on my first one. It was so awesome. Coincidently, was also the first time rolled… which may have been part of the reasoning for it being very awesome.
Skiing. Lived on the Front Range for 4 years now and only started skiing this year. It was so fun and the views were great. I can’t believe I waited so long to do it.
Sadly, I have only gone once because I will be leaving my job soon, and I have to save up money for potential unemployment. Skiing is fun, but it is incredibly expensive.
Before… I would get sore throats, and strep, with such frequency that a nurse once suggested I get an HIV test because my immune system seemed compromised.
Once my wisdom teeth came out, I hadn’t gotten strep for years.
I used to exist in a constant state of sick, near-sick, getting better, near-sick, sick again… Always sore throats.
After the wisdom teeth were gone, I was like a normal person now. Sore throats have been radically reduced in both frequency and intensity.
In all my years of problems, no doctor ever suggested this as a possibility, ever (I went to plenty). Even the Ear-Nose-Throat Specialist made no mention of my wisdom teeth.
Educating myself financially. Hardly anyone seems to know what they are doing with their money and I’m glad to no longer be lumped in that group as small efforts now will reap enormous rewards in the future.
If I’d financially educated myself earlier and invested more, earlier, my net worth would likely be quadruple what it is today and I’d be much closer to not needing to work.
Running. I used to hate running when I was in the military. One horrible marriage later and PTSD from Iraq led me to not take care of myself (became 300+ lbs). I started walking and then before I knew it I was running. Running has done more for me than any therapy and I lost all that weight (now in the 170s). Now I Run Ultramarathons and haven’t looked back. You meet a bunch of amazing people along the way also. That’s just the short gist of what benefits running has given me.
My wheelchair. I’m 20 and have a genetic disease that causes my joints and muscles to be weak and easily fatigued. It also causes significant pain. I have spent years fighting to walk and move the way society told me I needed to because if I didn’t I was “giving up.” So I kept fighting and fighting. Until I couldn’t fight anymore and I broke down because I couldn’t leave my house for more than 30 minutes. I couldn’t do anything I loved anymore and I was constantly exhausted. So I “gave in” and it was the best decision I ever made. I am now a full-time college student taking 8 classes, living on my own, and kicking butt I still have my challenges but I can do almost everything I want in a day now, and to top it off my pain is at the lowest it’s ever been. It’s the best thing that has ever happened to me. I would give anything to talk to my 15-year-old self and tell her to get the chair because she would actually get to be the teenager she never got to be.
Going to a jam band concert. I never liked concerts or music. It was all too “dumb”, that’s a bad word to use, but I felt like most music my friends would listen to or music I’d hear randomly throughout the day was just boring and cliche. Then I somehow got introduced to jam bands when I was 21. I freaked out. The music sounded so cool and I couldn’t believe instruments could make such beautiful sounds together. Soon I was head first into listening to hours of Phish, listening to a tweezer from days ago and then listening to the same song played in 1997 and then 1994, hearing the change in style and improv between eras of the band. Now I know so much about bands like the Dead, Phish, moe, string cheese, umphreys, and several blue grass bands. Breaks my heart that no one told 16-year-old me to put on a Live recording of Phish instead of listening to Radiohead or Basshunter.
I am 26 years old and I learned to cook about one month ago.
Until then, I knew how to heat food up and make three things: Mac n cheese, chili, and chili mac (of course when I say chili I mean heat up chili from a can.)
My entire adult life has been spent eating out (where the bulk of my income went) eating what others cook for me, and occasionally eating chili mac or something I heated up.
A month ago I learned how to scramble eggs which I had always imagined was some complex process. After that, I learned a ton of other basics.
Since then I’ve been cooking up a storm. I have eaten Subway once since I started cooking and haven’t had fast food since. It’s amazing and it hurts my soul when I think about how much money I wasted over the past ten years.
I had a chocolate-covered strawberry for the first time when I was just entering college. The next year there was an event with free chocolate-covered strawberries, and I ate 24. Well, those things are good, especially with dark chocolate.
Eat a corn dog. I moved to the United States 5 years ago and it took me a while to eat one of those. Corn dogs just looked odd to me, but I was pleasantly surprised when i tried one. One of my favorite things about the US now.
Pedicures. I always thought they were for girly-girl types, and I hate having painted fingernails, so I was not interested.
Turns out that pedicures are amazing half-hour massages of feet and legs, followed by nail polish. Worth it for the 30 min of someone rubbing lotion into my heels and calves. It is AWESOME.
Decayed buildings, sewers, rooftops, and places I “shouldn’t” go in general have interested me since I was a small child. I have memories of asking my dad if we could go to a house near my grandma’s house. No one lived in it, nor had lived in it, for several years. It was owned by a friend of the family, so we received permission and went inside. Cobwebs, dust, peeling paint/plaster… all these things were beautiful to me, and sad all at the same time. I loved it and didn’t want to leave, but of course, Dad made me leave, lol.
Fast forward about 20 years. I had been looking at pictures of abandoned hospitals and factories, as well as truly epic sewer pipes, online for several years. I wanted to see places like this for myself, but couldn’t cross that threshold to break the law. After the death of my mother, my motto became “Live without regrets”. Then it hit me: if I didn’t start going into places like I saw in pictures, I would regret it. So, I joined an online urban exploration community (after lurking and looking at pictures for years lol), met up with someone in my area (who was also a newbie to the UE scene), and we picked a bombed-out factory and went inside. There wasn’t much to see inside other than a hobo camp. Luckily, he/she wasn’t home, but we still respected their living area and stuck to taking pictures of the graffiti and other tidbits that caught our interest.
Today, I’ve been all across the United States and seen/experienced things very few people can claim to have seen/experienced. The fear of legal trouble still lingers in the back of my mind, but the pictures, experiences, and friends I’ve made along the way are absolutely irreplaceable.
Baking cookies instead of buying cookies. I still buy pre-made cookie dough most of the time, but it’s still cheaper than buying chips ahoy and such. Tastes way better, too.
Buying an LED HDTV. I had been using an old CRT TV for my entire life, I just didn’t feel like spending money on a new TV. My god, I still remember the awe I felt when my Xbox 360 booted for the first time on my new TV. I could actually read what was on the menus!
I had a breast reduction about 3 weeks ago. I went from a 38F to a 34B. I’m still healing but I no longer have back and shoulder pain. I sleep better. All my clothes were L/XL and now I fit in a small/medium. It has done wonders for me physically and for my self-esteem. I no longer feel like a land whale and I have much better posture. I have no idea why I waited so long. It has honestly completely changed my life and I’m a happier person because of it.
For me, the process was shockingly easy. I made an appointment with my surgeon for a consultation back in September. During my consultation pictures and measurements were taken to find out if I qualified for the procedure and how much would have to come out for it to be covered by insurance. While we waited for the numbers to come back my doctor walked me through the procedure and what recovery would be like. At the end of my consultation, we sent my numbers to my insurance company, and were told that I would have an answer in a week. A week to the day my doctor’s office called to let me know that my procedure would be covered but I do have to pay a co-pay($1300 – But that is just for my insurance policy). The earliest date I could have was Oct. 30th. In the next month, I had to do a physical with my regular doctor, fill out a bunch of paperwork, and keep generally healthy. Two days before my procedure I had a phone interview with a surgical nurse about the procedure, my family medical history, and my personal medical history. The surgery was 2 hours and completely outpatient. I went into surgery at 7:30 was out by 9:30 and was allowed to leave the hospital by 12:30. I didn’t have any drains put in since I didn’t have to have any fat liposuctioned. I was able to shower the next day and start work again that Monday (my second job as a host in a restaurant I started again this past weekend). There wasn’t much pain, more like itchy discomfort and tightness.
I went from a 38F to a 34B because of massive side boob and wearing the wrong bra for years. I was embarrassed to get fitted because of my size and my symmetrical breasts. Plus nearly every store didn’t carry my size.
The first time I acted on stage. I had always been a pretty introverted kid, and I decided to take an acting class for one of my Gen Ed. requirements for college. That was almost a year ago and I swear it changed my life. I am a completely different person now. I have friends. I do stuff. And acting is the most fun I have had in my entire life.
Embracing my roots in the entertainment industry, and beginning to sing. I have plenty of backup opportunities, but I also have a crapload of connections in this industry.
My grandmother was a successful jazz singer and would have gone on to become famous (she had opportunities to go on Ed Sullivan, she toured other countries, etc.), but the mafia was after her and she was afraid.
My mother and step-father were involved in the acting industry, both in front of and behind the cameras. Before my mother became ill, she was a powerhouse in the South Florida acting industry. I have connections that could get me into any agency in the US.
But my mom and grandmother had very sad and tragic personal lives involving many men and many mistakes. I never wanted to be like them, so I kept telling myself I had to go into science/tech/math-related fields. Then it became film editing. Finally, I said, screw it, I’m going to let my grandmother hear me sing before it’s too late. She’s usually very critical and harsh, but she loved it.
After some investigation into how AA programs really work, I decided to switch my pre-major to Musical Performance with a focus on Voice. I took my first private vocal lesson with my college, and the teacher again loves my voice and sees a lot of talent in me. We’ve already started to work on techniques that my grandmother could never do.
Out of all of my career dabblings, I’ve never felt so alive and real. Everything else felt fake and forced.
I don’t know what will become of my adulthood or if I will succeed in any of this, but for at least the next year, I’ve promised myself I’m going to do my best.
Also, going into sales has been cool. Going from $400 a paycheck to $2200 has been quite nice. Too bad the winter harvest is over.
Riding a horse. I went for a horseback winery tour last week and it changed my life. I love riding a horse. I was always terrified of riding a living animal, I had images in my mind of falling off and breaking my neck, etc, etc, but it’s so much fun! Everyone should try it at least once.
Whiskey. I was always a clear-liquor-kinda-gal, but I found myself being taken less seriously on cigar nights if I had anything in my glass that had a lime in it. So dammit, if I haven’t spent the last year building up a taste for the stuff, only to discover that it is by far the most intelligent drunk you can have. Your mind is still fairly sharp by the time your body has gone mostly numb. And a little goes a long way. I get it now, hipsters and old men alike. I get it.
Used the steam sauna when I feel a cold coming on.
Back story, I’ve been a member of my local gym for about 9 years. At least once or twice per year I get a good old sinus infection, it always starts the same way, I feel a little twinge in my head during the day, and then, without fail, I wake up the next day with a sore throat and a stuffy nose and then I’m miserable, tired and blasting yellow glop out of my nose for the next week and a half. So the day before yesterday I felt that old familiar feeling and yesterday, like clockwork, I woke up with a sore throat and couldn’t breathe from the left side of my nose. I went to the steam room last night for about 15 minutes, took a hot shower after, came home, drank some grapefruit juice, took some NyQuil, put on a BreatheRight strip, doused my nose with Mentholatum and went to bed. Woke up today without a sore throat, clear as a bell, and was able to blow the rest of the nastiness from my nose/sinuses and I feel great. Why haven’t I been steaming myself at the first sign of sickness for the past 9 years?? Argh!
Buying corduroy pants. I always thought they looked stupid and only filthy hippies wore them. My partner bought me a pair, and they’re so comfortable! I don’t even care they have raised lines running down them, they fit me great and actually match my style.
Grilling on Charcoal. So much tastier than gas grills. If you use a Chimney Starter, instead of lighter fluid, it starts fairly easily, and most importantly, evenly. Smoking meat was another “wow” moment for me, as well.
