Things I wish I could tell my younger self

I generally don't dwell on thoughts like this.  I'm a firm believer that a person's experiences, good and bad, shape who they are and get you to where you are today.  If you could warn your younger self not to make the mistakes you've made, or if you could share pieces of wisdom you've gained over the experiences of your lifetime, you'd probably keep your younger self from learning from those experiences and gaining the very wisdom you're sharing.  Of course my sci-fi geek friends and I would debate about whether or not you're creating an alternate timeline...but I'm talking philosophically here :)

That being said - there are a couple pieces of wisdom I really wish I could share with my younger self that I don't think would hurt my "timeline" and would be of positive outcome.

First, I've come to realize that with just about any skill in life, there is just no substitute for experience and repetition.  Certainly aptitude and ability differentiate someone's maximum potential or capacity for something, but in the end, NOTHING replaces years of experience and practice.  This is most evident to me with my saxophone playing.  I've been playing saxophone pretty much continuously since the 6th grade (26+ years if you're counting).  That's thousands of hours of playing and practicing a wide and vast variety of music and musical situations.  My horn is like an extension of me now.  I have many musically talented friends where I see this sort of thing too - a longtime friend and colleague plays piano and when I watch him I can just tell that he doesn't have to think about it anymore, it's just an extension of his mind and fingers.  I've made some attempts at learning other instruments in recent years.  Some I just don't have the physical aptitude for (trumpet - requires the right lips).  But others just require a lot of practice and experience, something I don't seem to have the time or attention span for at this point in my life.  And gaining 26 year of experience on something starting now is going to be awhile .

Second, I would share EVERYTHING I've learned on eating, exercise, and health.  Mainly because what I've learned contradicts all the "conventional" wisdom that was drilled into us as kids and young adults.  When I was younger I just sort of assumed I didn't have the capacity to lose weight, be in good shape, etc. etc. and I've since proven all of that wrong to myself.  I'd love to tell my younger self that you are capable of all of those things, and not only capable but they're not as hard as you think.