"This Has Made Me Rethink Life": People Over 40 Are Sharing The Toughest Life Lessons They've Learned

Life has a way of teaching us lessons that only time and experience can reveal. This is why, by the time we get into our late 30s and early 40s, we can look back at challenges and setbacks that we faced in our younger years and see how they became opportunities for personal growth and how they changed our perspectives on things.

Recently, redditor Fantastic-Point6265 was interested in the life lessons older people had learned when they asked : "People who are 40 years old and over, what are the harshest life lessons you have learnt?"

The thread got over 2.8K responses. Below are the top, best, and most-often repeated life lessons people over 40 wanted to share:

1. "That no matter how comfortable you feel you are financially, make sure you have savings because life can just turn around and fuck you up."

2. "Take care of your body. You only get one."

3. "There is no job security. Keep your resume up to date, and keep current personal and professional references. Trust nobody at work with any personal details or opinions. It is just a job. Work smart, not hard."

4. "If you wait too long to make a choice/decision, it'll often be made for you. Defaulted decisions aren't a good way to go through life."

5. "Take care of your mental health early on so you can be healthy and meet other healthy people. You think you're 40, and you've had your fair share of life experiences, but you haven't. They're still coming, and some hit you unexpectedly because you're not where you need to be mentally in life. Don't say, 'That'll never happen to you,' because bad people do exist, and they don't discriminate."

6. "Never let a boyfriend or girlfriend influence decisions you want to make in your life. If they’re meant to be with you, they won’t hold you back or stop you from achieving your goals. If they do, move on. I gave up so many wonderful opportunities for past boyfriends that I still regret to this day."

7. "Very few people actually follow through on what they say they'll do. It can be for any number of reasons, from 'I don't want to hurt their feelings' to 'I want to look good in front of others' or 'I want to please everyone,' and that's just for starters. When you find people who DO, cherish them. That's why I always post, 'Look at the person's patterns of actions, not their words, to see their true feelings.'"

8. "Live in the present, not the past. The past is never coming back, no matter how much we want it to (especially with relationships)."

9. "Just because you like kids doesn’t mean you should necessarily have your own. It doesn’t mean you’re cut out for parenting."

10. "Sometimes the problem is you."

11. "Tomorrow is never promised. Don't ignore those phone calls or texts from loved ones when you're busy because you might not have a chance to return them later. Always tell them you love them when you say goodbye."

12. "If you have a gut feeling about a particular person or situation DO NOT fight it. Follow your instincts."

13. "Knowing when to say 'no.' Doing that is more important than saying 'yes.'"

14. "You can do everything right and still fail, while some people who just fucking coast through life never work a day in their lives just have everything handed to them. Life is absolutely fucking unfair, and the sooner you stop comparing yourself to people who had a 50,000-mile headstart from birth, the sooner you can ACTUALLY start to live."

15. "Your partner is the most important decision you make and reversing that shit is incredibly hard. Choose wisely."

16. "Don't tie your identity to your job. Don't get invested in office politics. Do your job to the best of your ability, log off, go home, and forget about work."

17. "A lot of people who are successful in business and seem really friendly will absolutely fuck you at the slightest chance of making some extra money."

18. "Not everyone will like you, and that's okay. Also, to quote Schitt's Creek : 'People don’t think about you the way you think people are thinking about you.'"

You can read the original thread on Reddit .

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.