At 39, here are 16 things I’d tell my 19-year-old self about making the most of every day

As I teeter on the edge of what many consider a major life milestone (40 years), I feel reflective.

I’m people-watching at a Sofia cafe.

I see people of different styles, shapes and compositions stroll past, rushing to work. Many are lost in thought.

It’s difficult to gauge what’s going on in their lives. But these people likely experience life entirely differently from one another.

We can have the same job, but one is miserable, and the other is happy.

Knowing why this is comes from philosophy.

Here are sixteen succinct life philosophies I’d tell my younger self so he’d make the most of his day:

The quickest way to misery is to overestimate your thoughts and underestimate your actions.

An imbalanced body contributes to unnecessary anxiety, which steals from your most energised, authentic you.

To maintain harmony in your body, the best thing you can do is avoid stimulants like smoking, alcohol, drugs, porn and processed food.

It’s better to hurt someone’s feelings by being true to yourself than to be nice while smothering your own self-expression.

Many people — at any given moment — will be doing seemingly ‘better’ than you.

It’s easy to fall into comparing yourself to others and to feel low as a result. But we’re all on our own path.

What they are doing has nothing to do with you. We’re all facing our own unique obstacles.

Have others be a source of inspiration, but if you feel worse through comparison, you must put blinders on and get back to doing it your way.

It may strike you that thinking deeply about yourself puts you in control of your life, but it only makes you more insecure.