5 Key Lessons You Must Understand Before Entering Society at 18

5 Key Lessons You Must Understand Before Entering Society at 18:

1. Learn to Think Independently

2. Develop Strong Communication Skills

3. Understand and Manage Personal Finances

4. Adapt to and Accept Change

5. Maintain a Lifelong Learning Attitude

5 Key Lessons You Must Understand Before Entering Society at 18，I hope these 5 key lessons can help you survive in society. Eighteen is the age when we step into another phase of life, and it’s a stage that most people have long admired. At this age, teenagers finally become the adults they’ve always dreamed of being and reach the threshold of entering society.

However, it seems that teenagers who officially turn 18 are more naïve than I imagined. Like buds growing in a greenhouse, they have no idea what kind of world awaits them outside. You are like those buds, never having faced any storms, so you lack some essential knowledge and principles needed for entering society.

It is precisely because of this lack that you may become the easiest targets for bullying in the crowd, as many who have been in society for a long time will focus on you.

In addition to dealing with people, you will also encounter more failures and hardships, so you must learn how to survive in the midst of these challenges.

Why are these so-called principles so important? The reason is simple: besides helping you cope with the setbacks in society, they also make your career development smoother. Even though opportunities are everywhere, if you don’t seize them, they will quietly slip away, and ultimately, your career will only be stuck at a certain level.

1. Learn to Think Independently

One of the 5 key lessons you must understand before entering society at 18 is independent thinking. What is independent thinking? Simply put, it means learning to solve problems on your own, rather than relying on others to think for you and come up with solutions to the challenges you encounter.

Most people in society have their own lives to live and don't have time to help us think. They are busy solving their own problems, so how could they have the leisure to solve ours? They would rather have someone else solve their problems for them so they wouldn’t have to think at all.

The Importance of Independent Thinking

Independent thinking means making your own judgments. These judgments involve assessing daily risks and the benefits you receive. If you can think independently, you will be able to identify and eliminate the aspects that are detrimental to you and select the beneficial ones to absorb and integrate into yourself.

Another role of independent thinking is to increase the level of thought in everything you do, so your mind won’t go blank or freeze up when faced with danger. In simple terms, your brain will keep upgrading and becoming more active because of your constant thinking. If the brain remains inactive for too long, it will become sluggish, much like the technology we frequently use; when left unused for a long time, it starts to lag, and in severe cases, it may crash. Don’t think that the brain can’t crash—when you want to know something and find your mind blank, that’s the brain’s crash state.

Independent thinking can strengthen our minds and convert our experiences into valuable knowledge stored in our mental archive. When you need to come up with a plan at work, and you've encountered similar examples in the past, you’ll be very familiar with the process, especially because you were the one who came up with the solution. Even if you weren’t satisfied with your past work, you can now add your new ideas to the task. Because you came up with the solution on your own in the past, it will benefit you in the future.

Mini Summary: This is the experience and creativity you gain from thinking independently. When doing something, people often first recall whether they have encountered it before, then compare it, and finally, your strengthened brain will improve upon the past work. This means that after independent thinking, you gain strong creativity, and the accumulated experience can be applied in different areas. The brain will not degrade in its ability to think because you fail to use it.

Do you often find that your original thoughts are easily swayed by a few words from others? Or do you find that you easily follow others' ideas and persuasion when making decisions?

This is the result of not thinking independently. Learning to think for yourself means understanding what you really want and standing firm in your ideas, without being swayed by a few words from others. If you don’t stand firm in your thoughts, even if you follow someone else’s idea now, you’ll likely change again when a third person offers another suggestion. In the end, your ideas keep changing, and everything you do is only half-done.

I used to be like this too. I didn’t think for myself, only followed others' ideas, and ended up doing everything poorly, producing only half-finished work.

Thinking independently is also about doing things that align with your own interests and values. If you always follow others' ideas, someday you might fall into a trap they’ve set for you. Only by learning to think for yourself and make judgments can you avoid danger and continuously upgrade and expand your ideas, ultimately gaining greater benefits.

Moreover, as I grew older, I realized that independent thinking is indeed very important. Not everything in life has someone to give you the answers, and not every time will someone be kind enough to help you. Of course, they have their own rights to choose whether to help or not. When faced with such situations, the importance of independent thinking becomes more apparent. By learning to think independently, you won’t need to rely on their help, and you’ll be able to solve many social problems on your own.

Mini Summary: The ability to think independently helps us act according to our values, making us more confident in every choice and idea we make. By strengthening and expanding our ideas, we can gain benefits. Additionally, we can better protect our own interests, not falling into foolish traps led by others because independent thinking allows us to discern whether their suggestions are well-intentioned or hide malicious intent. By learning to think independently, we also become more self-reliant. I believe that independent thinking and independence go hand in hand.

2. Strong Communication Skills

Do you know what enables a top salesperson to rapidly increase their monthly sales performance? That's right, it’s strong communication skills. They rely on their ability to speak effectively, powerfully introducing their products and capturing the attention of customers until they make a purchase.

Because salespeople have strong communication skills, they build their own network of contacts, which continuously expands as they introduce their products and provide positive responses to customers. This is one of the reasons for their fast-growing sales. They know how to communicate with customers, understanding their needs and providing appropriate responses, and they are also skilled at identifying and addressing customers' concerns through conversation.

What I want to convey is that in your career, if you want to advance, you must have strong communication skills to survive. Why? Simply so that you can clearly articulate your needs, allowing others to understand what you require.

Strong communication skills play an extremely important role in the workplace. Everyone has a certain sensitivity to what is being said, and you must understand what can be said and what cannot be said. This way, your words won't easily touch on others' bottom lines, which is also one of the essential aspects of communication.

Moreover, when completing certain tasks, you need to understand some necessary details. At this time, you must ask your leaders or colleagues about the specifics of the task, and you must clearly express what you want to ask and what kind of response you expect. If you are unclear in your communication, others won't know how to answer you, and it will be difficult for you to get the answers you need. This issue often arises in team projects; those who cannot communicate naturally and intelligently with teammates are bound to be ostracized by other team members. It’s a harsh reality, so communication skills are indeed very important.

In everyday life, people with strong communication skills are often well-liked. Others enjoy communicating with them because they know how to say things people like to hear. This is the reality: people love hearing what they enjoy, and those with good communication skills use this to bring themselves closer to those around them.

When conflicts arise, strong communication skills can also help ease the tension, preventing the situation from becoming too heated. During gatherings, good communication skills can keep you from falling into awkward situations. You know what I mean—when you meet someone new at a party, and they start talking to you, but you don’t know how to respond, leading to an awkward smile and silence. Honestly, I find that feeling a bit terrifying.

Mini Summary: People with strong communication skills are often praised as having high emotional intelligence. Communication skills can advance your career, help you avoid saying unnecessary things that might offend others in the workplace, and allow you to clearly express your ideas during team projects, preventing misunderstandings and exclusion. Communication isn’t just about speaking; it also involves actively listening to what others are saying and responding appropriately. Communication skills play a vital role in interpersonal relationships, enabling smooth exchanges with others and making conversations more enjoyable, while also preventing awkward situations and bringing people closer together.

3. Understand and Manage Personal Finances

The first thing you need to learn after entering society is to guard the money in your wallet and manage the money in your bank account.

Why should you guard the money in your wallet and manage the money in your bank? After entering society, you will find that the things you couldn’t afford before becoming insignificant once you have a job and a salary. At this point, it’s easy to spend money recklessly, buying all the things you desire, even if their price far exceeds your monthly salary, possibly using next month's salary to cover the difference.

You may also find that, even though you think you don’t spend much, your money seems to disappear each month without you knowing where it went. What? You think this won’t happen to you? Let me tell you, I thought the same before I entered society. After experiencing it, I realized it wasn’t that I didn’t control my spending; it was because the amounts I spent were so small that I didn’t pay attention. Once I became aware of this, I found that I had much more money left each month than before.

Mini Summary: Based on these observations, I want to emphasize that after entering society, you need to learn to manage your finances. For example, start by keeping a ledger to track your daily expenses. You will find that, excluding things you want to buy, your monthly living expenses for food, rent, household items, insurance, etc., take up more than half of your salary. So, you need to understand what is necessary to spend on and what isn’t—this is what people often refer to as differentiating between needs and wants. You need to assess the importance of these two in your life. When you keep a ledger for your monthly expenses, you will notice that small, unnoticed expenses add up. If you find a discrepancy between your salary and the recorded expenses, it’s likely due to those small, unaccounted-for expenses. After discovering this, you should make it a habit to record every penny spent, no matter how big or small, so that your ledger’s numbers match up.

If you don’t want to feel financially pressured, financial management is essential, and part of this is financial planning. Besides keeping a ledger to track your living expenses, you also need to allocate the money in your bank account properly.

I sincerely hope that young people who are just entering society, or those who have been in society for a while, realize that money can make more money.

The concept of money making money means using the assets you already have to generate income, and then using that income to generate more income.

After understanding this concept, you need to learn to guard your money to avoid excessive spending in daily life and ensure all expenses are within reasonable limits. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should be overly frugal. You can choose to spend a certain percentage of your income each month to reward yourself for your hard work, but don’t go overboard.

Once you’ve learned to safeguard your money, you need to understand how to allocate the money in your bank and learn how to make your money work for you. No matter what others say, in my opinion, if you want to live without financial pressure, you can’t just let your money sit in the bank. Instead, you should maximize its value to help you improve your quality of life and avoid financial stress.

Additionally, and I believe everyone understands this, don’t overspend on luxury items. It’s important to distinguish between rewarding yourself and buying luxury items; the former motivates you to keep going, while the latter only increases your stress. I won’t go into more detail here, as I’m sure you’ve heard this many times and understand it well.

Mini Summary: Learning to use the money you have to generate more money can truly relieve financial pressure because you’ll know where your money is going and that it’s being spent on worthwhile things. These investments can continue to create value for you, helping you avoid financial stress. Finally, remember not to overspend on luxury items. You can choose to invest, use fixed deposits in banks, start your own business like an online store, or venture into entrepreneurship.

I’m sure everyone understands what an emergency is, right? Emergencies always come unexpectedly, and it’s difficult to avoid them. However, we can prepare for them in advance, so that even if we can’t prevent them, we have the ability to deal with them when they occur.

In this context, you need to understand the concept of an emergency fund. This emergency fund may seem like it’s just sitting in the bank, but it can save your life in an emergency.

As your parents age, and as you need to be mindful of your own safety, consider this: if your parents or you experience an emergency, and you haven’t saved an emergency fund or have no extra money to deal with it, what will you do? The harsh reality is that you will find yourself powerless and helpless, possibly having to borrow money from others to get through the crisis. It’s not pleasant to talk about, but this is the reality, and I hope you understand.

Mini Summary: Learn to save an emergency fund to prepare for unforeseen events, so that when an emergency occurs, you can use this fund to get through the crisis. The emergency fund doesn’t need to be excessive; saving about 3-6 months’ worth of your salary is sufficient.

4. Adapt to and Accept Change

Two things often occur in society: uncertainty and change.

Why should we learn to adapt to and accept change? Let’s start with the psychological aspect. When unexpected changes suddenly occur, do you find yourself at a loss? You may have already planned your next steps, but a sudden change disrupts your plans.

Imagine you’ve just made a fortune in your business, but a week later, you suddenly go bankrupt. I know this example is extreme, but I believe extreme examples are the easiest to understand. Think about it: if you were in this situation, what would you do? I think most people would feel lost because you never anticipated such a change. You might feel powerless and want to give up on life, no longer wishing to move forward.

Let me give you a more relatable example, one closer to everyday life. One day, you plan out what you need to do this month to improve yourself, but during a workout, you get injured, rendering your plan useless. How would you feel? The reason I say this example is close to real life is that it actually happened to me—not an injury, but an unexpected family situation that prevented me from carrying out my plan. My plan was shattered, and I spent that entire month feeling frustrated, constantly wondering why this happened to me.

In these two examples, what I want to convey is that no matter what changes or unexpected events disrupt your plans or your life, we must maintain an optimistic mindset. Of course, I understand that such changes can be hard to accept and can lead to prolonged negative emotions and even a sense of helplessness. But what I want to emphasize is that no matter what, what has happened has already happened. You may feel disappointed or sad for a while, but eventually, you must wake up. We cannot change what has already happened, but we can accept it. Accept these changes, accept what cannot be changed, and then pick yourself up and move forward—your life must go on. I hope you understand this message.

In the past, whenever negative changes occurred around me, I would complain, “Why is this happening to me?! Why does it only happen to me?!”

That was the old me—full of negative thoughts, not thinking about what to do next, and not trying to pick myself up again. As I grew older, I gradually realized that sudden changes cannot be altered. What I can do is adjust my mindset and make a new plan for the next step, not allowing myself to stay in place for too long. I understand that I don’t want my life to end here, nor do I want my life to be filled with complaints. After that, I often told myself, “It’s okay, let’s think about what to do next.”

Mini Summary: No matter what changes occur in life, they are likely events you will encounter. You may find yourself in a low point, feel sad, and even cry, but make sure you climb out of that low point and keep moving forward. Learn to accept the changes that have happened, telling yourself, “It’s okay, my life won’t be defeated by these changes, and I still want my life to have a future full of different possibilities.” Think more about the positive aspects.

5. Maintain a Lifelong Learning Attitude

Learning is a lifelong journey. It doesn’t end once you leave school; instead, the content shifts from subjects taught in school to knowledge and principles that are not covered there.

Especially in this ever-changing era, adopting a lifelong learning attitude is essential, particularly in your career.

In your career, if you want to survive and excel, you must continuously learn new things that will help you achieve outstanding results. You need to understand that in this era, everything can become obsolete. Old things will inevitably be replaced by new ones. However, no matter what new things emerge, as long as you maintain a lifelong learning attitude, you won’t be overwhelmed by anxiety due to their arrival. You’ll know that even if new things keep appearing, if you’re willing to learn what they are, how to use them, and how they can benefit you, they won’t be a source of anxiety for you. Instead, they will make you stronger.

Lifelong learning also enhances your value. Your value comes from the skills and knowledge you acquire. When you possess enough skills and knowledge, others will see your value and be willing to work with you or hire you. This is the reality—only when you have the value they need will they need you. So, by maintaining a lifelong learning attitude, you can continuously learn new things to increase your value. On the other hand, those who stop learning will never show signs of growth in their value.

In society, maintaining lifelong learning allows you to stand out from the crowd and ensures that you won’t be left behind. Whether you work independently or are employed by a company, as long as you are committed to lifelong learning, you won’t be afraid of any challenges. This willingness to learn means that you can find solutions to problems either during or after your learning process.

Mini Summary: I can sum this up in one sentence: "Only by continuously learning will you avoid being eliminated by society; only by learning will you continuously increase your value, and as you increase your value, everything else in your life will also appreciate."

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