Growing up through my teen years, had the ‘older me’ tried giving the ‘1970s me’ any advice on how to live my life, I’m reasonably sure I’d have totally ignored it.

Older anyone giving advice to a younger person? Well, good luck with that!

Thinking back though, I don’t recall getting much wrong. OK, yeah, there are some specific instances when, with hindsight, I made a bad call. But there’s very little I wasn’t happy or comfortable with at the time.

So, after some consideration and with a further fifty years life-experience behind me, I may tentatively offer the following to the teenage me:

• Don’t ever drink Pernod! You will regret it, big time … and spend the rest of your life avoiding the smell of aniseed, fennel and liquorice.
• Don’t be an absolute pillock! Ask Pilar, your girl friend whose family fled Pinochet’s Chile, on a date. You know she fancies you!
• Just miss football training on 4th July 1978 and take the ticket your pal has for The Clash gig at Glasgow Apollo. It will become one of the venue’s most infamous shows. (It turned into a bit of a riot as bouncers beat up fans, and then after the show, arrested Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon of the band, as guitarist Mick Jones fled through the darkened streets back to the band’s hotel!)
• Don’t take the tomato soup for lunch on the train from Glasgow to London. A soapy ‘brillo’ pad will be found at the bottom of the tureen it’s being served from. You will fall foul to severe food poisoning and will really struggle in your 400m track race at Crystal Palace the next day. Over the next week, you’ll not be able to keep anything down and will lose best part of a stone in weight.
• Go see The Faces play next time they are in Glasgow – they won’t be around too long and you’ll forever regret not seeing them.

Yeah – I’d make different choices in each of the above instances if the teenage me was to have paid any attention to the sixty-five year old me.

I know – there’s nothing critical in that list. I mean, Earth continued to spin; I still enjoy a beer; I went on plenty other dates; I saw hundreds of fantastic bands play live and I ran well in many other races.

However, it was through sport, and what happened to me last April, that would best illustrate one essential lesson the ‘younger me’ could / should learn from.

I was reasonably OK at both athletics (running) and football (soccer.) I enjoyed and competed in both to a decent enough level. I enjoyed both immensely, so I trained for both.

But I was only twenty-three when injury struck.

My plans for concentrating and improving on one of the sports (most likely running) when I reached my mid-twenties was kyboshed!

So, the one over-riding piece of advice I’d give is this:

Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can possibly do today – live every day as if there’s no tomorrow. There very well might not be!

😀

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