Chris Johns
41, cycle tour operator, Exeter
What do you wish you’d known growing up?
You don’t necessarily have to be in an intimate relationship to be happy in life.
What’s your golden tip for how to breeze through life?
The quality of your thoughts reflect your life. If you’re laid-back by nature you tend to breeze through things. If you’re not, you should work at becoming more relaxed.
What simple skill do you think everyone should know?
How to ride a bike safely on the road. Conversely, drivers should know how to respect vulnerable road users.
And if you lived your adult life again, what would you do differently?
I’d spend more quality time with friends and family than working long hours.
What do you wish children understood about adults?
I wish they appreciated how hard it is to relate to them sometimes. It’s not their fault or ours, but you tend to lose touch with your childhood the older you get and it can become difficult to understand each other.
Jim Henderson
58, head teacher, Brixton
What do you wish you’d known growing up?
When you’re young you don’t have much confidence. I wish I’d realised that appearing to be confident often makes people take you more seriously. How you engage with people really makes a huge difference.
What’s your golden tip for how to breeze through life?
If there’s something you want to do, don’t back out. People who are successful aren’t always the best at what they’re doing, they’re just the ones who push themselves. Don’t think about it, do it. It also helps to be optimistic and positive.
What simple skill do you think everyone should know?
I find anything to do with plumbing really complicated, but I recently learned how to bleed a radiator. Instead of sitting in a cold room for years I could have done something about it – so that’s a good skill to have.
And if you lived your adult life again, what would you do differently?
Before I had a family I had a lot of disposable income, but I didn’t save any of it. I wish I’d put some aside for later life.
What do you wish children understood about adults?
What gives you authority as an adult is that you’re regarded as omniscient, but it would be nice if children appreciated that you haven’t got the answer to everything.
Jill Edney
62, designer, Sheffield
What do you wish you’d known growing up?
The importance of learning. I treated education as a passive thing and assumed that other people who were clever were just naturally gifted – I didn’t appreciate the fact that you could educate and improve yourself.
What’s your golden tip for how to breeze through life?
Smile, be helpful and think of others. Because, as they say, what goes around comes around.
What simple skill do you think everyone should know?
Everyone should be able to recite a poem or sing a song from memory.
And if you lived your adult life again, what would you do differently?
I’m contented to have got to where I am. Maybe I should have speculated and I would live in a bigger house now, but I’m just not like that.
What do you wish children understood about adults?
I don’t think they have to understand adults – I certainly didn’t. Perhaps I still don’t. Adults shouldn’t lose sight of their inner child.
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