I know I'm not OLD but I know I am a little older than alot of the readers of this blog (this advice may help you if your older) so I want to give some practical tips to help some young person entering the gates of adulthood.

1) Pursue and value education- If you are going to high school for free or enrolled in college please remember there are young people in other parts of the world you will love to take your place in that classroom, maybe thats why career forecasters are predicting that most of the prime engineering jobs will go to somebody from either India or China.
1a) While you are in school you should try to dedicate yourself to position yourself in the future to be very good (top 20%) in 2-3 things (one of those 'things' can be intangible i.e. discipline, work ethic or a strong relationship with God that produces a inner sense of peace and faith)
1b) You should learn to communicate in all levels. Learn how to speak, write, use body language/posture and dress more effectively.
1c) Be very aggressive in pursuing all free or low cost resources and opportunities your school or community may offer, this can be anything from scholarships, to internship and mentorship opportunities that often passed up by people who are less motivated than you.
1d) You should also learn about the great people and great contributions that your family(if you digg deep you may be surprised), faith( i.e. many of the Ivy leagues schools were started by Christians) and nationality has contributed to society. There is something powerful about a person who knows where they come from and know where they are going.

2) Learn how to manage and grow in the area of health and wealth.
If you are young this is the best time to pick up the lifelong habit of eating right,working out and learn to play a non contact sport that you can play and enjoy for the rest of your life (I'm gonna try to learn to play golf and maybe racquetball this summer).
This is a great time to learn about personal finance.... here is a tip within a tip learn to live below your means, tithe, save and invest...here is a great website I use for my personal finance http://www.mint.com 

3) Understand your purpose, pursue you passion and have a vision to pursue
I can write for days on this point alone but here is my best attempt to give you a snapshot of this (extensive) tip
Purpose- the purpose of a stationary bike is to offer you an opportunity to exercise indoors, but many people(ouch) use their stationary bike as a place to put clothes on...the bike has lost its purpose. I believe people were created to have a relationship with their creator and to be a vehicle to create or cultivate to make this world a better place example my specific purpose is to communicate to people that God has a plan for their lives,others have the purpose to build great houses,others purpose is to work for the police force and keep others safe and for many others their purpose is to be faithful in all their obligations and raise children who will be future leaders...its up to you to ask God daily while being faithful to your responsibilities to reveal to you your purpose
Passion- your passion is something you like to do so much that you will do for free and lose track of time while you are working on that 'thing'. It does not have to be something you do for a living but it something you live to do...now if you can work full time in your passion than you are a part of the lucky few who the line between work and play is almost non existent!
Vision- is a clear picture of the future that when thought of it produces internal excitement that provides the energy for external strength to make this 'picture' a reality

I pray this helps some teenager or young adult reading this blog

Note from Ed: very soon we are going to make my sermons available for purchase if you you are not a member of my church and would like more info in receiving 4 sermons a month email Stacey Elwin at vonorthbrooklyn@hotmail.com and she will give you more info   thanks