Carrie Underwood Shares Advice She Would Give Herself 10 Years Ago

Ten years ago, Carrie Underwood was 26 years old, with three albums to her credit, numerous hit songs, including the monster hit, “Before He Cheats,” and was still a fairly recent member of the Grand Ole Opry. In other words, life was a whirlwind for the American Idol winner, with little time to stop and appreciate the efforts of all of her hard work –– something she wishes she could go back in time and remind her younger self to do.

“I kind of always say I wish I’d taken more pictures along the way,” Underwood told PEOPLE. “I multitask everything. I’m always go, go, go. I’m always juggling everything, and I feel like I’m a lot better now at kind of enjoying the moment.”

“I feel like I would tell myself to do more of that,” she continued. “‘Look around. Enjoy yourself. Take a minute.’ I’m a hard worker. It doesn’t have to be go, go, go all the time. Just, ‘Take more workcations.’”

That might be advice Underwood still needs to take today as well. The Oklahoma native just wrapped up her successful Cry Pretty Tour 360, and will release her book, Find Your Path, next year, all while enjoying her marriage to Mike Fisher, and her two children, Isaiah and Jacob. Their Christmas plans will involve plenty of family time, but unfortunately not much downtime.

“This year, there’s a lot of travel involved, but that’s kind of our tradition,” Underwood explained. “We try to be with all of our family. We want it all. But that’s where we are right now in life is the traveling because we don’t have any family that actually lives near us, so it’s just go, go, go.”

One thing Underwood hopes she doesn’t have to do over the holidays is open a lot of presents for herself, since she would much rather be on the giving end.

“I don’t want anything,” Underwood insisted on The Ty Bentli Show. “If there are things I want, I go get them, so I don’t need anybody to get me anything.”

Underwood might be one of the richest stars in country music, but that doesn’t mean she gets to lavish her family with gifts, either.

“It kind of depends on who it’s for,” Underwood said when asked about specific requests. “If it’s for my dad, I’m asking mom what can I buy him that he won’t get mad at me for spending money on him for. I ask my mom what she wants too.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Taylor Hill