The Birthday Blog, Important Life Lessons I Was Gifted This Year

If I only knew then what I know now, right? Not really. Because if I knew then what I know, the journey would not be nearly as sweet. As my 34th circle around the sun came to an end, I spent a lot of time in reflection. My life has always seemed to take me along the path less travelled and for a long time I longed for “normalcy” (whatever that means). Today, I can truly say with my whole heart, I would never want it any other way. My life is unfolding beautifully, and I have learned to fully trust my journey. I am exactly where I need to be regardless of where I may have thought I should or would be at 35. We all need to let those expectations of ourselves go.

The personal transformation that’s happened over the past 12 months has been unexpectedly critical for me to become my best truest self. It has been the heaviest most challenging, yet fulfilling and humbling year of my life, perhaps the most important year I will ever experience. It’s been full circle, and everything is different now. It all started when I made the decision to walk away from my corporate job. But it turns out, it was never really about the job, it was always about me. I just needed to give myself the time to figure that out. Things have shifted inward and that has been one of the greatest gifts this year of self-discovery has brought to me.

Self-discovery is one of the most difficult things I have ever done. Unless you’ve experienced this type of personal work, it would be hard to truly understand. I spent the first 60 days doing nothing for no other reason than I was completely lost. Time enabled a series of events that continued to trickle down through my personal and professional life. Things started to align in a very big way, an unbelievable way, almost like magic. But it wasn’t a fairytale at all. It was hard awkward personal work that lead me down an entirely new path to learn and navigate. It was a beautiful experience and reflecting back on the journey inspired me to share with you the most important life lessons I was gifted with throughout the process. So, without further ado, here we go.

1. Walk your own path. More often than not people are judging other people. Peer pressure can make you stray from the path you want to carve out for your future. Don’t become consumed with the aspirations of others or allow someone else’s goals and dreams to influence your vision of life. Trust your instincts always because it’s your path and only you decide where it takes you.

2. It's in losing yourself that you will find yourself. The greatest challenge in life is discovering who you are, and the second greatest challenge is being happy with what you find.

3. Be grateful every single day because that's the birthplace of true power. The most important power lives in a grateful heart. Practice turning your thoughts toward appreciation, that is where you will find your influence, gifts and strength.

4. We are constantly creating our own reality. Our reality is manufactured from our thoughts, so remember how much power you have. What we think we become, what we feel we attract, what we imagine we create.

5. Make yourself a priority, self-care comes first. Feeling grounded and aligned is hugely important to my success as a person, woman, wife, friend, sister, daughter, mentor and leader. I do not negotiate on self-care. Breathe, smell the trees, slow down. I am my best self when I take care of me, first.

6. Good things don’t come easy. If you want to have a great life with a successful career, emotional happiness, and solid friends you have to work hard. Luck can only take you so far, the rest is entirely up to you. No one else is able to fight your battles with the same force and commitment as you.

7. You get more by giving more. Success doesn't result from how much you get but from how much you give. If you want an abundant life, give as much as you possibly can.

8. You can become bitter or better as a result of your circumstances. Your attitude is always up to you. No matter what, remember that you have a choice. It's up to you to get the results you want. Look inwards and find a different perspective. Keep your glass half full, not the other way around.

9. Be flexible with your goals. Sometimes we feel it’s the right time to take action and put our plans in motion only to realize that we were wrong. That’s okay. It’s important to understand our timing of things and make sure we take the necessary steps to build out a plan for our goals. We are always changing, evolving and growing so we need to analyze our current position and what we truly want in the future.

10. Those who seldom make mistakes seldom stumble upon innovation. Mistakes are proof that we are curious. We’re trying, creating, exploring and discovering. Every success story and every fulfilled life needs to have mistakes. Mistakes do not mean you’ve done something wrong; they actually mean you’re doing things right.

11. I love my job, but I am not my career. I have a purpose that is not centered around a title or salary. I do not need to be everything to everyone.

12. Your education is never complete. Be determined to live fully and constantly learn. Prepare for what life has to teach you by being open to the lessons in everything you do and experience. And if you can, invest in educating yourself further.

13. Trust your journey, your life is unfolding beautifully. Even though I sometimes question why certain things happen or don’t happen for me, I trust my journey with my whole heart and being.

Where I am now took time, and where I’ll be next will take time. You can’t know at 20 what you know at 35 and beyond, you have to go through it to understand things. Be patient. Perspective is a slow cooking meal, it’s not fast food. This is 35!