30 Truths I’ve Learned In 30 Years
THESE ARE SIMPLE lessons about life in general that I picked up while travelling, living in different cities, working for different companies (and myself), and meeting remarkable and unusual people everywhere in between.
1. There comes a point in life when you get tired of chasing everyone and trying to hx everything, but it’s not giving up. It’s realizing you don't need certain people and things and the drama they bring.
2. You can’t control how other people feel, or how they receive your energy. Anything you do or say gets filtered through a mind-set occupied by whatever they are going through at the moment, which has nothing to do with you. Just keep doing your thing with as much love as possible.
3. If a person wants to be a part of your life, they will make an obvious effort to do so. Don't bother reserving a space in your heart for people who do not make an effort to stay.
4. If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down—which is not always as obvious and easy as it sounds.
5. Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing.
6. Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading toward success. You don't fail by falling down. You fail by never getting back up. Sometimes you just have to forget how you feel, remember what you deserve, and keep pushing forward.
7. The more things you own, the more your things own you. Less truly gives you more freedom.
8. While you’re busy looking for the perfect person, you’ll probably miss the imperfect person who could make you perfectly happy. This is as true for friendships as it is for intimate relationships. Finding a companion or a friend isn’t about trying to transform yourself into the perfect image of what you think they want. It’s about being exactly who you are and then finding someone who appreciates that.
9. Relationships must be chosen wisely. It's better to be alone than to be in bad company. If something is meant to be, it will happen—in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason.
10. Making a hundred friends is not a miracle. A miracle is making one friend who will stand by your side when hundreds have walked away.
11. Someone will always be better looking. Someone will always be smarter. Someone will always be more charismatic. But they will never be you—with your exact ideas, knowledge, and skills.
12. Making progress involves risk. Period. You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.
13. Every morning you are faced with two choices: you can aimlessly stumble through the day not knowing what’s going to happen and simply react to events at a moment’s notice, or you can go through the day directing your own life and making your own decisions and destiny.
14. Everyone makes mistakes. If you can’t forgive others, don’t expect others to forgive you. Set yourself free by forgiving someone else.
15. It’s OK to fall apart for a little while. You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well. Cry if you need to—it’s healthy to shed your tears. The sooner you do, the sooner you will be able to smile again.
16. We sometimes do things that are permanently foolish just because we are temporarily upset. A lot of heartache can be avoided if you learn to control your emotions.
17. Someone else doesn’t have to be wrong for you to be right. You have to allow people to make their own mistakes and their own decisions.
18. Nobody has it easy. Every one of us has issues. So don’t belittle yourself or anyone else. Everybody is fighting their own unique war.
19. A smile doesn’t always mean a person is happy. Sometimes it simply means they are strong enough to face their problems.
20. The happiest people I know keep an open mind to new ideas and ventures, use their leisure time as a means of mental development, and love good music, good books, good pictures, good company, and good conversation. And oftentimes they are also the cause of happiness in others—me in particular.
21. You can’t take things too personally. Rarely do people do things because of you. They do things because of them.
22. Feelings change, people change, and time keeps rolling on. You can hold on to past mistakes or you can create your own happiness. Don’t make the mistake of waiting on someone or something to come along and make you happy.
23. It’s much harder to change the length of your life than it is to change the depth of it.
24. You end up regretting the things you did not do far more than the things you did.
25. When you stop chasing the wrong things, you give the right things a chance to catch you.
26. One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you the same as everyone else.
27. Enjoy the little things, because they’re bigger than they first appear.
28. Anyone can make a difference. You have more power than you think. Use it.
29. Every experience is a life lesson—everyone you meet, everything you encounter. Never forget to acknowledge the lesson, especially when things don’t go your way. Gain insight and move forward.
30. Regardless of how dark your past has been, your future is still spotless. Don’t start your day with the broken pieces of yesterday. Each day is a new beginning. Every morning you wake up is the first day of the rest of your life. What do you want to make happen?