Twenty Years

I've been meaning to write this for a while... A few months ago I was bored at work and started making a list of all of the things I've learned in the first 20 years of my life. I came up with a lot of random things, and I could probably make this list go on forever. Here goes! In no particular order...

-Things will always get better.

-Don't rest your happiness on other people. No one is perfect.

-Learn to love the things you make. Even if you know you can't paint a masterpiece, appreciate the stuff you can do.

-Change is inevitable. If life didn't involve change, we wouldn't be down here on Earth.

-Hope for the best, but expect for the worst. Life never turns out how you think it will.

-You are unique, one-of-a-kind, and therefore shouldn't compare yourself to others.

- Do your best to accept others for who they are rather than judging them. "For man looketh upon the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the heart."

-Learn to trust yourself and trust the decisions you make.

-The frugal person is the rich person. The person who wants to be rich is probably not frugal. (in money terms...)

-You'll never get EVERYONE to agree with you.

-Actions can speak louder than words, but it also depends on who you're talking to.

-Education is not about the number of classes you take or which school you attend or what degree you attain; it's about how much you learn and apply that knowledge to yourself.

-Practice doesn't make perfect. Determination, courage & perseverance makes perfect. You have to be able to do something different than how you were originally doing it in order to obtain perfection in something.

-Time does not solve problems.

-People tend to want things without sacrificing for them. (losing weight, relationships with people, etc). It doesn't work that way. And You cannot truly be happy & appreciateive of getting what you want unless you sacrificed for it. The words enjoy and joy are two different things.

-Don't sweat the small stuff! Ask yourself if it will be an issue a year from now, 5 years from now, or 10 years from now... and then if you said yes, fix it now before its taken that long. If you said no... then don't sweat it!

-No matter where you live, it will eventually become a boring place to you. There will eventually be "nothing to do here" one day when people ask you "so what is there to do around here".

-If you want something done your way, you have to do it yourself. If you want something done, you can ask someone else. If you want something done "right", change your perspective because "right" is almost always up for controversy.

-Ear infections are most definitely contagious, I don't care what the Doctors say.

-There will always be something to complain about. Just be willing to accept what life hands you and use your time to figure it out rather than complain.

-Change what you can change about yourself that you don't like, but don't allow the things you can't change in life to stress you out because it is not worth it.

-I believe one of the worst sayings invented was "the world does not revolve around you." I agree that you should not be selfish, and that the world does not revolve around any particular person. But the way I see it, your own life is one of the only things that you exclusively have, so technically your own world technically revolves around you. I just don't like how this saying is basically telling people that they don't matter, because we do matter!

-People tend to think that "I'm the only one". But no one is alone in trials. Everyone has trials & goes through pain. It is what makes us grow.

-Too many people tell you to be prepared for the bad things in life. But we also need to prepare for the good things. I think if we prepare for the good things, the bad things won't seem so bad.

-Nothing worth having is easy to find or get. You need to work at it.

-Our world lacks people with good listening skills. I know I've been guilty of thinking someone else has said something completely different and then continuing a conversation later to have them correct me about something I failed to listen to... woops.

-Just because you want something does not always make it right. (food, media choices, friends, anything)

-Experience something new as often as you can.

-Being a teacher is one of the best feelings.

-Constructive criticism should not be taken so harshly. If someone truly did not care about you, they'd want you to do everything wrong.

-People love to give advice, so just let them. You might use something they said, and if not, you don't have to use it.

-Impulse buys are not good.

-Don't save things you "might use one day"... haha. You'll find it a few years later and throw it out anyway.

-Life & the amount of time we are given each day is one thing everyone has in common.

-Understanding means more than encouragement or sympathy.

-Laughter doesn't solve everything, but it sure makes the solving part a lot more fun.

-Things can always get worse, so spend your time appreciating what you already have instead of dwelling on what you wish you had.

Okay. So this felt very serious. Sorry! Oh well, I hope you enjoy some of the lessons i've learned over the past 20 years. haha!