39 short sentences, 39 life lessons, 39 unbelievable years

The succinct and unfiltered truth of my lessons learned so far

This past Tuesday, I celebrated my 39th birthday. In no particular order, here is a straight-to-the-point collection of some of the most important lessons I’ve learned in the years I’ve been privileged to live.

In the spirit of #3, I limited myself to one sentence per lesson. Let me know if you would like me to delve deeper on any of these realizations.

1. At a certain point, if you have lived (and continue to live) wildly and well, FOMO is no longer a thing.

2. If you consistently dread doing something, find a way to eventually stop.

3. Overexplaining yourself is a waste of time and makes you look insecure and unsure.

4. Being misunderstood is not the end of the world.

5. The sooner you stop caring about what other people think about you - especially people who don’t even know you - the better.

6. Never underestimate the creative and energetic benefits of walking around a different neighborhood with no plan.

7. Opportunities find you more easily when you leave the house.

8. Not everyone wants the best for you or says the same things behind your back as they do to your face.

9. It’s never too late to start over - especially when you’re convinced it is.

10. Skin ages and there isn’t much we can do about it in the long run - no matter how much capitalism tries to convince us that we can buy our ways into eternal youth.

11. No one looks the way they do on the internet.

12. Don’t compare your life to others - there is always much more than meets the eye in even the most perfect-looking life.

13. Don’t compare your face or body to others (especially those half your age) - you don’t know what people have done to look the way they do.

14. Let people gossip (there is no bad publicity).