I Want Life To Chase Me
This week I'm turning 25 ( !?$&@?) and I've had a lot of alone time to think for myself. For people who know me personally, my mind tends to race at 100 mph approximately 60-70% of the time so naturally, I spend a lot of time analyzing and overthinking again and again. As a result, I've formulated a few major realizations for the big ole quarter century that I have been working on myself.
1. Do It For You
When was the last time you weren't afraid to be different? I personally believe there is a time and place for everything but for some reason, society throws us on a treadmill and keeps increasing the speed to conform and join the rat race. For me, I've never been scared to do something new or out of the norm. My favorite thing is to go where I've never been or do something I've never done before. The adrenaline rush and fulfillment I receive, and raised eyebrows, from doing so is priceless and I don't intend to change that. This lifestyle has encouraged a lot personal growth and confidence beyond belief. People want to have it all without knowing what it is. Go find out what it is that YOU want to do, create your own template and be yourself, unapologetically. If you let life pass by..one day, you'll begin to resent the same decisions you rushed to act upon just to size up to the other robots.
2. Embrace Hardship
I know this may sound cliche but the days you are most uncomfortable are the days you learn the most about yourself. Learn your strengths and your weaknesses. At the end of the day, life gets pretty boring if one colors within the lines so don't be afraid to accept the challenges in life and maybe make a few mistakes along the way. Human growth and technology are synonymous in my opinion. The nerd in me likes to compare myself to an operating system, you gotta go through a few versions to be your functional best but there is always room for improvement. You may take different approaches to see what works and what doesn't and maybe things will be an epic fail but hindsight is always 20/20. Tough times build character and character is what we are remembered by.
3. You Are Your Own Brand
I whole heartedly believe in this. After working in corporate America for a few years now, I quickly realized that people will most likely recognize your name before anything else so the most important thing to do is to make sure it's represented well. The way a person treats people, the way they carry themselves in all situations makes a huge difference and carries a lot of power. (Granted at the end of the day, we're only human and our emotions can get the best of us. You can slip up. It's life.) This point ties into #2, if you don't know your strengths and weaknesses - you can't own who you are and if you can't own who you are then people will own you. That's a power you never want to give up.
4. Be Ambitious, Not Thirsty
Self explanatory - but I'll take a few seconds to clarify. For anything you set out to pursue in life: what's worth it, won't come easy. What's easy, won't be worth it and if you settle out of laziness, you're not worthy. As simple as that.
5. Make Sure Nice Isn't Just A Place In France
With all the crazy things happening in the world and society being full of fickle people, try to not contribute to the negativity. Learn to respect people's time and efforts and differentiate between those who are loyal and those who are not. I've seen individuals get brutally stomped upon and exploited in friendships and relationships but life is way too long to build up bad karma. There will be people who will kick you to the curb, once you are no longer beneficial to them, and act like it is NBD - you don't want to be them, it's embarrassing. Instead, be a good person and do your part to make the world a little less cruel and heartless :)
6. XOXO, You're No One Until You're Talked About
I love to talk, you love to talk, we all love to talk but what it comes down to is what you're saying and how you're saying it. Yes, there will be times when you'll hear things about yourself that aren't very nice (or true) but you can't let that get to you. It's something I'm working on as well, believe me, it ain't easy. But here's what I gotta say about it - if they don't have the balls to say it to your face when you put them on the spot, then honey, you win. In one ear, out the other, dust your shoulders off. #FAMOUS #ISaidIt
There you go, a snippet of some of the life lessons I've learned over this past year. Just like my arguments in this piece, everything I've said in my previous posts (see below for a refresher) still hold true for me and I stand by them. I am who I am because of the experiences I've had and I take immense pride in just being myself. Looking forward to the next year of adventures and here's to another year of doing what I do best, me.