36 Life Lessons I’ve Learned in 36 years

Well guys…it’s my birthday! It’s very strange for me to see that number…36…and feel like it’s attached to me. Wow. Somehow, I still feel 22 [thank you Taylor Swift].

I started to do a little reflection of the past 36 years of my life. I tried to make sense of it in a nutshell. So here are just some straight out life lessons I’ve learned without going into deep explanation for each one. Enjoy my little bit of madness.

1. My mom was alwaysssss right!
2. My stubborness is one of my greatest gift but greatest weakness.
3. Life is not fair but God is still good.
4. We will ALL most likely have someone that hurt us. Forgiveness is a decision to free ourselves from the pain caused by someone else.
5. Joy is a choice.
6. Everyone has an untold story.
7. The experience and the journey are necessary. You can’t get to a destination without first going through a journey.
8. Never take the easy route. Then you won’t have a scenic story to tell.
9. I was already equipped for the life that was given to me to walk out.
10. Fear has come to try to stop me from what I’m supposed to become. Just on the other side of my fear is my destiny.
11. Having grace and love doesn’t make you weak, it makes you stronger than most could ever be.
12. Dancing can heal any bad mood.
13. My mom is a superhero.
14. If my mom could do it alone with 7 kids, I could do it with the support of my husband and with 3 kids. No excuses. No question.
15. People will always try to place limits on you that they place on themselves. Don’t let them.
16. Failure makes you better and sets you up to be resilient in the future.
17. Every single job path, every single career choice, everything you’ve ever tried and ever done are just skill levels and tools in your tool belt setting you up for where you are going.
18. Show up every single day like you believe in your dream, because no one else can see it but YOU!
19. If your marriage is on the rocks or your family isn’t healthy, whatever you try to accomplish will not be healthy in that season, because the underlying truth is…you’re not healthy.
20. Kids do not take you away from your dream…they give you the drive to make your dream a reality.
21. If fulfilling a dream was easy, everyone would fulfil thiers. Stop looking for easy.
22. There is no success in the world that would compensate for the loss of an important relationship.
23. The greatest success is to do what you love without compromising who you are.
24. It’s ok to not be ok. Extend grace to yourself.
25. Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful.
26. Our minds process so differently. We can be in the same place, and the same situation could happen to ten people in that same place. The way each person will process the situation and tell the story will have similarities but will be different. Everyone has a process system that is so different.
27. If you’re creative…you are smart. Creativity is intelligence having fun.
28. Being a “creative” doesn’t mean that you’re a flake. So don’t be one.
29. No one will take you seriously unless you take yourself seriously first. Show up for yourself and make yourself proud FIRST.
30. Treat every single person as if they were important. Because they are. Every single one.
31. You don’t have to live your life proving anything to anyone. [Still learning this one].
32. The Lord KNOWS YOU. [Psalms 139-you just have to google it, and read the entire chapter]
33. Photography/video are a gift to humanity.
34. Tacos has got to be one of the greatest inventions of all time.
35. I don’t believe there is a greater scent in the world than that of brewing coffee.
36. God’s grace and favor will take you places that you could never take yourself on your own.

I’m so grateful for 36 years of life and life lessons, and if God so wills, the many more years and life lessons to come!