Lessons Learning

A friend at work gave me this list awhile back. I have it hanging on my desk and find myself staring at it every once in awhile. Some of these things are like duh.. no brainer, but some of them really make you think and make me want to do better with life. I am working on a good start to my "bucket list", things I want to accomplish, see and do in my lifetime.. but this is a good list that we can all focus on for this year.

Health:
1. Drink plenty of water. [ easy enough I drink alot of water ]
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar. [ working on it ]
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants. [ does fried green beans count in that? ]
4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy [ Eh..]
5. Make time to pray. [ need to more ]
6. Play more games [ board games? ]
7. Read more books than you did in 2009 . [ already done.. thank you book club ]
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day [ I'll add this to the first five minutes of my morning commute ]
9. Sleep for 7 hours.. [ most of the time ]
10. Take a 10-30 minute walk daily. And while you walk, smile. [ I've never understood the concept behind people saying to you "smile" if you meet them in the hall... if I had a smile on my face all the time you'd think I was a crazy person ]


Personality:
11. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about. [this is really ALOT harder than you think ]
12. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment. [ I've been more positive and trying to see the positive in the situation.. good job me! ]
13. Don’t over do. Keep your limits. [check.. couldn't handle 5 work days this week.. PV tomorrow :) ]
14. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does. [ I think someone is reading this, clearly not a problem ]
15. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip. [ define gossip ]
16. Dream more while you are awake [ check.. it's called 7 hrs and 45 mins of work.. dreaming of not being there ]
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.. [ working on this one ]
18. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness. [ can be difficult ]
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others. [ I can strongly dislike ]
20. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present. [ I got no beef with you past ]
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you. [ beginning to figure this out ]
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime. [ really life problems and algebra?! At least with algebra you knew someone had an answer book ]
23. Smile and laugh more. [ every day brings laughter.. thank you work friends ]
24. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree… [ hmmmm ]


Society:
25. Call your family often. [ how about see them instead? ]
26. Each day give something good to others. [ greedy people... isn't my presence enough for you? ]
27. Forgive everyone for everything.. [ whoa whoa whoa.. let's be real here ]
28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6. [ dang the old lady at work isn't quite there... but closer to 70 then 40 since we round up.. ]
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day. [ do I count as one of those ]
30. What other people think of you is none of your business. [ um.. it's about me?! why can't I know ]
31. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch. [ will do ]


Life:
32. Do the right thing! [ but how will I know? ]
33. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful. [ oh but you can make anything useful ]
34. GOD heals everything. [ true dat.. may take some time though ]
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.. [ yes.. and hopefully for the better ]
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up. [ AMEN! ]
37. The best is yet to come.. [ man I sure hope so.. ]
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it. [ Thank you! ]
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy. [on it! ]



Then after reading this it made me take a step back and realize I still have alot of things to learn. One of the best things about our book club is the spread of people we have, older/younger, married/divorced/single, so many different life experiences that we bring to the table. After every book club I always take away something and it gets me thinking and listening to advice.. I'm kind of at a point in my life where I am starting to see things in a completley different way and listening and learning from others and using the great wealth of knowledge they have.

And lo and behold my favorite blog The Frisky had a story "Things We Wish We Knew About Womanhood At Age 18" some of these responses are things I'm just beginning to think about now at 24... always learning something aren't we-- here are some of the ones that stood out to me:

“Once you start working post-graduation, you have 40 more years of it coming, so do not get down on yourself if things don’t happen instantly"

“That you probably won’t have the American Dream by 25 unless your parents arrange a marriage for you and pass down their uber-successful business.”

“Nothing outside of yourself will ultimately make you happy. That all happiness is generated from within and will not come to you through, guys, career, kids, or any life circumstances.”

" It gets way harder to meet new people post-college, so explore and talk to all the new people you can.”

“You will eventually get over your first love who broke your heart so many times ... and many years later you’ll just throw his jail missive in the trash.”

What have you learned, wish you had know at a younger age or know you are still learning?