Today is my 33th birthday and to celebrate that, I wanted to share with you 33 things that I've learned in the 33 years of my life.
So let's take a break from all the more serious stuff and talk more about fun things!
33 Things I've Learned In 33 Years
- Do what you really want to do with your life, and not what you're “supposed to”, or what someone else wants you to do. I've spent a big chunk of time of doing things that I wanted to feel good for me, but didn't. That were supposed to be good for me, but ended up not being. My career is a good example of it.
- Trust your intuition. If you're super out of touch of your with your intuition, it may take a little bit of practice to get to know your gut feeling. And you may go wrong a few times! That's okay. The more you practice, the better you get.
- Don't try to be so perfect in everything. Being flexible is actually much healthier for your body and mind, than always trying to do all the things perfectly.
- Don't take anything personally. Still working on it, but getting much better!
- Do crazy things, don't be so conservative! I wish I had been more like that when I grew up. I was always such a good girl who never took risks and always played safe. I sort of wish I had been a little more open to do crazy things!
- Traveling is amazing and everyone should do it. It's NOT okay to spend your entire life not leaving your country. You're missing out of you do that.
- Health is the most important thing. Without good health, you can't have anything. With good health, you can have whatever you want.
- SLEEP. Don't skip your zzzzzs. Especially, don't work out instead of sleeping. My health is exactly as good as my sleep is and luckily, during the last year, it has improved a lot. It's better than it's been in 10 years, which also means that I'm healthier that I've been in 10 years.
- Connecting with people can be hard but it's almost always rewarding. I'm generally an introverted person, so going out and talking to people isn't very easy for me. Sometimes I have to give myself a little pep talk to go and do it. But when I do, I almost always feel great after.
- It's possible to be introverted and extroverted at the same time. I always thought I'm 100% introverted and want to be alone all the time. Or, I need a bottle of wine to be able to be with people…. 🙂 Now it's different. After changing my job from sitting in the library alone to meeting with people several hours every day, I actually really like hanging out with people. However, I need quite a bit of time alone after that.
- Laughing is the best. My husband is the best. We laugh so much. Probably no one else would get our jokes which is the most ridiculous part. I hope you have a partner or a friend like that too because it's just the best.
- There are too many movies that I haven't seen. When I grew up, I didn't watch too many movies. Now when people quote movies that “everybody knows”, I'm the only one that has no idea what they're talking about. I want to change that.
- I don't need a scale. Something I couldn't live without for many years, has become totally unnecessary for me.
- Dietary fat is awesome and amazing. It makes me feel good, allows me to sleep better, is tasty and satiating. I can't believe I lived 6-7 years pretty much without touching any fat source. No wonder my health was as bad as it was (of course, that wasn't the only reason).
- I tend to be impatient. Sometimes I want to give up when things don't work immediately. Unfortunately, that's not how life works. You need to be patient.
- If a relationship does't feel right to you, it probably isn't. Don't stay with someone just because you don't want to hurt them. At the end of the day, you end up hurting him or her even more.
- Move your body every day. It doesn't matter how you do it. You don't have to marry to any type of exercise and do it for the rest of your life. Find movement that feels good to you, and don't think about how many calories it burns.
- Spend a lot of time in nature. There's nothing as calming and relaxing as being in nature. Working out outdoors is fantastic too. I absolutely love the gym, but I feel the best moving my body outside.
- Our bodies change and that's normal. You don't have to fight it. Our lives change, so our bodies change as well according to that. Some people's weight stays exactly the same throughout their adult life, but for most of us, it fluctuates a bit. It's normal.
- Forgive to those who hurt you. Ugh, I know it's so hard sometimes. But until you don't forget, you still carry the stuff with you that is holding you back so you can never truly move on with your life.
- Forgive yourself for hurting someone else. We all have hurt someone and later, may feel horrible about it. But if we don't forgive to ourselves, we keep thinking about it. Again, can't move on with our lives.
- I really love my job. I just enjoy being in the gym or training my clients outdoors. When I'm having a rest day — and I have to take a lot of them, if I don't want to overtrain myself again and lose my sleep and period again — I would actually really like to work out with them all the time. I need to hold myself back.
- I love writing. I've loved it since I was little. When everyone else dreaded writing essays in middle school and high school, that's all I wanted to do.
- I am not very organized person. I want to be, but I'm just not. I don't do a good job putting my things away, knowing where all my important documents are, and keeping track on my business expenses and incomes. Definitely something to improve.
- There are times when I get very depressed. Most of the time, I'm happy, but I do have three days to a week long periods, when I get depressed. About 4.5 years ago I was also on medication and saw a therapist for my depression, for about 10 months. I'm no longer taking any meds or seeing a doctor because things are much better, but I do have periods when I feel like everything is wrong.
- Chocolate is my favorite treat ever. When I used to work at a restaurant years ago, there was one birthday when all my coworkers gave me chocolate because they knew how much I loved it. My mom suggested we weigh it for fun, and I remember it was total of 1.3 kg (nearly 3 lbs) of chocolate. I'm no longer as obsessed with it and it would probably take me several months to get through this amount, but it's still my favorite treat.
- Not all people like what I do. That's fine. I'm not for everyone! And I don't like all people either.
- I'm a slow learner, when it comes to certain things. But I'm not beating myself up for it. I just know I need a lot and lot of repetitions before I get better in many things. Especially when it comes to anything with computers…
- Trying to please everyone means you're lacking confidence. It's important to figure out why it is so.
- I don't like going to bars. I mean, I can go once in a while, but I don't enjoy very loud music and big crowds. I also don't like drinking too much, not hearing what people say because it's too loud, and staying up really late.
- I like wine and especially sparkling wine and champagne. In moderation, though.
- Languages are fun. That's partly why I went to study linguistics. Later I found that I don't like to study linguistics, or write articles on it. But I still like languages and grammar. When I first started learning Finnish, I remember practicing the correct case forms non stop — there are 16 cases in Finnish!! — so I can write everything correctly. I was a grammar geek and I loved it.
- You can change most things in your life. If something doesn't feel right, you don't have to do it for the rest of your life just because that's what you've always done. Change your career, quit relationships that aren't good for you, learn to do something totally new even if you think that it's too late. It probably isn't.
Thanks for reading! Your turn: Tell me a few fun things that you've learned during your life!
I relate to so many of these! I think the most important thing for me to learn, was that nobody cares as much as you think. This may seem negative, but it’s honestly been so helpful for me to figure out. People are not constantly judging or worrying about you, so it’s important to take initiative and do whatever makes you happy. Everyone’s in their own bubble, and while it’s important to be empathetic and respectful to other people, at the end of the day, my life is determined by me, and me alone. If something is going badly, it is my responsibility to fix it. If I feel self-conscious about my body or anything else, chances are nobody else really notices or cares. It’s so freeing to live life in a way that makes you happy, not what you think SHOULD make you happy. 🙂
I totally agree! We aren’t judging the way others look either – or at least that’s what I think – so why do we think everyone is so busy judging us? 🙂