Life Lessons I’ve Learnt in My 38 Years

I have just completed 38 years of my life and being a woman, I have seen different phases of life. While some were really good, some weren’t – and some were life-changing.

Since childhood, our parents and teachers keep teaching us, but there’s no better teacher than life itself – for the lessons you learn from life, stays with you until death.

For me as well, life has been the supreme teacher and I thought to pen down all those things that I’ve learned in the last 38 years of my life.

I wish to read them every time I feel low and keep adding more to this list, as the years pass by.

So here we go:

1. Your mental health and physical health are the two most important things in your life. So being healthy should be your first priority.

2. Happiness is not something that exists outside. It lies within you.

3. Your mind is either the most powerful tool or the most dangerous weapon you have.

4. You have only 2 options in your life – accept it or change it. Try to accept what you can’t change and try to change what you can’t accept.

5. No human is a bad human – if you are kind, you can get the best out of the worst.

6. Read more books as they are truly a man’s best friends!

7. Art is a creative expression that allows you to engage with things beyond yourself.

8. It is too easy to criticize. Ask yourself if it is constructive or destructive.

9. The world is full of noise and keeps getting noisier. Don’t contribute to the noise, rather contribute to helping others.

10. If you don’t control your hopes and dreams, someone else will control them for you.

11. You don’t have to care so much about trivial things. It only distract you to what is truly meaningful to care about.

12. Your attention is very precious, so don’t direct it on a wrong path. I firmly believe in saying-“Where attention goes, energy flows, things grow.”

13. Beyond the basic human need for food, clothing, shelter and social connection, life’s rules are negotiable and what I learned that the most negotiable things for a human are their own health.

14. Knowledge is subjective. There’s always more to learn.

15. Start with logic, let it grow with imagination and creativity.

16. Pain is not always about suffering but can be a powerful agent of learning.

17. Life’s purpose is never conclusive. It is a continuous act of actively creating purposes.

18. Gratitude is not something that should be practiced occasionally. It should be an active part of your life every day.

19. Be your best friend and enjoy your time with yourself.

20. The most important decisions you can take in your life, based on either love or fear.

21. Always ask yourself “what do I truly care about?” and give more time to those things. Write them down so that it becomes easier to practice on a daily basis.

22. Try not to find faults in others, rather look at the better side of them, and they’ll also look at your good things.

23. Life is long or short depending on how you see it. Use your time well enough so that you maximize your chances of success.

24. Express your love for the people in your life that matters most. You will never know if you will see them again.

25. Humans are made to move and be active. Don’t lead a sedentary life so get up and move often. Give yourself at least 30 minutes in a day for exercise.

26. No one is responsible for my pain, fear, and anger. It is my own creation in response to their behavior and I have another choice the choice to be happy.

27. Spend a day without bothering about what others do or think. Half of your problems will solve automatically.

28. Fear and respect can never be together. Respect is pure and positive energy but fear is deep negative energy, therefore, those who fear us do not respect us.

29. If you don’t believe in yourself nobody will. You have to take care of your thoughts and always believe that you can do anything. If you act on that belief then people will treat you based on what you think about yourself similar to that if you love your self-praise yourself chances are that others will love you also.

30. Loneliness is different from solitude – when you are in solitude you take advantage of it to get in touch with your inner self to meditate and to quiet your mind. On the contrary, loneliness comes with stress, depression etc. so enjoy being with yourself.

31. The quality of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.

32. Never sacrifice happiness for achievements.

33. Always be in present – most of us spend out our time thinking about the past or worrying about the future and ignoring are present. We all know that the past will never come again and future is just like an imagination, what we all have is the present in our hands and it is our responsibility to make our present the most memorable one!

34. The most important and precious thing you have with you is your breath – if there is no better tomorrow then what? Give importance to your breathe and be more mindful.

35. Age is just a number. Don’t allow a number to hold you back or prevent you from being the person you are inside.

36. Traveling makes you mentally strong, more insightful and accepting person. It expands your vision towards life and teaches you about the people and their culture around the world.

37. Accept yourself what you are today, take your full resposibilty and with this mindset work towards your goals. Nobody can stop you to achieve them.

38. During COVID situation, I learned that our basic requirements are a very few. Beyond those requirement everything is luxury. Rather than lamenting on thing we don’t have, We should be grateful that we are able to fulfil our basic needs.

I’m sure there are things from my list that you could relate to, and you have your own learnings as well.

Would you like to share with us? Comment below.