Kelly KleinSo this is what 45 is like. When I was a kid, I never thought I’d make it to this age. It’s not that I thought I would die young…it’s just that I never thought of myself one day being what I used to consider ‘old’.
Of course, 45 is not old. I still have at least half my life to live. I mean, my great grandmother lived to be the ripe old age of 105 (her birthday would have been yesterday, by the way).
There is so much I want to accomplish. There is so much I want to do. There are so many places I want to go.
I am currently in the midst of about…10,000 obstacles, trials, and tribulations. I am working through them one by one. I will get there. That is my mantra.
I will get there.
I wanted to spend my birthday forgetting about the practical side of life and just take a day off. A day of writing, reflecting, relaxing…maybe a cruise to nowhere in particular. Who knows? The day is my oyster.
I especially want to reflect on the lessons that I have learned in the past year, since March 11, 2023, and that is what this blog post is mainly about. So, without further ado, here we go:
1. I am stronger than I think. We all are. I have been battered, bruised, torn up, and scarred. Life has chewed me up and spit me out. I am limping and disheveled, but I survived. And I am stronger for it. It isn’t until the trials that we discover how strong we are. If you don’t think you’re strong, maybe you haven’t been through anything that brought that out. But I can assure you that you do have it in you.
2. Unconditional love does indeed exist. We are all lovable. We just need to find the right people to love us.
3. If it’s got to be, it’s up to me. I have been working hard, contrary to popular belief, in my personal life to fix everything that’s wrong, and to work towards being successful. I can have some support from others, but ultimately I have to save myself. I always knew this to be true, but I didn’t believe I had it in me to do it on my own.
4. Be careful who you trust. ‘Nuff said. I trusted people in the past year that were more than happy to throw me under the bus, when I would never do the same to them. It hurts, but it shows me more about them than about myself.
5. I don’t hate myself as much as I thought. If I did, I wouldn’t bother trying to better myself, and I wouldn’t take care of my hygiene, and I wouldn’t care about the state of the apartment. That said, having time to clean the apartment is a completely different matter…
6. The sun will shine again. There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s not always a train barreling down the tracks towards me.
7. There’s a silver lining in every cloud, blessings wear disguises. Things do happen for a reason. You may not see it right away, but look for that sliver of hope in everything.
8. Inspiration can come from anywhere. I have been inspired by books, videos, other people, ideas…but inspiration hits me most when I’m driving. Even with the rock music blaring, it’s my one time to really think…and is why I kinda miss my long commutes from the Valley to work.
9. Everyone is inherently good. Everyone has some good in them. Sometimes they’ve been beaten up by life and become jaded and bitter. Sometimes it’s through no fault of their own…situations they experience shape them. They don’t always know how to deal with it without becoming a cranky, pessimistic person.
10. We all go through circumstances we can’t control. It is up to you to become bitter or better. Your choice. I spent a lot of time in my adulthood feeling affected by things that happened in my childhood, like bullying at school. When I was a child, I didn’t know how to rise above all that. Now that I’m an adult I have no excuse. I can get over all that. It may take time, but I can do it. You can too.
11. Don’t let other people affect how I feel about myself. I spent a lot of time just trying to get people to like me. It often didn’t work. So I thought there was something wrong with me. Not everyone is going to like me. As long as I like myself, I will have at least one person in my corner.
12. Don’t make excuses. There may be a genuine reason for not doing something, but most of the time they’re excuses. I don’t want to excuse my life away. I want to come up with reasons for doing ‘the thing’, instead of excuses not to.
13. Getting out of the comfort zone is where the magic happens. It’s not easy, but so worth it. My goal is to every day do something out of my comfort zone. Just something small.
And there you have it, my lucky 13 lessons.
My goal in life, and with Passionate Quill, is to inspire people to live their best life, while I’m working towards living mine. Please visit my website at passionatequill.com and sign up for my newsletter, which will be starting up again within the next couple of weeks. You get a free ebook when you sign up!
I won’t end this year without taking Passionate Quill further, I appreciate you reading what I write, and glad to have you along for the ride!
Be awesome and may your life be passionate!
