Life lessons: 23rd birthday edition.

I completed 4 years of engineering life and entered the new world of corporate on my 23rd birthday. So basically the student phase of my life has ended. Throughout these years, I had so many good and not so good experiences, which changed me as a person and changed my thought process. Every event in our life shapes us into the person we become. We learn and unlearn.

I am a person who loves listening to other people's experiences, their thoughts because I strongly believe experience is the best teacher. We can only learn something over the years through experience. I want to share a few things that I have learned in my journey till now because maybe somewhere someone out there might need to hear this now.

So here is me presenting my lessons in all these years on the occasion of my 23rd birthday:

1. Unfollow: This is so important. Anyone who drains your energy, unfollow them on social media and in real life too. Don’t waste your energy/efforts who are not good for your soul and don’t match your vibe. Be mindful of the people you follow because they affect your energy. Don’t add unnecessary people to your social media.
2. Don’t beat rather celebrate: Don't be hard on yourself, you are not the opportunity you missed nor the failures that you had. Be gentle with yourself. Celebrate every minor effort that you put in, irrespective of the outcome. Give up the idea that you always have to be productive. Take rest, my child, and be proud of how far you have come. You don’t have to figure out everything at once.
3. Nothing can replace hard work: People often say work smart, but I believe only when you do hard work then you can find a way of working smartly. Sometimes we don't get the instant result of our hard work, but trust me, hard work never gets wasted. Eventually, you will get the fruit of your efforts.
4. Solitude is bliss: Spending time with yourself is so important for getting a better understanding of yourself. What do you want in life? What makes you happy and what makes you sad? The longest relationship you have with anyone is you.
5. Health should be your topmost priority: Work on your physical & mental health, it’s your real wealth. What is the use of money that you are earning if you are not healthy enough to spend it on yourself? A healthy person has a thousand wish but a sick person has only one. Nothing is more important than your health because without it you have nothing.
6. Your friend circle defines you: There is a very famous phrase “show me your friends and I will tell your future”. Surround yourself with people who are passionate about life and energise you. Your friend circle defines you.
7. Keep it real: If you fake or lie about something, things become complicated. Stay true to yourself and to the surrounding people. It's easy and beautiful to be real. Embrace your reality and deal with it at face value — it’s the only way to solve and be at peace with your problems. It’s tiring when we have to pretend to be someone else.
8. Family is the genuine treasure: Spend as much time as possible with your family, Do something special for each one of them. Family is the one who stays with you in your hard time. Don’t be too busy chasing your dream that you miss the genuine treasure of your life. Family is your only long-lasting happiness.
9. Pain, sadness, mistakes, failures, and heartbreaks are inevitable: if you think you are kind human and only good will always happen to you, my friend, this is not always true. You will experience sadness, heartbreaks, but this will strengthen you. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
10. Money is IMPORTANT: Money is not everything, but it controls everything in your surrounding. I must change my life so that I can live it, not wait for it. With money comes freedom and FREEDOM IS HAPPINESS.
11. Start early and take action: Start early with whatever specific activity you have to do. If you have to write an article, start it early so you can have more time to edit it later if needed. Don’t let procrastination go in the way. Action kills anxiety.
12. Never let emotion govern your life: Do not make promises/decisions when happy and do not speak when angry. Don’t promise too much. Do not promise to do what you obviously cannot do. But always do more than you have promised if you know you can. Here, you will seem to be reliable. These qualities are always highly appreciated.
13. Relationships need to be maintained: It is not a single person's responsibility to keep a relation going, all the parties involved in the relation need to make continuous efforts to keep it going. If you wish to continue a relation, make efforts otherwise set the other person free.
14. Set boundaries: Not everyone deserves to know everything about you. Create personal space for yourself and let no one cross that space. Share as much as required , do not over-share. If someone disrespect you, forgive but never forget.
15. Manifestation is real: You create as you speak/think. Manifest the life you want, manifest the partner you want. Always speak positivity to yourself.
16. Follow minimalism: Delete those apps that you have never used, pause notification of your application, not every notification is important. Think twice and thrice before making a new purchase. Do you actually need to it or you just find it cute? Take only that much of food into your plate, which you can finish.
17. Collect memories, write a diary, click photos: Try to document your life as much as possible, not for others nor for social media, just for yourself, so that after some years you can look back and reflect on your journey. Whenever you have time, write about your day, how is your life going, what's making you happy/sad these days. Write about that new person in your life, how you met him/her.
18. Keep your self away from others' matter: Even if he/she is your best friend or relative until and unless you have to do something with the matter, do not get involved. Do not unnecessarily complicate your life by getting involved in other matter, you already of have a lot to deal with.
19. Make new connections: The more you connect with people, the more you learn from their experience. Try to connect with people who inspire you in one or another way. Be approachable. Greet everyone and speak politely.
20. Never go unprepared: Be it a small/enormous opportunity, do not take things lightly, always go well prepared. If you are meeting a new person, research a bit about him/her so that you have a topic to discuss.

Initially, I wanted this list to have 23 life lessons, but I believe I need to explore life more to have more life lessons. This year, I promise myself to push my limits and escape my comfort zone. With this promise, see you next year with more lessons.

Thank you and have a great day.