29 LESSONS FROM HAVING LIVED IN 5 COUNTRIES
The past few years have been a very (dare I say the most) intense learning experience. I left a great company and a comfortable situation in pursuit of two single thoughts in my head: to obtain my master degrees and to specialize in a field that gave me joy and purpose. The first one had to happen before the second one.
One of the major objectives of these master programs was to equip its graduates with ‘real life experiences.” At the time, I had no idea what that meant. Looking back at the past years, I now understand. And it’s something like this:
- be faced with situations that made my jaw drop or heart ache and learn to react with empathy and resilience.
- live and or work in a community of people that didn’t look, think, explore, thank, encourage, and or act anything like me, and still build strong relationships with a foundation of trust, reliability and generosity.
- realize that fear was often the only thing standing in my way and that I was SO extremely lucky to be in a position of such fortitude.
- see that my life is often one choice away from a completely different reality. Meaning that I have the power and responsibility to carve out my own life and I have to follow intuition because the choices I make will often only make sense to me.
I gathered some personal profound lessons so I could reflect back when I needed. It gives me encouragement in particular moments. It might do the same for you, while saving you the battle scars.
1. Get out of your own head. Be vocal about what you want. People will never know what you don’t tell them. Communicate!
2. Say “no” more. Focus is a weapon.
3. Always be grateful for what you have because at one point you had to fight for it.
4. Life is a feeling process — people feel when you’re bulshitting. Don’t bring fake anywhere.
5. Don’t waste your life! Live it! Learn it. And walk into a room like you’re supposed to be there … because, you are supposed to be there.
6. What part of the world someone is from will give you no indication of how they will treat you.
7. Spend time with good people over good food and you will never grow fat — and if you do, it won’t matter to you.
8. The answer is often in the only door you didn’t check. Don’t say its locked unless you’ve checked every door.
9. “The sexiest thing on this planet is being thoughtful generous and really smart.”
10. Just because it didn’t last forever doesn’t mean it wasn’t worthwhile.
11. If they don’t know you personally, don’t take what they say personally.
12. Finding the humor in difficult times makes them a little more accomplishable.
13. Effort+ consistency = a big portion of success.
14. You know more than you think you do and you can do more than you think you can.
15. You are never the result, you are always the effort.
16. BE HUMBLE!
17. The only way to grow is to put yourself in uncomfortable situations that you will fail at. But if you keep practicing, then you will fail a little less every time, until eventually you won’t.
18. Being in a relationship requires time and effort, if you can’t commit either then you shouldn’t step into a relationship. This is both a personal and professional matter.
19. Stop being so afraid to be confident — listen to some Beyonce and own it.
20. Some days you will win a hackathon without ever coding in your life, other days you will be on the verge of crying and say out loud to yourself: what else can possibly go wrong, and then a bird will shit in your hair (#RealLifeExperiences). Both are okay — life will return to your personal baseline soon — so make an effort to have a fantastic baseline level.
21. Always be kind to yourself. And be tough. They both take work. Remember to take breaks. To rest your soul and soften the hard edges. Then, keep working.
22. Happiness isn’t guaranteed, no one is responsible to make you happy besides yourself.
23. People never see the effort and work it took for you to get there, similarly you don’t see the work it took for someone else to be successful — don’t compare yourself.
24. If they supposedly feel so strongly about you and they are not going after you, then what else are they not going after in their life? And do you even want that kind of guy?
25. Talk boldly about your dreams and your “out of this world ideas,” you never know who might be dreaming the same dreams as you or wanting to solve the same problems as you. Trust that the right people will come along and will join you on your quest.
26. You want honesty? Give honesty. You want respect? Be respectful. Reflect everything you want to receive in your life. And as soon as you see someone acting in a way that isn’t compatible with your values, don’t wait.
27. Your eyes are more reliable than your ears.
28. Action -> results -> motivation = that’s the order.
29. People will underestimate you when they first look at you because you’re pretty lol, that’s fine. You can be pretty and ridiculously smart at the same time. Just because it doesn’t happen often doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
