Last week was a rough week; probably the roughest one I’ve had this semester. Not rough because I wasn’t on top of things or work was overwhelming, but rough because I neglected myself. I’ve tried to stay on top of things this semester and I have achieved that for most of the part but in all that, I neglected my physical and mental health and forgot to prioritize my self above all else. I gave in to negative thoughts and I felt defeated then got angry at myself. I was angry for letting the world make me feel so weak and small and so I decided to go back to my 2018 mantra: Self love 2018 all the way. I got of all my social media in an attempt to just disengage and I can’t express how helpful this has been to me. I slowly regained myself and decided to get back on my fitness and it feels great to be in control of my life. That was a brief rundown of where I’ve been in the past two weeks and since yesterday was my birthday, I decided to do a post on some of the 20 things I’ve learnt this year. I did one of these last year and it was well received so I hope someone learns from my lessons this year with this post.
Here’s some of what Year 19 taught me:
- Don’t let anyone waste your time: make it a requirement that the people who show up in your life have their intentions predetermined.
- Reclaim yourself, reclaim power over your life and thoughts
- Set your standards high, jus because you haven’t found what you’re looking for doesn’t mean that its okay to settle, DO NOT SETTLE IT’S A TRAP!!!!
- Plug in to something, anything that makes you light up, invest your time in it, dwell in it, explore it!
- If it doesn’t serve you, CUT IT!! If it doesn’t add any value to you CUT IT!!
- Social media breaks are everything, just disengage for a second, spend the extra time reading a book or just listening to music or doing whatever it is that makes you calm
- Do things that make you uncomfortable, at this point I think I just enjoy uncomfortable situations
- stay curious
- Find a mentor, someone who you think you want be or one that just possesses traits that you love to see in yourself
- Keep your friends closer
- Make you a better you: Focus on you and who you are, invest in yourself in whatever ways make you happy, for me, that new pair of ‘somethings’ makes me the happiest.
- Network, network, network
- Its not always work, work, work, never forget to have some fun too. Set some time apart for leisure it makes a huuuugggeeeee difference!
- Surround yourself with people that challenge you
- Always voice it, a concern, a worry, a compliment, anything….JUST VOICE IT!! I think I’ve come to appreciate the power of speech and expression a little more and even though I’m not the best at communication, I now fully get the value of just speaking up
- Disturb yourself, I know this sounds like an African Parent expression but what this means to me is just being focused on finding what I really want to do with my life. I’ve tried, tested and learnt about a lot of careers and possible channels that I could go into and that has really helped other than waiting for answers.
- Sometimes you just need to dance your worries away
- That glass of wine on a Friday night is what got me through sometimes, don’t forget to sip on whatever makes that difference for you.
- COFFEEEEEEEEEE
- Love every single inch of you because if you don’t then who will?
I’m not a huge birthday fan, they feel weird to me. I feel like I’m not old enough to celebrate birthdays just yet but I still had a great one. I hope May treats you all right!!
Love, Imani.