Twenty-five years on earth is no small feat.
If you’ve made it this far, farther, or are still behind (you child), I hope there is something on this list that journeys with you from this moment on.
1. There is nothing God asks that isn’t morally superior.
“If after serving God wholeheartedly, I got to the end of my life and found out there is no God, I would have lived a good life anyway.” (Sam Adeyemi, loose quote).
2. Our mission is to become love.
The unending overarching duty of life is to love God, love others and love self. It is simple, as it is complex, that everything begins and ends in love.
3. The words you speak become the house you live in.
Scientific name: Pr₁Ay₁Er₁. If the weapons fashioned against us aren’t arrows, but words (Apostle Selman), it is our job to create our own and prophesy them over our lives in Jesus’ name.
4. The present is all there is.
Don’t try to escape your life. Don’t glorify phases you’re not in yet. Do not daydream, enjoy the Now. Don’t let unlimited desires cloud your peace. It is perfectly healthy to aspire to being better but we were never called to aspire to happiness.
5. Strength train and eat right.
Cardio, building muscle, and eating right is the only health cheat code we get to apply.
6. When wisdom arrives, don’t let shame in.
Judging old parts of yourself with new information is prime bullying. Our past selves are the only vehicles through which the person we are today could have arrived. The truth is, “A younger version of you was never going to do what you’re doing today. Lamenting the things you didn’t do in the past means that you’re finally ready to do them now. So go do it.” (Toni Fifi)
7. Don’t let your thoughts consume you.
For many years, there was room to dwell in the world and all the while, I dwelled in my mind. I didn’t know how not to (because I had Pure O traits). So this is a niche lesson—it is far more important to live than to consider living; to get out into the world than to think about getting out into the world.
8. You may never rule the world, but you can rule your mind.
Our perception of life directly determines our reality. That we can live a different life if we just change the way we think about it is perhaps the magic we spend our whole lives searching for.
9. Life is a range of emotions.
And how unbearably unnerving it can be. I saw, in a book in my early 20s, that one’s enjoyment of life—even success at it—is heavily dependent on their ability to remain grounded when processing complex emotions like anger, fear, anxiety, frustration, grief, sadness, and more. I find that to be painfully true now; how happiness cannot endure life.
10. 1,2,3 set pain free.
If you’re easily angered or triggered, you’re easily manipulated. In truth, feelings come and go. Don’t let them break you during their stay.
11. You can’t control everything.
Making plans is like throwing dice, it’s the wind that decides where it lands. I like reminding myself that if I don’t leave spilled milk alone, the new cup I’m holding pours.
12. Serve others.
What is the point of a life if it is not used to lift other lives? When I look at the world’s greatest problems, I can’t help but ask myself: what will I contribute to make it better? From a global scale to my own neighborhood?
13. You don’t have to hang on to every relationship.
You’re probably better off without them. What is beautiful about relationship is reciprocity. If it’s not a two-way street, you’re allowed to move on without questioning it repeatedly.
14. Cherish some friendships as they are.
If there’s something missing in a friendship you have, odds are, you need to find an additional friend not attempt to change the one you have. You can’t teach people how to walk you home, but you can cherish their company and seek more elsewhere.
15. Some relationships will only be formed when you start adding value to the world.
What if you started knitting tomorrow, since you love it so much and it’s your one true passion. And what if when you put your knitted work out there, you find people who knit and people who love people who knit, and you get the chance to enter rooms you would have never entered if no one knew you knit?
16. Love is not a settling game.
I fully believe in waiting for the right life partner and never settling.
17. Mistakes aren’t a problem, they are the solution.
For every lesson learned in this world, someone had to fall flat on their face first. Mistakes seem to me, the yeast in the dough of progress. When we read books, listen to others, or follow formulas, we are able to use other people’s experiences to escape pitfalls in our own lives. Still, there are lessons only you can teach yourself.
18. Wealth is the thing you secure in service of what your soul cares about.
The need for financial stability and resources in a capitalist world being undebatable, it is conclusive that you do not have to be passionate about how you make money at first. I wonder still, if one ever has to be.
19. Act as consistently as you dream.
There. The cardinal equilibrium of a life well lived. Predictability. Consistency. Reliability. All these produce a (disgustingly) sweet fruit of labor.
20. Look good.
How you look directly corresponds to how you feel. How you dress is how you’ll act. Need I say more?
21. Think of everything you are often.
Less, all you want to be. There is no finish line for self-awareness. The version of you that deserves the most love is the version you are today. You cannot reserve respect, passion, and admiration for your future self as if it isn’t you who will become her. (Or him. Him).
22. A perfect life? That has never happened.
So really really loosen up.
23. If you tie your worth to age, it’ll reduce every year.
In the past, I’ve compared my life incessantly against time and age. I had scales, weights, and measuring tapes for my success, their success, my shortcomings, their shortcomings, and everything else in between. The spoiler? Everyone’s path is uniquely designed and there are no copies. No one is behind because everyone is in a different story.
24. You’re not nobody just because you don’t mean something to strangers.
It is so easy to get lost in the idea of being a main character in a world where nearly everything is digitized and your latest life update is only one network bar away from loading in everyone’s faces. But there is nothing to prove. To exist is to be worthy. The things we do are expressions of worth, not a creation of it.
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Tailline
