What my 32^nd birthday taught me !!!

What my 32nd birthday taught me is the blog about my personal ‘life lessons’ and the impact of that on me.

Birthdays  are a very important part of everyone’s life and it should be a special occasion because after all we were born on that date and that was the time when we opened our tiny eyes and saw this beautiful world for the first time.

My Birthday too like everybody is always special to me ,first because I am born on a unique date which is 29^th of February, a leap year and second because everybody treats me right on this day and pamper me with gifts,flowers,cards,wishes and blessings which I absolutely enjoy.

But as I am growing year by year, I think I am getting better and wiser by my experiences. I have realised that there are some small things which are extremely important for one’s living and which can make a huge difference to one’s life. I would have been a calmer and cooler person,had I realised it before but sooner the better so I am sharing it with all of you.

The things which I am mentioning here are not ‘rocket science’ things nor are they difficult or complicated. These things are my realisations over time and those things which we know but never bring to use.

We all must have read these things many times or must have been guided by our parents or teachers but the “eye opening” moment can happen anytime, so after reading this,even if one person realises and works on it I will be a happy soul.

So here are the things that my 32^nd birthday taught me

• Every day’s sunrise is new 🙂

Each day as we wake up is the beginning of a new life and hence start your day with new enthusiasm,new zeal and new energy with new hopes.

Earlier, I often brought the dullness or the failure from ‘Yesterday’ to ‘Today’ but now I know if I have failed the other day, its not necessary that I will fail today too.Never carry the burden of the past in the present.Let the newness of the fresh day lead you to a better day.

• Live in the moment!

Our Euro trip in 2014 gave us many new experiences, one of which was meeting many international friends. Here I met a girl who was just 21 and had already seen 38 countries till then.

First thought which came to my mind was “ What if , I too had travelled so much in my college days”,but those days are gone and will never come again.

Regret is the worst feeling ever and that’s when I made a promise to myself that I will keep doing things then and there without postponing and will always live in present. The ‘right time’ will never come but what is with me is the present time so its my duty to live it to the fullest.

Life is happening now so never wait to live your dreams.

• Exercising is crucial and a healthy lifestyle is must.

I know you all have read it thousand times and you already know it but are you really working on it?

Nik and me had become as lazy as you people once and were very laid back in our approach to exercising. But when age started showing its effects on us, it startled us and we decided to follow a healthy lifestyle with balanced diet and off course started working out.

The day we made exercise a important part of our lives our life changed for better.Now we are addicted to it and we feel in sync with life. It has made our thought process very clear and we feel more focused.

• Stop Reacting start Responding !

This sentence and living by it is perhaps the most important change that I have embraced in my thirties. Every Action has an equal and opposite reaction is so true in our science books but My new Sid’s law says “don’t react to actions opposite to and against you, but Respond to them”.

Reactions cause unnecessary fights which stresses us out and nothing is gained from it.

Listen to your instincts and respond accordingly and as it is ‘Action speaks louder than words’ so increase your responsiveness.

Be a good person but don’t waste your energies in proving it.Also take control of your life as if anyone can change it its only You,You and You.

• Grudges never help

Whoever has hurt you or insulted you without any reason will get the taste of their own medicine sooner or later. We don’t have to waste our time and energy on them. Grudges just crack us up and take out all the energy which otherwise can be used for meaningful purposes

Don’t let grudges come in your way but just stay away from that person and focus on your priorities.

• Distance yourself from negative people:

I was always a super aggressive person and was always a volcano about to burst. Negative people and their taunts and negativity used to get me and I wasted a lot of my time in giving importance to all this and fighting it out.

I have one aunt who continuously pointed out my negative aspects and whenever I met her my moral used to come down.

Over years I have realised that I know my self better than she knows me and hence the best way is to distance such people from me and move on in my life.

• Make books your best best friends

Books can be very influential and can be best companions, so if you haven’t experienced the beauty of reading,start it from today. They can be your best friends and will never leave you.

Reading also enhances our imaginative skills and is a great activity to indulge in so bring them on and start reading!

• Identify your weaknesses and work on them, its never late to improve.

Time management is my big time issue and I am very bad at meeting deadlines but as I know my weakness now I am surely working on it and I think I am doing a better job than before.

Identifying our weaknesses is the first step towards avoiding them and its never never late to improve on them.

• Learn to forgive

Forgive not forget…..yes thats the point.

Rewinding and Reliving those bad memories in our head again and again and bad mouthing is only going to harm us,so just forgive those who treated you bad and give yourself time to heal.This does not mean that forget what you learned from it.Everyone coming in our life has a meaning and reason to it.

Forgiving someone doesn’t mean you are backing out or are a coward but it just ends that ‘thought process’ going in our mind then and there.

This is what ‘moving on with dignity’ means.

• Stay away from comparison, everyone’s life is different

Yes this is something which is very hard to achieve but is so so important for our well being.When I was young I thought that comparison makes us more active and imbibes a healthy competition in us, but now I know its not that easy.

Everyone’s life is different, so are the situations,circumstances,causes and effects.Stay away from comparison and just focus on your own goals and aims in life.

• Ups and downs are part of life.

Even Lord Rama had to face so many problems when he was living a life of a normal human then how can we escape it.

Life cannot be a bed of roses nor it can be a blanket of thorns. It maintains its own balance and helps us to maintain ours so just go with the flow and have faith in tough times.

• Voice your opinions without fear.

When you have a strong opinion about something or you are sure about some decision, just voice it without fear. We indians always think of others while doing anything. May be because we are brought that way where we are more concerned about the society than our own feelings.

This needs to be changed.If you don’t want to get married soon,say it loud and clear,if you want to travel alone,just go for it, if you want to study at the age of 40,do it.

Voicing what you want is not disrespecting some one else’s feeling but standing for yourself, so just voice whatever you want until it is registered.

• Don’t be judgemental and stop reacting to people’s judgements about you

We have judgments about everyone like “yuks, what is she wearing?”,“ She weighs 100 pounds…oh GOD”, or “Her husband is so pathetic”…I was like this before but now I have noticed that its none of my business to comment on them neither is it anyone’s business to comment on me.

My 30 years of life has taught me that if someone tells me I look ugly doesn’t MEAN I AM…so Stop reacting to people’s judgements and laugh it out without letting it hamper your spirit.

• Accept and Expect

Accepting a truth or a fact needs a lot of courage and strength. When I was job less just after my MBA,people asked me again and again“when will you start working?” or “why is that only you don’t get a good job?I used to get furious by such questions as I thought why don’t they understand that I am already frustrated for not getting one.

But now if someone points out certain things in me ,I know how to ACCEPT the FACTS and EXPECT people to Comment.

Society works like this only.The only thing you don’t have at that moment is being talked about the most.The most unwanted questions will be popped during social gatherings and you will be targeted

The minute you start accepting the true facts about you and expecting people’s torturous comments you start feeling nothing about it…Trust me it works..Try it yourself.

Life is is ultimately a  journey and not a destination plus its totally and completely in our hands as “how me make it” so just relax ,take it easy,break free and focus on your dreams rather than the unwanted.

These are the life lessons that my 30 years of life taught me. I am sure that once you start actually living by it,life will be wonderful and full of fun.They say ‘Life starts at forty’ and Going by that I still have many youthful years to enjoy life to the fullest so its better late than NEVER.