Lesson #1

The first and most important lesson you have to learn is how to love yourself. Without it, nothing else will fall into place and nothing else really matters. Loving yourself doesn't mean you can't improve, or become better, or learn something new or do something different. It means you accept these things and who you are. As egotistical as it may sound, you are the most important person in your life. Don't hold yourself back.

Your happiness matters. Your dreams matter. Your ideas matter. Your beliefs matter. Who you are matters. Love the great things and the blemishes. Love the person you are today. Love the person you will be tomorrow. This is the most important of life's lessons and we have to learn to love ourselves before we can really love anything else. We are all amazing people...it's time we started to believe it.

35 at 35

In honor of my 35th birthday, I give you a list of 35 things I have learned during those 35 years:


1) The more you care what other people think, the less you live your life the way you should.
2) Happiness comes from within. You can read all you want about how to be more happy, but ultimately, the ball is in your court.
3) Cynics make great characters (Dr. House), but being one leads to a lot of sadness and loneliness.
4) "Is there a god?" is not an important question.
5) College is overrated.
6) Our education system is broken. There are a lot of people with really great ideas on how to fix it, but very few of these ideas are being put in to practice.
7) Every day, we should strive to learn something new.
8) We all need to read more.
9) Failing is not a bad thing. We will all fail many, many times in our life. Failure is the best teacher.
10) Learn from other people, but don't compare yourself to them. We are all different.
11) Learn to listen to your fear...the more something scares you, the more you should probably do it.
12) As much as they make things more difficult at times, animals have added a lot of good to my life.
13) Admit when you are wrong.
14) Love freely. Do not hold back for fear of getting hurt.
15) Watch less television.
16) Slow down and enjoy the moment right now. Don't spend your whole life looking ahead.
17) Travel---spend time outside of your comfort zone.
18) Do not go into credit card debt. I can tell you from experience, it is not worth it.
19) Live within your means.
20) There are always going to be people who like you and people who don't. Embrace the first and ignore the second.
21) If you can imagine it, you can do it. Do not limit yourself.
22) Do not let other people put limits on you.
23) Don't conform to the masses unless you truly believe what they believe.
24) Everyone deserves to be treated with respect.
25) Don't fill your life with stuff. Fill it with experiences.
26) You are going to do stupid things. Learn from them and move on. Don't let the past haunt you.
27) Speak up in the face of injustice.
28) Stand up for your beliefs.
29) Seek out and listen to differing opinions.
30) Everyone changes over time, including you.
31) We need to evolve with the times.
32) It's okay to not have all the answers. It is not okay to not have the answers and not care.
33) Time really does seem to go by more quickly the older you get.
34) Don't take things so personally. Most of the time people are not out to get you.
35) Cut yourself some slack. There is no reason to get frustrated with who you are. If you don't like something, change it.