Happy new decade! Have you done your reflection for the past year and preparation for this year? I did mine and discuss that in the last post. I thought alright, I’m ready for next year. That was until I came across a Marie Forleo video where she talks about doing a 10 year review since we were about to enter a new decade. I’d never thought to do that. I was intrigued so I did a review of my past decade and let me tell you, I am so glad I did that. My eyes were opened to things I hadn’t considered and it’s also given me food for thought regarding this next decade. I would encourage you to do your own. One of the things Marie Forleo suggests we do is make a list of lessons from the last decade. I did mine and I’m sharing them here in case one or two may prove to be eye opening for you.
The below lessons were a combination of experience, books I read, videos or interviews I watched whose truth I saw in my life. For some of them the learning is an on going process.
- I have to love myself if I’m going to be able to love others and impact them.
- I have to choose friends wisely because you become like the five people closest to you, as Jim Rohn said. In addition to this, I must decide if I can trust someone before befriending them instead of the other way round.
- I don’t always have to be right.
- Success is not a universal thing. I get to decide what success looks like for me.
- I don’t have to achieve certain things by a certain age or be a certain way. I should live my life at my own pace without comparisons. This freed me to enjoy birthdays again and not worry about not having enough time.
- It’s extremely important to have a vision for my life because if I don’t I can be easily derailed.
- God speaks to His children and I can speak to Him and have a relationship with Him.
- I don’t have to live my life to please other people. I can just be me and if it bothers anyone, they’ll get over it.
- Happiness is a choice I have to keep making over and over again. I can’t afford to think I’m happy now and that’s it. One small thing can change things around if I let it.
- I should not hold on too tightly to things, be it dreams, hopes, people, control etc, because there may come a time where you have to surrender them.
- What I want and dream of, God wants it for me more than I do.
- When something happens to someone I love and I don’t know how to help them or nothing can be done for them, I can pray for them because God loves them more than I could ever love them.
- Continuous growth and development is vital to my success in life.
- If you believe, anything is possible. Not just believe, but believe without evidence, as in have faith.
- I can trust God because He will do what He says He will do. I can relax knowing He’s got this instead of trying too hard to force things outside of my control.
- My thoughts matter greatly. I become what I think about.
- Without the alcohol, smoking, partying etc, I’m actually an introvert and that’s okay. I don’t have to be something people expect of me. I don’t have to be a people-pleaser because of fear that I will have no friends.
- I should dream big because my Father, in heaven, has limitless resources.
- I shouldn’t be afraid to disappoint people for my beliefs or values and what I believe is right for me.
- I discovered that men value respect a great deal. According to a study by Shaunti Feldhahn, most men value respect more than love. I didn’t realize how important respect was for men. After reading about this in For Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn, I tested the hypothesis using men around me and it was true for them.
- Beauty not only lies in the eye of the beholder but the most important beholder of them all is me.
- I am beautiful. Yes I actually had to learn that I am beautiful.
- I am lovable.
- Truly trusting God comes out through the fire, not when everything’s going well and you say “Oh I trust God.”
- God loves me no matter what. I used to think God only loved me if I was a certain way or did certain things but He loves me as I am. He loves you as you are. I wish more people knew this.
Those are the lessons I was wiling to share, some were too personal. If you’d like to do your own decade review, here’s the Marie Forleo video I was talking about: (There are 3 short videos, the below is the first one.)
