32 Things I Would Tell My Younger Self

Today is my birthday! 31 trips around the sun and counting. 32 years crept up on me rather quickly, faster than I expected. Over the last 31 years of my life, I've learned, grown, and experienced a lot. They say hindsight is 20/20 and it could have saved me a lot of growing pains and heartaches, but without living through all of my mistakes, I wouldn't be the women that I am today. If I had the opportunity to have a conversation with my younger self and offer her some advice, here are 32 things I would tell her:

1. Accept yourself and every precevicable flaw you think you have. Accept yourself exactly as you are and as the universe made you. Surrender into radical self love and self respect. 

2. You tend to be shy, but try your best to overcome it. Remember, that at the end of the day people are just people and we all have the same core desires in life. It is a gift to get to know new people, especially those who are different from you in some way, culturally, ethnically, religiously. Its scary pushing past your comfort zone, but the benefits are everlasting.

3. Don’t dress for how you feel now. Dress the way you WANT to feel later.

4. Never hold back a compliment, but always make sure they are sincer. They cost absolutely nothing to give, but can mean the world to someone else.

5. Don't wait for things to be perfect before you start. In fact, screw perfectionism all together! It will hold you back if you let it, so let it go and just consistently show up in life and your business. 

6. Nothing is worth sacrificing your health over, you only get one body in this lifetime so be kind to it. Nurture it. Give it at least 7 hours of sleep at night, drink water instead of soda and booze, and skip those delivery orders. Allow yourself rest both mentally and physically when you need it.

7. Feed your mind. Doubts will hold you back in life, affrimations will propell and pivot you forward. 

8. Family is everything. Love them as hard as you can, and as often as you can. You’ll never know how blessed you are until they’re gone. (I miss you, mom!)

9. Save your money as soon as you can and never open up a joint checking account and put all of your hard earned cash in it with a boyfriend.

10. When you fall, get back up and try again. There’s nowhere to go from here but up.

11. Get comfortable with saying the word no. Pratice it in the mirror.

12. Turn off the phone and be present! The world in front of you deserves your full attention. 

13. You are not alone in your feelings whatever they may be.  

14. Find someone that you can be vulnerable with. Don’t hide how you feel from them. It could potentially save your life.

15. Some relationships aren’t meant to last, and drift apart. That’s okay. Enjoy them while you can.

16. It’s okay to hustle, but give yourself some grace every now and then.

17. Learning your own lessons is important, but try to learn from others too.   Your mom is actually right sometimes and has learned this from experience so listen to her and take her advice. 

18. Do it afraid. The fear will never completely leave you, so it's best to learn how to overcome it while you're young. 

19. Your ex-boyfriend who always wanted you to be perfect, and dress up in heels all the time, isn't worth the effort. You want a future partner who will think you look sexy af in sweat pants and a messy bun and encourage you to be the realest version of yourself you’ve ever been. 

20. Pursue your curiosity, it's the key to never being bored (or obsolete).

21. Every morning, look in the bathroom and say, "good morning, beautiful" and tell yourself you love her. You need to become a person you can love before you try to love anyone else. 

22. Listen more and talk less. 

23. Gratitude will change your life. Practic it every day. 

24. Allow yourself to have a broken heart, but don’t allow it to break you.

25. Most of the stuff you'll waste time worrying about will never actually happen or matter. Worry less.

26. Invest in yourself. 

27. Pace yourself, day drinking is a marathon, not a race.

28. Stop caring about other people's opinions of you. They don't matter and half the time they're not even paying attention, what matters is your opinion of yourself. 

29. Don’t put your heroes on pedestals and even if you admire them greatly, never admire them more than you admire yourself.

30. Serendipity is real. Say yes to things. Try things. Finish things. Even if the benefits aren't obvious. You’ll be surprised at what crazy things will come out of them.

31. Take the list of things you want in a partner and change it to a list of things you want in yourself.

32. Take pictures of everything, especially your loved ones. Memories fade, but pictures never will. They’ll give you something to remember when you’re older.

I know one thing to be true and that's despite all of the mistakes I've made along the way, life is pretty awesome regardless. I’m off to enjoy a sweet 32 birthday with some of my favorite people, but I'd love to know what you'd tell your younger self! Leave me a comment below!