Growing Older Means Growing Wiser

I’ll be 29 in two weeks, and I cannot help but occasionally think of the things that I know now that I didn’t know 10 years ago. I do this every year on my birthday. I don’t know why; maybe it’s because I enjoy aging and look forward to growing older and wiser and I look back on my year to see what I learned since the last time I thought about what I learned. Anyway, I think it’s a great idea that everyone should try. Being a little reflective from time to time helps us realize that we’ve grown, we’re wiser, and we’re much different than we were a year ago. It is something that makes me smile. Here are the things I’ve realized since turning 28 last year.

Not Everyone Grows Up

Some people simply do not grow up; ever. There’s nothing I can do about that. As much as I’d like to grab certain people by the shoulders and shake them until they GET IT, I can’t. Actually, I’m pretty sure I could, but I don’t think jail is for me. Just because people are “old enough” to know better doesn’t mean that they are their age. They continuously make the same mistakes, continuously fail to stop comparing themselves to others, and they continuously try to be someone they are not. It’s sad, but it isn’t my problem.

Your Attitude is What Attracts the World

I don’t necessarily consider myself a believer in “The Secret,” I don’t think I can picture things in my head and make them come true. However, I do think that a positive, confident, happy attitude can make all the difference. When I start to believe I can do something or have something, I do it or get it. It’s all in my positivity. What I show to the world is what attracts the world to me. A defeatist attitude and negativity is only going to bring the same back to me. I choose not to be that person.

Failure is Success

There is no such thing as failure. Everything I do wrong the first time merely makes it easier for me to do it perfectly the second time. Believe me when I say I have no regrets in life; without living my life the way that I have, taking the long road from time to time, and making mistakes, I would not be married to the love of my life, or have two beautiful daughters, or the career I only once dreamt of having.