31 Things I Wish I Knew Earlier
I originally wrote this on my 30th birthday last year. I rewrote it and added one today because it’s my 31st.
Allow me to share with you 30 31 Things I have learned in the past 30 31 years that I wish I knew earlier. It would have made life so much easier, but then life is lived in stages and arrived at in phases, so all’s well that ends well. ;-)
1) Friends stay with you no matter how you look or smell. The real friends anyway.
2) The best things in life are still free. Everything else you can buy, hopefully at a lower price.
3) A lot of things are better when you wake up the next morning.
4) If you wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. If you don’t wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes.
5) Life is lived in stages and arrived at in phases. People cannot force you to learn something that is not relevant in your life. But it is still important to listen to the “wisdom of the old” because their advice will come in handy when we are finally ready for that lesson.
6) It is true, blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they will be filled. In one way or another.
7) Be ready because just when you think nothing can surprise you, God will.
8) Ang Diyos ang tumawag. Ang Diyos ang bahala.
9) If I allow it, I can stretch my heart to become bigger and love more. But only if I allow it.
10) We all have the capacity for resilience. We can learn new things. And get used to new difficulties. Everything that is not a habit now if done over and over again at least 21 times will eventually become a habit later on.
11) Life is not about survival, it is about surrender. The happiest I have been in my life was when I did not have full control over what was going to happen and I just let go. It was shitty in the beginning. But it brought a deeper fulfillment in the end.
12) I do not know the solution to our problems as a country or the solution to global hunger or poverty, but I know one thing, we could love just a little bit more.
13) One sure way to sadness is comparing yourself with others who you perceive have more or are better than you.
14) There is no faith without justice and charity. Real faith overflows into real action.
15) Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. Give him responsible technology, you’ve just fed the entire village.
16) Who among us have not dreamed about doing great things for God?
17) If you’re not willing to do hard work, you do not have the right to dream.
18) Life is either a great adventure or nothing at all.
19) Love isn’t love till you give it away.
20) Growing up is when your concern for others outweigh your concern for yourself. When you can carry money without spending it, when you can say no to yourself and when you do not have to win every fight.
21) Books are not ours. They are just for us to watch over until it is time to give them away.
22) No knowledge/skill/competence/experience is ever wasted. Someday, even your failures (especially your failures!) will be useful.
23) Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is than falling in love in a quite absolute and final way.
24) Always find the time to step back to look at the bigger picture and take a longer view of things. The devil’s way is myopia.
25) If you worry about what might be, and wonder what might have been, you will ignore what is. It’s not what if, it’s what now.
26) Many things in life become better as it ages. So learn to wait things out.
27) It is only possible to live happily-ever-after on a day-to-day basis.
28) Never laugh at anyone’s dreams. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.
29) Talk slowly, but think quickly.
30) As a wise Jesuit priest would always say, “In the end, it all boils down to relationships.”
31) When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
