3 years ago, I broke up with my wife.
It was a hard but necessary decision. One of my best friends told me, “You just wasted the last 5 years of your life”.
I believed him for a while.
But then these 5 lessons showed me the truth:
Lesson 1: Every day is day 0.
It doesn’t matter if you think that you wasted your life up until now.
Every day is a new day to change your direction and start something new.
The past is the past. Your present, however, is what shapes your future.
Lesson 2: Everything is a lesson.
Everything that happened to you is a lesson.
From your years in school to all the hours wasted working for someone else, they were all opportunities to learn something.
You can ignore all the lessons and have your past repeat itself…
Or you can learn from your lessons and take a new direction in life.
Lesson 3: Someone needs the lessons you learned the hard way.
My divorce, my heart surgery at 18, my countless mistakes…
These were all expensive lessons. Instead of keeping them for myself, I can share them with others and help them avoid a lot of useless suffering.
What lessons do you have that can help others?
Lesson 4: Remember that you are not alone.
When life gets hard, it’s easy to feel alone.
Every time you feel like you are the only one with a curse, remember…
We all face harshness. We all have scars. We all have lost someone.
If now it’s your turn, remember that there are more people who can empathize with you than you think.
Lesson 5: You can always choose to smile.
You can’t control the events, but you can control how you react to them.
Life throws manure at you? Clean it off and smile.
Life is hard today? Get off your ass, go out, breathe some fresh air and enjoy the fact that you are still able to smile.