13 Life Lessons From The Last 365 Days – Kat’s Birthday Year End Review

Well, I am officially another year older, and that means a few more life lessons under my belt. I thought I would share with you a few things I have learned in the last 12 months and 13 moons.

Another year has come and gone since I wrote my list of 35 Life Lessons and I have been thinking on the things I have learned in the last year. In honor of my 36th birthday on December 13th, here are a 13 new life lessons from the last 365 days...

1. It is okay to not be okay - If you are sad and need to cry, then cry. There is never a need to apologize. Just don't live there.
2. Recognize that you are not responsible for the emotions of others. You cannot control the actions and reactions of the people around you. You can only control how you allow yourself to be affected by them.
3. We  teach others how to treat us, and what we allow is what will continue - if you allow someone to treat you poorly, they will continue to treat you poorly. Know your own worth.
4. Stop and smell the roses. Wiggle your toes in the grass. Take time to drink a good cup of coffee or tea. There is peace in the bottom of the cup. Enjoy the beauty that is all around you.
5. Become your own best friend. There is nothing selfish about self-love. How can you give your love freely to another or accept the love of another freely, if you do not know how to first love yourself?
6. Remember that you are stronger than you give yourself credit for. When it comes down to it, despite the insurmountable odds, when all the chips are on the table, you can stand on your own. You will make it. You will survive.
7. It's okay to eat dessert first... or as a meal by itself.
8. Smile. They are infectious. Go ahead... smile and see what happens.
9. Never give so much of yourself to someone else that you get lost along the way.
10. Walking away does not always mean you have given up. Sometimes it means you recognize that what is currently in front of you no longer serves you or your purpose in this life.
11. Speaking of happiness - know that you cannot have it with out some measure of sadness. Without the sadness, how would you know what it feels like to be happy?
12. Accept that your path is yours and yours alone. No one else can live your life for you.
13. You are not the things that happened to you. You do not have to be a victim. Take those experiences, find the lesson in them, and move forward in your life with strength, courage and grace.

Thank you for allowing me another year in your life, for choosing to listen to us in the mornings, for reading my random babblings online. Thank you for being part of my day, every day. I hope that the coming year brings you many blessings and much happiness.

♥ Kat