Happy New Week!
In continuation of my May 9th post on 21 Things I Wish I Knew at 21, and as promised, here's Part 2.
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow,. The most important thing is not to stop questioning. - Albert Einstein
12. Travel, if you can afford it. This is the time to do it- before you have kids, before career commitments and before marriage. With age, comes responsibilities and limited vacation time. 2011 was my self-declared traveling year. I visited 4 countries and it is still one of the most memorable years of my life.
13. GET A MENTOR. In fact, get two- one in your career and one who you admire personally. Actually, get as many as you want. Reach out to someone you look up to, more likely than not, s/he will be honored. I have about 5 mentors and I still have "mentor openings". For me, my criteria is to find someone who "seems" to be where I want to be, then I connect with them and find out "how" they got to where they are. Remember, you have to humble to learn.
14. Network- Make good impressions. It IS a small world.
Two months ago, I attended a Continuing Legal Education seminar for lawyers in my area. I was fortunate enough to sit beside a lovely lady. When we took a break for lunch, I introduced myself and we got to talking. It turns out she was a lawyer looking to quit her job and start her own law firm, a move I had made just three months prior. This got us to talking some more. We exchanged business cards. She later contacted me to set up a time to get together. She had plenty questions about how I overcame the fear of abandoning a steady handsome paycheck to dive into the unknown. Our meet-up was awesome, to say the least. We had an honest conversations and she left feeling inspired. We kept in touch and soon, she indeed made the leap. While she was getting her firm set up, she got a lead in a practice area I knew more about and sent the client to me. That client is one of my highest paying clients till date. Just yesterday, I found out she was neighbors with one of my very good friends and that they had each talked about me to each other on several occasions and did not know they were talking about the same person till my friend posted a picture of me on her Instagram. What a small world!
15. Guard your reputation- it's an investment account that you only returns what you deposit. Simply put, in metaphoric terms, it is better to be "reserved" than to be known as the community "whore". See Number 6.
16. When it comes to "hanging out", trust your instinct. Do not do anything just to fit in. A few years ago, I mentored the female youths (aged 14-19) in my church. After one of our meetings, one of my mentees came up to me and asked if she could pick my brain. She told me this colorful story about a recent fight she had with her friend. Her friend accused of her of being boring and uptight, simply because she didn't want to accompany her to hang out with two boys to a beach picnic. I asked why she did not want to go, she said she did not trust the boys and that it was a secluded area. I told her to stick to her grounds, but just accept it might cost her friendship. Two weeks later, she thanked me for my advise. Apparently, her "friend" went on the trip with another friend and they both got raped.
17. Face your demons. Own your life experiences and how they have made you who you are. You are only human. There IS nothing wrong with YOU. Stop looking back. Move forward.
18. In life, everyone has a different question paper. Stop trying to copy others. Create your own path.
19. Do NOT believe the hype. No one's relationship is perfect. People who make an effort to continually boast about how their relationships or marriages are perfect only do so to hide the truth.
20. Let go. Let God. The only person grudges imprison is you.
21. Don't chase after people who don't want to stay. Any person who makes you work extra hard just to stay close to them, does not deserve you. Your time and emotions are better spent loving those who love you, instead of worrying about those who don't.
Stay Inspired......
NwaVic
www.nwavic.blogspot.com|||dearnwavic@gmail.com |||Instagram @dearnwavic ||| Twitter @nwavicesq
No comments:
Post a Comment