Six Steps to Successful Living
My life is generally laughed at by most for basically just being ridiculous. The amount of sticky situations I manage to get into is comparable to a good airport read, in fact many of my friends tell me I should write about them, saying that it would be a serious laugh out loud best seller. Thanks for the moral support guys! Over the past 4 years between the ages of 16 to 20 I feel like I have experienced many of life’s challenges for the typical teenage girl and my reaction to many have been hugely embarrassing. However, instead of providing you with a biography of my life for you to cringe at I provide you with my top 6 life tip list to live by.
Always listen to your mother.
I know that you hate to admit to it, but she is generally always right. She has lived life as a woman a few more years than you and I’m sure as probably experienced a few life commotions herself. I learnt this the hard way. Continually making the wrong decisions when it comes to clothes, exam revision and the male species – my poor mother would sit me down and inform me that going out with just a florescent pink crop top on, sitting msn-ing or the boy that makes you cry five times a day just are not the best idea. Did I listen? Absolutely not. I carried on regardless and having cringing back on old photos, not getting exam results I wanted and experiencing some pretty messy relationships, I have learnt my lesson. She is always right. I now listen to my dear wise mother – most of the time, and have lived a life with almost a month of no drama. We have our mother for a reason, LISTEN TO HER!
Leopards don’t change their spots.
We all have experienced that boy in our life that we have given a bazillion chances to. And when he makes us feel like we have been stamped on by a boot covered in dog poo do we let him go? Nooooo, we of course give him ANOTHER chance. I am guilty of doing this. Having a year and a half of oh I love you, actually no I don’t let’s just be friends, oh wait can we still have sex? In fact, I love you again… YEAH, this happened at least 10 times. Did I tell him where to go and how to do it? Nope. I forgave, forgot and then cried into a bottle of wine. He says he will change, but he won’t. Find somebody who treats you right the first time, you deserve all the happiness in the world and don’t forget it. Hormonal rant over.
Don’t Facebook/Twitter/Instagram stalk
We have all done it. From an ex-boyfriend, to a current one, an old friend to a new one, we all spend hours trawling over social media to find out their latest whereabouts and life happenings. Especially when it is an ex-boyfriend or friend, this hobby just makes you feel upset. Why voluntarily do this? Unless you have seen that they have ended up in the gutter with a horrific haircut, ugly new girlfriend or group of friends that make you squirm, usually social media is a way for people to make their lives seem as unbelievably fantastic as possible so this is what their life will look like to you… without you. Don’t make yourself want to jump off a bridge. Instead concentrate on your new fantastic life and make that look blooming brilliant on social media. Plus, accidentally following people on Twitter or Instagram is one of life’s serious cringe-fests.
Take as many opportunities as possible
That old phrase you only live once comes to mind on this one. Personally, in twenty years time I do not want to think ‘what if?’ While we are young women with very few responsibilities this is a fantastic time to use the time we have to travel the world, meet new people, eat fantastic food and try a whole cocktail menu! Maybe we should spend this summer having a summer of yes, I mean please don’t so anything silly, but try new things and be a bit adventurous.
It’s fine to regret
We all look at back at things we have done in the past and could just hit ourselves. From snogging dodgy looking boys in clubs, to falling out with friends and family, we all have things that we regret doing. That is fine! People who say you shouldn’t regret are completely unrealistic. We learn by the mistakes we make and move on. Just make sure your regrets don’t define who you are, and maybe just forget about them occasionally.
Carbs and cups of tea make the world go around.
When anything goes wrong, instead of reaching for the vodka the first thing I do is pop the kettle on, have a cup of tea and reflect on what has just happened. Then at about 3 o’clock the vodka comes out to help me find the embarrassingly awful solution to my problem. When that goes wrong, as it so very often does, (reflecting on that time I thought throwing my phone at a wall was the answer) I call on carbs. As a nutrition student I probably should not be condoning this but carbs are the answer to all problems. Eat them, get over the issue and then eat a cucumber to make up for it. After all a glass of wine in one hand and a carrot in the other constitutes for a balanced diet. I won’t judge you.