40 things I learned on my way to 40.

1. It’s only a dog eat dog world if you’ve convinced yourself you’re a dog.
2. The only substitute for patience is frustration.
3. There is no such thing as a bad day. Just a bad interpretation of a good one.
4. There’s nothing wrong with who you are. There is something wrong with remaining that person.
5. You can only be yourself if that’s who you plan on spending the rest of your life with.
6. Love yourself enough to love those around you just as much.
7. Love yourself enough to know who to keep around you.
8. Love yourself.
9. If you think you don’t have insecurities, it’s probably your insecurities telling you to think that way.
10. What’s the point of having a V12 engine with a terrible navigation system?
11. Direction is as relevant as speed.
12. Control is as relevant as direction.
13. Don’t be afraid to get behind the wheel.
14. Read the manual before you get behind the wheel.
15. If I knew then what I know now, I still wouldn’t have listened.
16. You’ll know if what you’re doing is working if you get the results you desire. If you don’t, it ain’t.
17. How many people would call you if you didn’t call them?
18. Life gets easier if you’re paying attention.
19. The cost of success may be relationships.
20. Being alive has as many constraints as it does freedoms.
21. No one ever works as hard as they think they do.
22. Being an asshole in response to an asshole only reaffirms their train of thought…and eventually turns you into an asshole.
23. Whoever said “ignorance is bliss” was ignorant.*
24. Children get the gifts of love & friendship. Adults get the opportunity to earn it.
25. Things you take for granted will eventually get taken back.
26. Why do we assert our individuality over those who accept us for who we are and conform to those intent on changing us?
27. Fight your boss, not your spouse.
28. Fight your boss, not your friends.
29. Don’t fight your boss. Just get a new job.
30. Everything I have ever accused others of, I have done myself.
31. The people least likely to forgive tend to be the ones most likely to screw up.
32. The hard part is defining success. The easy part is getting there. Good luck with both.
33. Selfishness is the only disease that is also its’ own cure.  When you take it at face value, you take. When you truly are a self-preservationist, you quickly realize you cannot survive for or by yourself and give.
34. Men are just as emotional as women. We just cry with our fists.
35. Why is an opinion just an opinion until it’s your opinion?
36. You’re a weirdo too. You just think you’re cool because you hang out with other weirdos.
37. Faith belongs in places other than your Ipod playlist.
38. Looks fade. Books fade. Respect doesn’t.
39. Under promise and over deliver. That’s why you’ll be reading 45 things when the title says 40. Feels like you got something for free don’t it?
40. Your head and your heart are not enemies.
41. Under promise and over deliver.
42. There’s nothing wrong with repeating a lesson until you get it right (see 41). No worries if you don’t learn your lesson however because…
43. Life has a funny way of showing you the same photos until you get the picture.
44. You can fight fire with fire but you’ll probably end up burning everything down.
45. At some point, you have to stop being a victim of circumstance and start being a victim of deliberate intent.
46. I still don’t know anything.
47. Writing it down allows you to see how stupid you would’ve sounded had you said it aloud first.
48. Life is short.
49. Smurfs are shorter.
50. Laugh a lot.

Sidebar: *Whoever said “ignorance is bliss” actually was ignorant because that is not the literal quote nor meaning. The quote is “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise”. It essentially translates to “just because you looked it up on Wikipedia doesn’t make you an expert” and not the new school meaning of “I was better off not knowing”. Sidebar complete.