Life Lessons Birthday Reflection + Blue Dress

Happy new week! I celebrated my 28th birthday on Friday August 20, 2021, and my entire birthday weekend was amazing! On Friday, my parents came over my apartment and we enjoyed some of our favorite Indian takeout food with red velvet cupcakes for dessert. Just being with my family and enjoying so much good food warmed my heart. On Saturday my husband took me and 3 of my closest and oldest friends (whom I consider sisters) to dinner at Suede restaurant in Brooklyn and we had an amazing time! Like we stayed out late as if I didn't have to be up for work at 5:15am on Sunday morning and even got soaked running from the restaurant to the car at the end of the night lol. I can honestly say this was the best birthday I've had yet and I have God and my loved ones to that for that.


God has blessed me abundantly over the past year and I'm so grateful for this life I get to live every day as well as the abundance of love, support and joy in my life. Every day is not smooth and I face my fair share of challenges, but even on my hardest days, I am filled with gratitude when I remember that my whole life is an answered prayer. Like I really prayed, worked hard, sweat, cried, and sacrificed for the life I have now with the level of peace and wisdom I have now.

Dress- Rumours | Shoes-Steve Madden

I have by no means "arrived" because everyone has room to grow and there are always new levels to experience, but I learned some life lessons and had some epiphanies over the past year I'd love to share with you. So here are some life lessons:

1. Celebrate every win no matter how big or small.

2. Write down your goals. Every single big goal I achieved this year started as a prayer and then I wrote it down in my journal, on my vision board, or in the notes app on my iPhone.

3. The most important validation comes from God. You are not always going to get a "good job", "thank you" or even basic acknowledgment for doing something good or great and that is okay as long as God is pleased with you and your work.

4. You will inspire people who never give you credit or express gratitude for your influence. 

Even when I don't publish a blog post, I make it a point to share food for thought on Instagram because my first goal as an influencer is to inspire people. Two weeks ago someone plagiarized a piece of my writing and it really upset me and hurt my feelings. I pour my heart out into my messages and sometimes it takes me a while to think about what I want to say and all my longer thought-provoking captions are always inspired by personal experience and are messages for the both of us. So when this person stole my words I had to remind myself that my mission is to inspire and clearly the person was so inspired that she stole my words without giving me credit lol.

5. Give and accept grace freely. There will be many times when we are in need of grace from others and ourselves and many opportunities will arise to show someone grace. Be kind to yourself and others in those moments.

6. Say yes to opportunities and experiences that have the potential to bring growth and rewards. I said yes to working the night shift for the foreseeable future in July 2020. Working nights was not conducive to my sleep schedule or family time on the nights I had work, but I did it for a year, got a promotion, and now I work daytime hours!

7.  Creating boundaries for how you spend your time and checking your capacity before you make plans to do something is a game-changer. We live in a world where the constant grind to get up and go after things is glorified, but it's also grueling so pace yourself because if you keep going without adequate rest breaks you are bound to burn out.

8. Dream big. Remember that promotion I told you about in point number 6? Well in 2016, the younger silly me told my boss at the time I had no aspirations to do the job I have now. The truth was that I was intimidated by the job and didn't think I could actually develop into the person worthy of that job. Well, I grew over the years and realized that I was playing small by thinking so little of myself.  Somewhere between 2018 and 2019 I went through a major mindset shift, grew a lot closer to God, and decided to start prayerfully going after everything He wants for me by walking in my purpose, dreaming big, thinking big, and praying more purposefully and my whole life changed!

I hope this blog post gave you food for thought and resonated with. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. 

2 comments

  1. Always such great points! Happy birthday and I’m proud of the women that you are, keep rising to the occasion and leading with gratitude.

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    1. Thank you so much sis! I truly appreciate your support.

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