What I have learned in 2021

This year was rough. However, I managed to keep moving forward. Gradually improving myself was my plan, to keep my inner peace balanced. I am sure I wasn’t the only one facing hardship this year. I noticed many people were dealing with similar issues. Therefore, I’ve decided to share two of the major lessons I’ve learned this year.

Everything can change, including people.

This might be the hardest lesson. Although it was difficult to accept the fact that everything can change, including people’s feelings, I’ve surrendered to it at the end. Don’t get me wrong, change is wonderful. I am very flexible. I’ve always accepted change in my life, whenever I felt the need to it. But this year, change has reached an emotional level for me. I had to put an end to toxic long-term relationships, relationships that weren’t serving my personal growth. I had to cut ties with people whom I admired and trusted for years. It was hard, but to save my mental health, I had to leave these individuals and move on.

For this reasons, I decided to share this lesson. Change is sometimes a must, when things impacts the mental health. Keep in mind, part of evolving, is struggle. You must go through it to release emotional attachment. I know it hurts, but once you break off from that attachment, you will feel relieved. Additionally, you will not only regain your confidence back ( Which you might lose while being in toxic relationships), but you will also nurture and love yourself more than before.

Reduce expectations

After I finished my clinical training, I was very ambitious. I thought the process towards building my professional career was going straight from point A to point B, but what a lovely dream that was! Unlike my expectations, It was a journey full of ups and downs, obstacles, and lots of crying especially after getting deep in the “working environment!” Pursuing my dream was a lot harder than I envisioned it would be. My expectations dropped dramatically, if not vanished to be honest. What I’ve learned was, life doesn’t necessarily go according to books and plans. We paint this perfect image of how life is going to be, yet unfortunately, life isn’t always sugar sprinkles; and defiantly not either ‘this’ or ‘that.’ It’s a gray area in-between. You may organize a plan, stick to it, but then something, suddenly, happens and destroys all the plan you have built. Dreaming big is essential, still keeping your feet on the ground is more important.

Others opinions of me doesn’t define me.

Before, I used to explain myself a lot to people to clear all misunderstanding that may occur. Despite all efforts, I’ve came to a conclusion that there will always be people who will misunderstood what I say. Regardless of how bright and positive they show in front, some people don’t have genuine feelings in inside. As a result, I have realized, other’s satisfaction shouldn’t be my concern. In fact, it is imposable to satisfy everyone all the time! Doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong, never crossing the lines with others and respecting people’s opinions were all more worthy of my time than worrying about someone else’s acceptance of me.