Diamond Thoughts

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Over the years, we all feel the pressure to keep up, to not stay behind, to get with the flow, to adjust and not be so rigid. There are more of these phrases, pick your favorite and insert. Bottom line is: you can only walk as fast as your feet can carry you. And what your feet can carry varies from day to day.

There are days you can carry the problems of the world and there are days you barely manage to put one step in front of the other. Hard lesson learned, it is ok to be slower at times.

It is ok to not keep up, to not go with the flow. If keeping up becomes a mental struggle, if going with the flow becomes a battle of several emotions, if not staying behind means abandoning core values, then please, let me walk in my own pace and in my own time.

I no longer want to sacrifice my budget to have the latest makeup and fashion. I don’t long anymore for the riches I thought I needed to be happy when I was young. I am ok literally walking slowly if it means I get to be outside with a friend I have not seen in a while.

I am fine wearing last season’s fashion (I shop at Ross and TJ Maxx) because that means I have money to spare on books. I am ok cooking all week and not eating out. It means I can get a series of tickets to catch classic movies that are now back in the cinema for a short period of time (Studio Ghibli) and so on.

Who taught me all this?

Life.

Life can often mess things up but life also teaches me valuable lessons. Walk in your own pace, in your own time. No need to justify to others or explain, no. Finding your rhythm, finding what works for you, what you value, and how to make the best of a situation means pondering the issues in small pieces, baby steps. And when you find what works, stick to it.

Just be you, be yourself, in your own space.