54 Things I Learned In My 54th Year: #54 Perspective

I turned 54 two days ago.

My 54th year was not easy.

In fact, in all of my years, this past one might have been the most challenging.

If year 54 isn’t at the very top of the Hardest Years Of My Life List, it’s in the Top 3.

I wouldn’t say I’m sailing in smooth waters right now, but I’m not getting hammered by massive wave after massive wave after massive wave and struggling to keep my head above water for long enough to get a breath before I go back under.

Which is how the majority of year 54 felt for me.

Things have calmed down considerably in the last two weeks.

With the dust settling, I am looking at life from an updated frame of reference.

I’ve learned A LOT in the last 365 days.

I figured I’d share (in no particular order) 54 of those things with you in the next few weeks.

Going through hard stuff sucks.

But it sure does help to put things in perspective.

It’s like a cheat code to reaching the next level of clarity.

Some things might be worth complaining about. Some things might be worth worrying about.

But most things? Most things aren’t.

Year 54 reminded me that my time and my resources and my energy levels are limited, and I don’t want to waste any of them on stuff (or people) that won’t matter (or that I won’t even remember) next year.

That’s one of the things I’ve started asking myself when my mind starts racing and when I realize I’m blowing through my mental and physical energy reserves at an alarming rate.

A year from now is this going to matter?

If the answer is no (which it almost always is), then I give myself a mental Cher-Snap-Out-Of-It slap across the brain and I reset.

The sands are falling in the hourglass. They aren’t coming back.

I don’t want to waste them on stuff that’s not important.

Because as Sweet Brown so famously said back in 2012, Aint’ nobody got time for that.