Freedom is being your best authentic self. Not perfect but the best version of you, you can ever be. After 1 year and 8 months of one of the most colorful journeys in my life, I am finally giving birth to a dream! Leaving the corporate world required so much prayers, courage, humility, obedience to God’s will and a steel-tough faith. It is never easy to leave your comfort zone and take the risk of the unknown, but in my experience, you only get to know you better when you take a leap of faith and pursue what others would just imagine. And the best part is that I got to know my Jesus better. I can’t claim I had anything to do with any of the blessings I have received other than my obedience and putting my faith in action.

We can’t control circumstances or people, we can only control our response to them. And so, growing as a person or developing our personality and being better versions of ourselves, for me, had to come from a place of authenticity or simple self-acceptance. Freedom to celebrate who I am and having courage to pursue my dreams came from realizing that I am a work in progress and I will continually have to learn life lessons everyday, like focus, discipline and executing action plans. I have to have a fair judgment of my strengths and weaknesses, knowing that I am not above or below anybody, understanding that greatness means to serve sincerely and most of all knowing who I am in Christ.

As for money, it just can’t guarantee peace, joy or security. It gets things moving but that’s just it. As for the body, it is the temple of God, so it is a must that we give it the utmost care and respect. I must admit I should work on having a regular exercise routine. As for relationships, quality and quantity time is key. Also, one of the most painful experiences anyone can go through in relationships, is to pretend to be someone you’re not, no matter what the situation is. I have learned that people enjoy you the most when you are relaxed, at peace with who you are and letting them feel the same in your presence.

I also had to accept that I will still make mistakes and that I have to forgive myself, learn from it and move forward. I also learned that not everyone will like you, and so I decided that I should learn to please God alone and that only His opinion matters. You eventually become negative, unproductive and ineffective as a person if you live your life trying to get everyone’s approval. Sometimes people you love will disagree with you and leave, it is painful and sad but you must move on, respect their decision and keep loving them even from afar. I also learned to accept well-meaning rebuke and criticisms and allow it to positively impact my life. As for the destructive ones, it is imperative that I brush it off. And since our tongue has the power of life and death (Prov 18:21), I must continuously be conscious of what is coming out of my mouth as well. It is not easy especially because I like talking! All I know is that with God’s grace I will be able to consistently rein in my tongue. Our mouth speaks from the abundance of our hearts (Matt 12:34), and so I learned that we ought to get busy with filling our minds and hearts with what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, praise worthy and excellent (Phil 4:8).

Some lessons we learn in life will stand out from the rest, however, I remind myself that all of it sums up who I am in the present. That means I must be wise to remember and truly live out the positive effects it had on me, every single day. For me, learning is a lifetime process. Applying what we learn is the only way we grow as individuals. And if we have someone who will walk us through or just cheer us on, that makes the process even better. In fact, why don’t we learn together?! 🙂

Looking forward to another colorful journey, hopefully, with you!