Happy September and we are in the full swing of things post-Labor Day! This week marks another year checked off the list for me as I turned 35 and today, I wanted to share with you some important life lessons I’ve learned along the way: Make sleep a priority. A good night’s sleep is something no one ever regrets. Find mentors. I have mentors that I’ve met and some that I haven’t and they have helped me immensely in my career and life. Read, read and read some more. Reading is learning and completely changed my life. Invest in yourself. If you don’t put yourself first, you won’t be your best for everyone else. Invest in things that will make you better. Get outside. Learn from the past but don’t dwell on it. What has happened has happened and you can’t change it. You are wasting energy worrying about the past. Spend time with people you want to spend time with. Don’t waste moments. Help people more. Compliment people more. Do more for other people. There is no better feeling. You have to start somewhere. If you want to start a business, take the first step. If you want to lose weight, take the first step. Without the first step, your dreams are just a plan without action. Build community. Stronger communities are everything and that’s what ACF is. When you hit a roadblock, pivot. There is always a way. You just need to be open-minded and think outside the box. Health is wealth. If you don’t have your health, how is your quality of life? Stop waiting for the perfect time to do something. There is no perfect time. Find the good in people. If you are searching for good, you will find it. If you are searching for something bad, you will find that too. Get rid of toxic people in your life. People bringing you down with negativity (energy vampires!)? The less you hang around them, the better. Surround yourself with positive, fun people. Doesn’t everyone want to have a more positive outlook and enjoy life? It’s never too late to change. If you aren’t passionate or enjoy what you’re doing, find something that will make you happy. Imagine at 25 and feeling you have 40 more years of misery before you can retire? Move more. If you want to be healthier, move. Ten minutes of something is better than nothing of something. Working out, making sales calls, doing chores around the house. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in 10 minutes. Social media is a highlight reel. Spend less time interacting on social media and more time interacting in real life. It’s okay to complain here and there but endless complaining is wasted time. Spend more on figuring out a solution. The way you do one thing is the way you do everything. Don’t cut corners. Perfection isn’t possible. Having high standards and expectations is possible and should be your goal. Take a vacation. Take a day off. You won’t regret it. Eat that ice cream. Have that beer. One thing isn’t going to hurt you. Stop being so hard on yourself. Time spent beating yourself up over something is time wasted that could be spent on making yourself better. We all make our own bed. If you want to be happy, you will find happiness but if you want to be miserable, you will find misery. Going at it yourself won’t get you far. However, with a team you can fly high. Consistency is everything. If you want to reach any goal, be consistent. Setting up your environment is way easier and effective than just relying on willpower. If you want to eat better, don’t have bad stuff in the home. Do what you want, not what others think you should do. Sometimes you have to give up the good to be great. What’s working now is great but if you think something is going to work better, sometimes you have to give it up and move forward. You’ll never have a perfect work-life balance. Find what works for you. Things go wrong when there is a lack of communication or no expectations set. Never just assume. Some people will try to bring you down no matter how successful, nice or caring you are. Kill them with kindness and move on. BONUS: Football is weird without Tom Brady out there. There you have it! My 35-ish lessons in 35 years! Which one resonated most with you?