All of a sudden we find ourselves on the other side of twenty five and using the word ‘but’ every now and then in life.
I wanted to be more successful but..
I planned on buying a bigger car but..
Middle ground of twenties instantly starts to look like a half yearly assessment result. Your efforts had been plenty but somehow the marks received went awry.
Well for starters no life is not a report card and thank god for it.
It is what I would like to call a balance sheet.
Remove the ‘buts’ right now and start to stress upon the ‘I did’.
Write down three things that you received or achieved which you hadn’t planned or expected. And spent two minutes on them each day.
My three such things are
I never imagined I would maintain a blog which would receive so much love and affection of readers and friends alike
I had never planned on an early marriage which I still say is one of the best decisions of my life
I had almost forgotten what was it like to be dependent on somebody, my husband came and changed all of that.
Writing down these things help you discover a new meaning to your life. Suddenly all these years look to be well spent and in fact become spring boards in welcoming the next thirty!
In the comments I would love to hear what is it that you think you got as a surprise package from life today. What made you realise that growing up or growing old is nothing but something to be only thankful about.
Officially kicking off the wonderful A-Z blogging challenge.If you are taking part in A-Z blogging challenge this April, then do leave your blog link in comments, will surely link it up with my posts. Thanks!
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A quick Update:
Also taking part in #Indie30 project is me! You can read all about it here.
Their topic today was “When, where, what, and with who is the story of your travel origin?”.
I would like to say it started with my lovely parents. Yes the idea of discovering places was something I learnt early in life.
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| That is me đ and my parents on my first birthday! |
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Remove the buts! Awesome thought..there are so many things/blessings in my life that I never thought I will recieve and yes I have no butss (mostly) đ
I am happy for you đ
One is the blog…. never ever thought I will be blogging even now…. or even writing!
For many of us đ
Never ever thought I would play cricket at club level.. Never ever thought I would would be interested in reading a psychology text book.. Never ever thought I would complete bike rides of over 1000 kms before even getting my own bike.. Your question has made me feel good today.. Cheers
GS at Moontime Tunes
Then I am glad my writingade you happy đ and I hope it always does đ
Can I copy your three things…:) ? But on a serious note…one is definitely the blog, next is fighting to be accepted into a UPite filled household after marriage trust me it’s not easy belonging to an entirely different set up and ofcourse building a life with my husband, everything on our own and sooner than one would…*touchwood*..You made me feel happy about myself today đ
I know exactly what you mean when you mention UPite family đ glad you enjoyed my writing đ
1. Dido on the husband thing- met him when I was fifteen, married at 19- best thing I ever did.
2. My three children, completely unexpected and hoped for.
3. Writing.
Lovely Melanie so glad to read this đ
Lovely post Richa…I’ll confess many a times I have to bite my tongue before I said the ‘but’, esp when it came to my dancing. I am so happy that I decided to go for it no matter the age! Another of course is discovering blogging and writing!
That is lovely Aditi and I am very glad you took up blogging đ
Sweet surprises of my life:
1. Acting
2. Blogging
3. Cooking
Cooking too? Lovely!
though i cant think of three ryt now, one is definitely blog! a month and half bck, i wud nvr hav thought i would start a blog n nw here i am participatin in a-z đ
Blogging is like that đ
The first sweet package is my little one, I feel so blessed to have her đ And of course the blog đ Well written, Richa đ Love the point about introspection, and writing down the 3 things…. Well, I guess we can never stop at 3 đ
We must never stop at three đ
Well written! IF we could all remove the buts in our lives, we would have accomplished far more!
But we don’t đ
It’s a great idea to remove those ‘buts’… As for my surprise package… I’ve got lots of them.. the biggest one -my TWINS. And then there’s the writing. I was studying to be an engineer, then MBA then went into finance then finally found my happiness when I turned journalist. Life is full of happy surprises.
I knew about twins but the whole journalist journey that is amazing đ
A feel-good post, Richa! I have many surprises – too many to list, but the biggest one I can think of right at this moment is – last year when through some painful stuff in life I got to learn some deep stuff about love and loving.
Pain and love do have an everlasting relationship we cannot deny, no?
Excellent advice Richa! đ I never thought I would own my own business, be married for 40+ years, go to Greece. So many things.
The Doglady’s Den
Wow Debbie more power to you to continue the amazing journey called life đ
Remove the buts…ill remember that. thank you!
I hope you do đ
These are great Richa. Mine would be 1. Ending a long-term relationship that was dead long before that. 2. Adopting my two cats and learning what it is to have two completely dependent beings who love so greatly 3. Being able to get out of my comfort zone personally and professionally.
I believe all three have been some turning points for you… And I too hope to have cats some day đ
Remove the buts – Excellent!!1
For me I quit my corporate job to be a writer!!! I dunno if it is a wise decision but I am happy!!!
Oh you did really? Wow!
Good thought but a little difficult to practice. At the wrong side of 40 now I am glad I married my hubby, glad I lived with him for 25 yrs but lot of buts remain at the end of the day, specially in my career choice
I believe then you must remove those doubts, whatever it is was for your good.
Excellent thoughts: Life lessons from Sunny Deol
“No if, No But, Only Jatt” đ
Haha yeah!
I started reading the post thinking of butt…silly of me :p i actually thought you were talking of one of the banes of late twenties, no matter what we do, all we can see is growing butt đ :p
on the other hand there are no buts in my life usually…either i can or i cannot, I try to cut down on false expectations from this so called report card.
Lol butts I would say that too is a topic for mid twenties đ
Now this was a very very optimistic post!
Great achievements indeed!
Thanks a lot đ
and this is true at any age….
i agree the “but” start crepping from late 20s
Yes more so then
Nice post…
its my walls
Bloggers Listing
Thanks Amit
lovely …. Buts lead us nowhere but to regrets …and life is too precious to be wasted in regrets…
It is too precious đ
I think the best thing to happen in my life is discovering the love of writing and reading. Often we fall into the traps of ‘ifs and but’s’ but (here I go again) its better not to ponder about things that could have happened. đ
Reading and writing has lighted our ways many times đ
surprise of today … I got up early LOL. great post. The topic you chose of removing the buts.. sounded preachy but the way you wrote made it breezy and light and actually meaningful. Thanks for a lovely post dear.
Well I did try being preachy on all counts !
as of now buts are making me crazy .. will try to remove them
Buts always screw up life dear đ
Susanna Centlivre said this in 1709: “But me no Buts!”
Wow lovely!
well said Richa…the ‘buts’ make our lives miserable and the ‘i did’s gives positivity..
https://natasha-pointstoponder.blogspot.in/2014/04/b-for-bokakhat.html
Yes they do Natasha đ
Buts and butts have never done good to anyone!
Ishithaa
#AtoZChallenge
Lol interesting pun!
I would not have pondered over such thoughts BUT….————-.
I am married for 55 years. Time flies away, I would not have remembered this BUT.———
I would not have started blogging BUT——————
Life is full of BUTS.
But we need to remove them đ
I never imagined I would marry the one I love đ
awesome post there Richa
That is lovely Rajlakshmi đ
Well said, Buts, only limits the possibilities in our life tomorrow, so yes, remove all buts from life!! đ
Yes it does limit us.
You came with an all touching post again.:)
Glad you found it so đ
Nice post and made me think.. I’m thankful for all of what I have, no buts.
That is great!
Useful advice. It is a boon to get gracefully middle age and old age for all creatures.Nicely penned.
Yes it is.
This made me think. Life would be more fulfilling without the buts. ♥
True Kathy đ
BUT is my personal handbrake. It kept me out of a whole bunch of trouble while I was growing up.
Really? I am int
Life has such a way of surprising us, hasn’t it? And it’s important to let go of fixed notions about things that don’t matter! đ
So true, Richa. We tend to overlook smaller achievements in the chase of bigger dreams…It is easier said than done but life is beautiful with these smaller gifts at times.
A thought-provoking post. Removing all buts makes more room for courage, loved your post.
Remove the but in your life. How appropriate. What am I thankful for? Oh the list is too long. I wrote a post about it last November đ Will link that to you some time. Glad to see you take things positively.
The best surprise I received today was a hug from a fellow colleague who understood that beyond our professional disagreements we were friends. And i instantly knew that was heartfelt. We vowed to be friends first and professionals next. Guess what… she read my blog and found a different perspective of me and decided to come down for a heart to heart talk. I did not expect my blog post to diffuse what would have otherwise been a tense situation.
For me it is blogging
Definitely my two kids..
And my bread winner job
Great post Richa:) My life surprises are my Baby girl, the simple power of yoga and self-expression through writing,art,speaking etc đ
That sounds like a great challenge, and removing the “buts” from life is so important. I never thought I would have someone in my life who I would put before myself every moment of every single day and then my daughter arrived and I’ve never looked back.
I never planned to have a baby right after getting married or getting pregnant last year but I am so grateful that I did,
Its always heartening to read how content you seem to be in the world that you have created…much blessings your way, Richa <3
I am happy with everything I have. đ Nice to do some introspection!
Great! Let me think of those achievements that I made…. nice reading đ
Ha ha – you look so cute on that pic Richa:-) Great post! yes- let’s remove the “but”s!! I am happy with laughing with my kids today, by this blog challenge and by a fab lunch I had today!! Ah life is great:-)
great post Richa..
I wanna share something close to my heart with you today…
I was in the 3rd year of engineering when my mother was hospitalized for almost 100 days.. I was one among the herd who was preparing himself for the tough life after engineering, that is job… when she got sick because of Malaria, Typhoid and Jaundice altogether, I left my exams and all for a couple of months to be with my mother… we almost lost her and her survival was no less than a miracle..
This was the time, I realized the irony of small town guys like me [I am from Jharkhand], we finish school and then leave our hometown [or the State] for doing college, after that we find a cool job in some hot shot MNC and come back home once in a year and brag about our lives in the big city and our parents end up waiting for Holi and Deepawali for their children will show up on those festivals. This is how they spend their whole life and die one day.
My brother lives abroad and my sister is an MBA, doing good with her job in New Delhi, but I decided I won’t do what they are doing… So, I went back to Indore, finished my engineering and started working as a freelance writer.
I respect my decision and I am glad I didn’t lose hope when I started earning low.
It has been 2 years now, I am doing pretty good as a freelance writer and is growing my clientele, I go home and stay there for months, help my mother in the kitchen sometimes… go to picnic with dad, mom and their friends… discuss politics with Papa, talk about my college crushes with my Masi and Mamma sometimes.. and yes I take stress of work too but I don’t have to leave home for that..
Those who are working away from home are not doing anything wrong, there are many responsibilities in life and not everyone’s circumstances allow them to go home and work from there… just wanted to express myself đ
Sorry for the long comment Richa.. đ
Amritt
I shared it because it is an important thing that happened to me in my early 20s and will be the reason for everything I will become in my 30s, 40s and later đ
Amritt
Thats a cute picture… I am thinking and thinking and can’t find a ‘but’ in my life till now! May be I have been given all the opportunities and freedom to live it totally… About my achievements…I am thinking…I guess worth talking about are yet to come!
Richa,
Thanks for visiting my blog. You’re right to take the “buts” out of your life and have a more postive outlook. ” I will” or “I did” is better than “but.”
Sunni
https://sunni-survivinglife.blogspot.com/
You attitude is so positive and I loved your 3 things……. I could add more than 3 if we are thankful for life and the love we get. Every thing is an opportunity .