Sooo, I’ll be 24 in a few months (😭). No, this isn’t a “Yayyy!!! My birthday is coming! I’m so excited!!!” post! I would be lying through my teeth if I were to say that I spent 23 years of my life very beautifully and without regrets or anxiety or whatever. That is hardly natural. There have been days when I thought of killing myself. There have been days when I felt like killing someone else. There have been days that were spent sulking. And there have been many other weird days. All of these happen pretty much with everyone else. To ask people not to stress over it would be lame, because you can’t stop thinking about certain things. And the same applies for me as well. But this time, I’m going to try out these 12 things before turning 24, and who knows, they’ll help you too. 💖

1) Stop Being Lazy: So pretty much everyone around me knows the extent of my laziness. I can go to any extent to avoid doing the work that I hate. And sometimes, general stuff as well. But as cool as laziness sounds, it can affect the mind a lot, bit by bit, one day or the other. So, yes, I’ll try to be a bit more active in doing things. Of course, I’m no saint and my laziness won’t go away with a snap of Thanos’ finger. But, hey! I can take baby steps, right?

2) Spend Money Wisely: When we were kids, how we spent the money we had hardly mattered. Because, it wasn’t our money, it belonged to our parents. Now that’s a pretty selfish thing to do. Growing up, I realized how hard it is to earn even the slightest amount of money. However, I still keep spending my money like I own a mint. No, I am not a shopper or a gambler, (un) fortunately. But I do spend my money, weirdly, on people. And I have been doing that since a long time now. So, yes, that needs to stop ASAP, otherwise I’ll probably go bankrupt. Not that I have any kinda money right now, anyway.

3) Get More Sleep: I have been having sleep issues since I don’t know when, and to be very honest, I don’t even know why it started in the first place. Ironically, for someone who loves sleep so much, I am a huge-ass insomniac, and it’s not fair! My sleep cycle is completely effed up, and whatever little sleep I manage to get, is usually spread out in broken patterns. So, I’ll probably just try to get better sleep, like I have been doing since the past decade or so. But hoping to be successful this time.

4) Clean Things More Often: Okay, I’m not a sloth. Nor do I live like the girl Ross Geller once dated. But compared to my perfect and almost OCDish mother and sister, I am most certainly a messy person. In fact, I can find my things faster and easily in a somewhat cluttered place, than in a neatly arranged and organized place. The only thing I have actually learnt from both of them is to clean and organize a bed the moment I leave it. But I guess I need to keep more of my surroundings cleaner. That is additionally supposed to save me from some ass-whooping and scolding sessions. 💀

5) Spare More Time for Doing Things I Love: So up until now, life has pretty much seemed like a treadmill. I keep running, but eventually I’m just stuck on the mill, not going anywhere. It’s the same day, everyday. Office-home-home-office. And weekends are spent trying to catch up on whatever little sleep I can find. Butttttt, it’s high time I give time to things that I love doing. While professional life is important, me-time is something that everyone forgets, and so do I. So, yeah, I’ll start putting in more effort to shaping my skills and working towards things I am passionate about.

6) Stop Stressing Out About Things I Can’t Control: Oh! What a bliss overthinking is! If only this was true. I have found a lot of people, including myself, overthinking about too many things and eventually stressing out about those. There are days when I’m standing in the shower, overthinking things and playing out scenarios in my mind that would never, ever happen. The things that are in my control, can easily find their way to the solution. Things and situations over which I have zero control will be solved eventually as well. It’s just about the timing. So I might as well stop pulling my hair and getting all tensed and stressed out about things I can do nothing about.

7) Read More Books: I keep saying this to myself every year, either on my birthday, or on New Year’s Day. I have been a huge bibliophile since I was 8 and I was such an avid reader, that I used to easily finish at least 2 books per week. Then I grew up, and there have been tonnes of things that have been proving as a hurdle to find the time to read. But I’m going to do it this time. It doesn’t have to be 8 books a month, but maybe I can chip in the time for 4 books at least.

8) It’s Okay to be Myself: No, I am not the kind of person who changes their behavior or personality based on people. But being the frivolous and happy-go-lucky chimp I am, there are times when I am really concerned about how weird I am and the fact that people are going to be super creeped out or annoyed by my behavior. But then, I guess being the way you actually are is wayyy better than being fake. So I guess I can accept how I am and not give zero “fox”. Unless, of course, there are situations where I do need to be serious.

9) I Honestly Need to Start Drinking Water: Anyone who’s close to me knows the number of times I ask people to stay hydrated. Also, anyone who’s close to me also knows that ironically, I do not drink water as often as I should. A, because I keep forgetting to drink water, and B, I am too lazy for bathroom trips. Which is why I keep getting scolded for not drinking water. A 23 year old grown-ass woman getting scolded for not drinking water. As funny as it seems to me right now, it’s eventually harmful. I guess I need to start drinking more water, and not just twice a day. 🙈

10) Ignoring the Jackasses: I have had people in my life, both genders, who think it’s okay to treat me as a pushover. Which is so not the right thing. While I usually don’t bother about such creatures, there are times when I give in, just for the sake of friendship. But then, that only makes people take me for granted all over again. You cannot just do or say whatever you feel like, and then come back to a person and accuse them of not being a good friend, can you? So the next time you are planning on trying any such stunt with me, maybe you should consider taking your head out of your ass. 🤷‍

11) Learn Something New: Again, this is something which I have been telling myself over the years, and have been highly unsuccessful. Buttttt, it’s never too late, after all. I can start learning (hopefully) a new language, or a new instrument, or cooking a new dish, or whatever it is, as long as I stay enthusiastic about it. When you learn something new, there’s so much you discover about it, and that feeling is more than magical.

12) Post More on My Blog: So I am a bit of flip-flopper when it comes to blogs. This is my 5th blog, in the last 5 years and I am hoping real bad that I stick to this one. That said, I would also like be able to post frequently on my blog. Of course, I won’t annoy the readers, if any, but yeah, maybe twice a week or something like that. So, yes, while I am not that great a writer, writing puts my mind at peace, and maybe I can just channel my thoughts on the blog. It’s gonna be funnn!

This kind of looks like a “Dear Diary” sort of post. But come to think of it, these points that I have stated here are applicable not just to me, but for anyone in general- irrespective of whether you are 23 or 17 or 52. You can go ahead and share it with someone you think might need to see this. Meanwhile, I’m just gonna go make a bathroom trip from all the water that I drank!