Back to the future

Day 3 of the closet challenge and sorry about not having a photo, I'll upload one later today for both of the days, and this is a weardrobe pic in the meantime. Truth be told, I went swimming last night and came home in no state for a photo, drowned rat wasn't in style last time i checked!

So today I'm asking you guys, what advice would you give to a younger you? Please, let me know I think it's fascinating! Here's mine, kind of life principles I suppose:

1. Things are only stressful if you stress about them. I learnt this one from our driver when we went on a holiday to Phuket recently. He was the most amazing man with the most amazing story. I don't want to ramble too much, but he'd come from the mainland knowing nobody and set up a jet ski business on patong only 5 days before the Boxing Day tsunami hit. On the day of the tsunami, he was on the beach and when the tide went out, he hurried to 2 Aussies who he'd driven from the airport to the hotel the night before, and took them to higher ground. When they went back later, the entire resort was washed away. When I said "gosh i can't believe you lost your whole business" he just shrugged it off in typical Thai manner, " it's okay, I just do what I can". Since then he's started up what he calls the " enjoy life club" which helps other people who like him have come to phuket knowing noone and helps them get set up and offers financial assistance and such. It's funny how we often get caught up in things like " argh my hair is just not doing what i want today" and here's a guy who lost his friends and his business and he's like "you know, you just keep going, no stress".

2. Don't judge people, because you don't know the full story.
My sister had this lady come into her work one day, obviously distraught but she tried to go about getting her groceries anyway. People stopped in the aisles and just looked at her, so her behaviour was obviously attracting a bit of attention. One of the other girls my sister worked with made some nasty comment about it all. Later, the lady came through my sister's register and said "That's my son on the front page of the newspaper,we lost him in a car accident last night." Man, didn't the other girl feel like crap. See you never know who someone may turn out to be, or what there story will be.

3. On a much lighter note: Top of the range in a middle range store is generally a lot better than middle of the range at a top of the range store. This goes for lots of things, we recently went looking for couches and found this rang especially true. Wish I had learnt this a lot earlier, it's served me very well.

4. The fact that you are real makes up for any amount of stretchmarks, scars, lumps or bumps that you have ( or think you have). What makes you attractive isn't just what you look like, it's your smile, your laugh, the way you carry yourself, your good nature, your personality. I might sound a bit like a self esteem book for teens, but it's true. Guys everywhere are seemingly in love with Miranda Kerr at the moment. But when you ask them what it is about her - not one of them I've talked to has said her body. They've all said it's her smile, or the way she is so flirty and happy all the time, her body language. So there you go girls.

5. Everything is folding out the way it is supposed to, even if it doesn't seem like it right now. Along the " everything happens for a reason" line, there have been so many times in life, when at the time I've thought " why is this happening??!" only years later to look back and feel like i know the answer. Big lesson! So even when things seem really shit, ride it out, because something really great might come out of it.

Sorry this is so long! Please share your thoughts, what you would say.

Hope you're having a wonderful time today wherever you are in the world. <3 Lily.