30 Wisdom Lessons For 30 Years Of Life

I am officially 30 years old! Happy birthday to me and thank you Mum for bringing me into the world! Your work is greatly appreciated and I admire you so much!

To celebrate 30 years of life, I asked my friends who have already crossed into their 30s, to share the wisdom they have learned through life so far. I think there’s something for everyone here, no matter where you are in life.

1-5

1. Don’t beat yourself up when you make mistakes. Nothing good will come from hating yourself. Instead, give yourself grace.

2. God will always be your constant. People come and go but God will never leave us. 

3. You don’t stop embarrassing yourself, but you do stop caring so much. 

4. Tomorrow doesn’t exist. If you were truly going to start tomorrow, you would have already started. #dothething

5. You can look back at your past and see pain but in God, He sees purpose. (You just may not know what it is yet!)

6-10

1. Friends and family will come and go, so go treasure and make the most of the here and now with those that you love. 

2. Don’t take life too seriously, laughter is the best medicine.

3. Live life every day with eternity in mind. 

4. In conflicts, knowing the right things is important, but forgetting kindness just to be right won’t make you a better person.

5. Indifference can be a worse opposite of love than hate.

11-15

1. We aren’t supposed to do life alone because this can lead to pride. It happened to me. Know it’s ok to ask for help, delegate tasks to avoid feeling overwhelmed, forgive yourself and ask for forgiveness from others, and be sure you elevate a supportive prayer village around you. 

2. I have learnt to steer away from society’s ways of order, for example, career→marriage→kids. If God has placed these desires on your heart, He will provide them in His timing. When I focus on Him, I don’t get distracted, discouraged, or compare myself to others. 

3. You realise who your real friends are and let go of the toxic people.

4. Everything has a season. Enjoy the good seasons and remember the bad seasons don’t last.

5. Don’t try to change years old habits with giant overhauls. Take something small and change that before moving onto the next thing. It’s less intimidating and eventually you would have changed something big without the strain of an overhaul.

16-20

1. Always choose sleep. Crazy happens when you don’t have the right amount of sleep. So no matter what, try and get that 8 hours. The roll on effect is huge. 

2. Don’t see your failure to live up to the world’s standards or your own expectations as letting God down. He can do anything with your circumstances and only He knows His purposes. 

3. God forgives you but you also need to forgive yourself. You can’t always get it right but He sees our mistakes and understands them. 

4. We can’t say yes to everything. Our time is limited. When we say yes to one thing, we end up saying no to something else. So be intentional about what you’re saying yes to. 

5. It pays to have an eternal perspective. When I’m feeling stuck and don’t know what to do, I try to ask myself what will matter in the end. How do I want to be remembered when I’m gone? Am I storing up treasures in heaven or here on earth? Does my life point towards the glory of God?

21-25

1. The thing with life lessons is that they take a lifetime to grasp and understand. Remember that you will never have all the answers, you aren’t invincible and you still have a lot to learn. What you have learned can definitely help mentor those younger than you, but you should also have a mentor older than you for guidance and wisdom. 

2. Life is so beautiful in community, and I think that finding friends that are family is so life-giving. Encourage one another and celebrate together. 

3. It’s joyfully worth it to wait for the right thing. The right ministry, house, job, partner, and choice is the one that God has written - and sometimes that means a much different timeline than I would’ve chosen. 

4. Everything is best in balance when it revolves around Jesus. That means even the things that seem incredibly important from my human-on-earth perspective must give way to obeying Him. And it’s totally worth it. 

5. Life is a process and we have to keep going to find out what happens. There will be highs and lows but so many silver linings and wonderful things we could never dream of. The tough parts make the good parts even more magical.

26-30

1. As I get older, I am getting more comfortable with my flaws. They are a part of my story and all the good things I have managed have happened despite (or because of?) these flaws and weaknesses. I have made my peace with making mistakes as I have learned that they are essential to growth. 

2. When I did my postgraduate degree, I had lots of trouble with an assignment. So I went to the lecturer for help. I heard through the grapevine that a classmate mocked my reach out for help, because as a postgraduate student, ‘I shouldn’t be requiring help’. I beat myself up about this and questioned if I was good enough to even do this course. I later found out this classmate had a meltdown days before the assignment was due and went to the lecturer for help. Moral of the story - don’t worry and waste energy worrying about judgement from others, they might end up doing the exact same thing as you!

3. People get really jealous of success. My thought is to get busy achieving your own life goals so that you have no time to worry about other people’s opinions.

4. God is good all the time, even in moments of darkness, despair and difficulty. We don’t always realise this and it may take getting to the other side to understand it. For me, this realisation has made the journey through difficult times a lot more reassuring. God is good and He is with me through it all. 

5. Happiness is a choice we make every day. Finding delight in the seemingly mundane everyday is a wonderful habit to cultivate. A blooming flower or contagious laughter of a child. They all add cheer if we just pay attention to them.

How was that?

One more thing I learned through this blog is that I have incredible and generous friends! Thank you so much to everyone who contributed their wisdom!

I love that while we all have our own journeys, we are never alone in our struggles. I hope you feel encouraged through these lessons and you learn to give yourself grace. 

Do you have any lessons to add to this list? Leave them in the comments below!