Lessons I am Still Learning (even though I am over 40)

Lesson 1:

One of the most important lessons I have learned in life is this....If you find yourself being consistently envious of others lifestyles, it means you need to make changes in yours.

Once upon a time, I took a lengthy break from Facebook. One of the biggest reasons was that seeing people post pictures from their lives evoked envy and serious feelings of inadequacy. I used the year I was off Facebook to restructure, reprioritize and think about my life, including questioning why I felt much better not knowing what other people were doing. I had some fairly big epiphany style moments in that year, but none greater than a recent one that came after being back on Facebook for a year. I realized suddenly that I was not jealous at all seeing pictures from other peoples lives, but instead was actually enjoying looking at them, seeing people on vacations, with family and friends, seeing their clean"ish" homes, etc. So what changed? I did. Some where in the last year I realized that most of what I was feeling either envy or inadequacy over was a part of my life that I was unhappy with, and more importantly an area of my life that was completely in my power to change or improve. So why am I no longer jealous?  I have been truly living my life lately. We have traveled, gone camping, been riding bikes, getting together with friends, and so on. I realized keeping a somewhat clean house is important to me. I realized making nemories with my kiddo and hubs was worth the effort of getting off the couch. Sure, I still have moments of envy, such as when we had to cancel our epic vacation due to mounting medical bills, and I hear about other people's vacation plans. But these feelings are fleeting, since I know we are still living and enjoying our spring/summern and I know it is more important to me to make sure we pay the bills, rather than going in debt. Life is meant to be lived well and sometimes it takes a bit to find out what it is we want. So my biggest life tip to others living in the age of social media, is if you find yourself consistently unhappy in an area or areas of your life, recognize that it is time to make a change in yours!