This post was
written by Brianna Wiest and originally appeared on Thought Catalog.
#1. You
paid the bills this month, and maybe even had extra to spend on
non-necessities. It doesn’t matter how much you belabored the checks as they
went out, the point is that they did, and you figured it out regardless.
#2. You
question yourself. You doubt your life. You feel miserable some
days. This means you’re still open to growth. This means you can be objective
and self-aware. The best people go home at the end of the day and think: “or…
maybe there’s another way.”
#3. You
have a job. For however many hours, at whatever rate, you
are earning money that helps you eat something, sleep on something, wear
something every day. It’s not failure if it doesn’t look the way you thought it
would – you’re valuing your independence and taking responsibility for
yourself.
#4. You
have time to do something you enjoy. Even if “what you enjoy” is
sitting on the couch and ordering dinner and watching Netflix.
#5. You
are not worried about where your next meal is coming from.
There’s food in the fridge or pantry, and you have enough to actually pick and
choose what you want to eat.
#6. You
can eat because you enjoy it. It’s not a matter of sheer
survival.
#7. You
have one or two truly close friends. People worry about the
quantity but eventually tend to realize the number of people you can claim to
be in your tribe has no bearing on how much you feel intimacy, acceptance,
community, or joy. At the end of the day, all we really want are a few close
people who know us (and love us) no matter what.
#8. You
could afford a subway ride, cup of coffee, or the gas in your car this morning. The
smallest conveniences (and oftentimes, necessities) are not variables for you.
#9.
You’re not the same person you were a year ago. You’re
learning, and evolving, and can identify the ways in which you’ve changed for
better and worse.
#10.
You have the time and means to do things beyond the bare minimum.You’ve
maybe been to a concert in the last few years, you buy books for yourself, you
could take a day trip to a neighboring city if you wanted – you don’t have to
work all hours of the day to survive.
#11.
You have a selection of clothing at your disposal. You
aren’t worried about having a hat or gloves in a blizzard, you have cool
clothes for the summer and something to wear to a wedding. You not only can
shield and decorate your body, but can do so appropriately for a variety of
circumstances.
#12.
You can sense what isn’t right in your life. The first and most
crucial step is simply being aware. Being able to communicate to yourself:
“something is not right, even though I am not yet sure what would feel better.”
#13. If
you could talk to your younger self, you would be able so say: “We did it, we
made it out, we survived that terrible thing.” So
often people carry their past traumas into their present lives, and if you want
any proof that we carry who we were in who we are, all you need to do is see
how you respond to your inner child hearing, you’re going to be okay, from the
person they became.
#14.
You have a space of your own. It doesn’t even have to be a
home or apartment (but that’s great if it is). All you need is a room, a
corner, a desk, where you can create or rest at your discretion; where you
govern who gets to be part of your weird little world, and to what capacity. It’s
one of the few controls we can actually exert.
#15.
You’ve lost relationships. More important than the fact that you’ve
simply had them in the first place is that you or your former partner chose not
to settle. You opened yourself to the possibility of something else being out
there.
#16.
You’re interested in something. Whether it’s now how to live a
happier life, maintain better relationships, reading or movies or sex or
society or the axis on which the world spins, something intrigues you to
explore it.
#17.
You know how to take care of yourself. You know how many hours of
sleep you need to feel okay the next day, who to turn to when you’re
heartbroken, what you have fun doing, what to do when you don’t feel well, etc.
#18.
You’re working toward a goal. Even if you’re exhausted and it
feels miles away, you have a dream for yourself, however vague and malleable.
#19.
But you’re not uncompromisingly set on anything for your future. Some
of the happiest and best adjusted people are the ones who can make any
situation an ideal, who are too immersed in the moment to intricately plan and
decidedly commit to any one specific outcome.
#20.
You’ve been through some crap. You can look at challenges you
currently face and compare them to ones you thought you’d never get over. You
can reassure yourself through your own experience. Life did not get easier, you
got smarter.