Life does not hand us a script. It hands us fragments, and the work is to weave them into a story we can live with.
Life has never offered certainty, only fragments, moments, and the stories we choose to make from them. I am only in my thirties, and I do not claim to have life figured out. These fragments came together while I was taking a deep rest in Mallorca, between the palm trees and the sounds of the blue sea, with no jellyfish in sight, only fish.
Some of these truths are grounded in fact, some are lessons I had to live, and some are provocations that may unsettle. They are not rules. They are markers on the road I walk, pieces I carry to steady myself when life shakes me loose. Maybe they will steady you too.
And if not, remember this: in prehistoric times the thirties were already considered old, and many were becoming grandparents. The fact that we are still searching says more about life than about us.
1. This moment is all there is.
The past is gone, the future never arrives. Life is only ever happening now. Most of the worries we carry live outside this moment, worry is imagination mistaken for reality.
2. Happiness is not elsewhere.
It does not arrive with possessions or milestones. It appears in flashes when you notice you are alive and allow that to be enough.
3. Wholeness comes in moments.
No one feels complete all the time. What matters is whether you ever taste it at all. Even a brief glimpse can carry you through years of searching.
4. Grow what is in your hands.
It’s easy to think we want what others have, but often it isn’t the object at all. Mimetic desire points toward a deeper quality the other radiates. What’s already in your hands can be enough when you tend to it, if you can tell apart that borrowed pull from the quieter truth of what you really want.
5. Life moves in waves.
Some lift you, some crush you. Each one shapes the next version of you. Nature is cruel in this way, yet without the breaking waves there would be no new shore to stand on.
6. Chaos is the nature of life.
Everything drifts toward higher entropy, each order holding only for a while. Meaning grows when you move with that flow. Out of this restless shifting, chaos turns into the soil where new patterns take root.
7. Every life has an unbearable edge.
The shadow forms part of the structure of being alive. What feels unbearable often gives your life its unmistakable shape, and without it life grows flat, emptied of its pulse.
8. Fear is as natural as happiness.
Both belong. Light and darkness only exist because of each other, and so do the feelings that shape us. Fear sharpens your senses, reminding you that you are alive.
9. Life is never black or white.
Grey runs through everything. Certainty lives in extremes, but truth lives in between. The challenge is learning to stand in the grey without rushing to paint it over.
10. Life is unpredictable.
You cannot plan against it, it emerges on its own terms. A few feel their calling in childhood, the rest stumble toward it while living. What looks like detour often turns out to be the road.
11. Pay attention to what lights you up.
Those sparks don’t come often, and they hint at where your life might want to grow. They feel like small lights on a dark road, showing turns you wouldn’t notice otherwise.
12. Life is an accident, meaning is handcrafted.
No prewritten purpose waits for you. Meaning appears when you shape yourself and the life you live, the way a sculpture emerges from rough stone. The accident is what makes it a miracle.
13. There are no rehearsals.
This is the only life you get, every act already the real performance. Mistakes carry as much weight as the lucky breaks, each one shaping the story that unfolds on the same stage.
14. Death gives life its texture.
Every smile, every touch, every triumph is edged with its shadow. Without it, nothing would feel real. Mortality is the grain in the wood, the pattern that makes the surface beautiful and fragile at once.
15. Everything is temporary.
Whatever you hold will one day dissolve into dust. The only question is whether you lived it while it was here. In the end, you too will be someone’s forgotten Wi-Fi password.
16. There is no certainty.
Every ground you stand on shifts. Security is only a story we tell ourselves to sleep at night. What lasts is not stability but the ability to walk when the earth moves beneath you.
17. Know yourself.
What you like, what you dislike, what you live up to. A life in accordance with your values is the only life fully lived, and knowing yourself is the work of a lifetime. As Socrates taught, the unexamined life is not worth living, and as Jung reminded us, the self is both discovery and creation, the sculptor and the stone at once.
18. Living true to yourself moves the world forward.
Every authentic life cracks the script a little, making more space for others to step out of theirs. Progress has always begun with those who dared to live in a way that unsettled the crowd.
19. What works for others may not work for you.
Experiment, try, explore, and in the end find your own rhythm. That is where life starts to fit. Borrowing other people’s maps only gets you lost in their terrain.
20. You are the main character in your life story.
Blow the character up a little. Maybe it’s a signature cocktail, a mark, a color, something small that people instantly think of when they think of you. Let yourself be unforgettable in your own script.
21. Tension shows you the way.
Some struggles ease when you shift what feeds them, while others soften only when you stop pulling. Every struggle in your life carries a message, showing you where you hold on, where you circle yourself, and where release creates a new opening. Struggles shape the path, guiding how you learn to move through it.
22. Regret happens when you betray yourself.
Every regret is a lesson in disguise, showing you where you turned away from your own path. Regret is not only a teacher but the forge of the self, without it there is no real formation.
23. Forgiveness begins with yourself.
It sounds simple, but it is not. Letting go of your own weight takes time, and it is the hardest kind of forgiveness there is. Carrying blame is like dragging a corpse; the longer you hold it, the more it rots your own hands.
24. Not everything closes.
Some things end without resolution, and many times it remains your responsibility to close them yourself. Leave others open; it is part of life. This one took me time to realise, because we are taught to chase endings that never come.
25. Do not make life-changing decisions in emptiness.
The hollow moments feel urgent, but they are part of being human. Emptiness is a healthy season, a space to take a deep breath before life throws another wave onto you. Let it pass before you choose a new road.
26. Many problems dissolve on their own.
Letting go often does more than control ever could. Forcing outcomes tightens the tangle, while patience allows the fire to burn itself out.
27. You do not have to know everything.
The world’s complexity ensures no one holds a complete picture. When the ego aches, it signals growth stretching you open. Confusion carries strength; it is the doorway to becoming someone new.
28. Listen to your body.
It carries a deeper intelligence than your thoughts, which are simply thoughts, not truths or lies. The mind spins stories, but the body speaks in signals. Most feelings rise in the body before they ever meet the outside world. The body whispers long before it screams, and learning its language changes everything.
29. Your nervous system can only carry so much.
The load begins early, often in childhood, and grows into layers of stress that shape how you move through life. Rest gives repair, it rebuilds the ground beneath you. When the wounds are faced, healing follows; when they remain, escapism grows loud enough to be seen by everyone around you.
30. Humans are not machines.
Sleep will vary, with some nights restless, and that belongs to nature. Work follows the same rhythm: eight flawless hours a day is a myth, never the true measure of worth. The body keeps evolving, and with it your rhythm of living grows and shifts.
31. Hormones paint life with color.
They regulate your organs, shape your feelings, and steer your thoughts. They are the hidden currents that decide how alive you feel at any moment. Restoring balance can lift a fog that no pill ever touched.
32. If you are a woman, know your sex hormones.
If you are a woman, know your sex hormones. Perimenopause often begins in your thirties as progesterone declines, stretching PMS from days into weeks. Textbooks and influencers still focus only on estrogen in the forties, yet adding progesterone in your thirties can be life changing. I didn’t know I didn’t have to live with PMS.
33. Hormone health matters for men too.
Before reaching for antidepressants, take a closer look at testosterone, the hormone that shapes energy, drive, and mood. Sometimes what feels like despair is the body calling for balance, a signal that chemistry needs care as much as the mind.
34. Health is your strongest ally against time.
Everything else shifts as the years pass, while health slows the erosion and steadies your steps. It can never be fully secured, yet caring for it gives you the best chance to meet life with strength as time carries you forward.
35. Health does not grant immunity.
Even the strong fall ill, while the reckless sometimes endure for decades. How is Charlie Sheen still alive? Life does not deal its cards by fairness; it plays by mystery, chance, and the quiet lottery of biology. The only certainty is that health tilts the odds, never the outcome.
36. Do not drink to erase yourself.
Drink to honor joy, and step back when the body speaks. It remembers what the mind prefers to ignore. If you numb the pain, you often end up numbing the joy too, and no hangover has ever made anyone wiser.
37. Drugs can expand or consume.
With the right mindset they open doors, through mushrooms, ecstasy, cocaine, or whatever shifts your state. Shut them off and you close yourself too. Let them guide for moments, never rule your life.
38. A life of boredom feels short.
Days blur into routines, years collapse into stability and conformity, and little remains that leaves a trace. Time shrinks when nothing sparks enough to be remembered. Perhaps this is why parents marvel at how fast their children grow and how quickly the years pass, because repetition folds time until whole seasons vanish in a blink.
39. A life of richness feels long.
The more fully you live, the more time stretches, as if it is reluctant to pass. Spontaneity and novelty expand the days, each surprise carving a distinct mark in memory. A single vivid year filled with unexpected turns can outweigh a decade of drifting in sameness.
40. Easy choices carve hard lives.
Comfort taken today becomes a debt that waits in tomorrow’s ledger. The shortcuts you reach for often stretch into the longest roads, while the difficult paths demand their payment upfront and leave you lighter once the work is done.
41. Lives that look easy are usually the hardest.
Ease on the surface often hides struggles that run deep, carried in silence where no one sees. Behind every perfect picture lies a cost, the long hours, the hidden tears, the trade-offs that never make it into the frame. What looks effortless is often the most exhausting work of all.
42. Freedom is not ease.
I always longed for freedom instead of a life of duty, but I didn’t know it could be just as hard. Choosing your own path means carrying the full weight of it, because there is no script handed to you. What looks like liberty from the outside often feels like responsibility on the inside.
43. Travel if you want to.
If it calls you, follow the pull; if it does not, stay rooted. The world does not hand out extra meaning for miles collected, passports stamped, or borders crossed. A thousand flights cannot replace the feeling of being at home in your own skin, and sometimes the longest journey is the one that takes you back to yourself.
44. Learn to disappoint others before you disappoint yourself.
Childhood is about loyalty to your parents, while adulthood asks for loyalty to yourself. Living your own life means breaking the habit of living for theirs. People can adapt to their disappointment, but you are the one who must live with your own.
45. Agency is your power.
Society trains you to hand it over, to follow the script, to keep moving along paths already drawn. Strength begins the moment you step aside from that current. The smallest act chosen by you carries more weight than the grandest life chosen on your behalf, because even a single true choice can change the shape of everything that follows.
46. Society always judges.
Go against the current and you will be judged. Swim too slow, too little, or too much with it, and you will be judged all the same. With time and experience, you learn to stop swimming for their eyes and start moving for your own.
47. Power attracts the broken.
Most people who rise to the top are closer to psychopaths than saints. There is something twisted in craving fame from strangers, as if applause could fill the hollowness inside. Ordinary people carry the weight of the world, but rarely the crown.
48. Most people are passengers.
They are just trying to get through the day. Only a few do the real work, the question is whether you are one of them. Life will always offer you a seat; it is up to you to decide if you want the wheel.
49. Most people talk, few follow through.
Words come easy, action is rare. Integrity is one of the scarcest resources in this world, harder to mine than gold. When someone’s actions match their voice, you are looking at a treasure, the kind of person who steadies the ground beneath you.
50. Do not let a job define you.
You define the job, and once you have mastered the scripted version, you begin to rewrite the script. Work is only one expression of life, never the whole of it. Make sure it leaves you with a story to tell. If your work erases your story, it has taken more than it gave.
51. Work is a given.
You cannot escape it, but you are free to choose the form it takes. Those who refuse to do the work with themselves usually end up with low-level jobs, because the inner work and the outer work mirror one another. Every decision about work shapes the life you end up living. Treat each choice as a brushstroke on the canvas of your days.
52. Be realistic with money.
If you try to have it all — the kids, the house, the nice car, the vacations — you will end up with stress, pressure, and debt. Never stretch your lifestyle to 100 percent of your income; leave a buffer. That buffer is also psychological space, the margin that keeps life’s surprises from breaking your peace. Every purchase is a silent vote for the kind of future you are building.
53. Do not lend money to appearances.
If someone lives beyond their means to look rich, you are only feeding an illusion. Even if they return it, you lose more than you gain. Obvious, I know, but it still took me time to learn.
54. Only lend money you will not miss.
If giving it leaves a hole in your life, it was never yours to lend. Lending should feel like releasing a feather, light and unburdened, not like tearing out a rib. When the act carries no resentment, both the money and the relationship stay clean.
55. Stay financially independent.
From family, from partner, from anyone. Life reveals its truth when you can stand on your own resources. Dependence entangles love with power and turns care into control, while independence keeps both clear. Money is not just currency; it is freedom, the quiet ground beneath every choice you make.
56. Life is unfair.
Most rich kids stay rich, most poor kids stay poor, and the ladder rarely stands the same for everyone. The game is tilted, written by forces you did not choose, yet chance and effort sometimes slip through the cracks. Those moments are rare, but they are enough to make trying worth it.
57. You own nothing.
Everything you hold is borrowed — people, places, things — and all of it will leave your hands. Ownership is a mindset, a story we tell ourselves until time comes to reclaim what was never ours.
58. Aesthetics is half of success.
Care shows itself in form before substance is even tested. People are drawn to what looks tended, because it signals vitality within. Beauty is not shallow; it is the visible trace of attention, proof that something living has been nurtured with intention.
59. Everyone who hurts you leaves a gift.
Each wound draws the line you did not know you needed. Boundaries are written in the language of pain, and those who bring it become unwilling teachers. Pain carves clarity faster than kindness ever could.
60. Every person you hurt began with a wound you refused to heal.
Cruelty and sharp words start inside; trace them back and you will find the place you never tended. What spills onto others is often the part of yourself you tried hardest to hide. And yes, you hurt more people than you think, because unhealed places rarely stay contained.
61. Connection is the core of life.
Every bond has limits, every tie is fragile, but nothing else gives life its pulse. No connection holds if you are not first connected to yourself. Do everything you can to strengthen that bond, whether through therapy, a mushroom trip, or whatever helps you return to your own center.
62. Love will break you.
If it does not, it is not love. To be touched that deeply means letting yourself be undone, whether it is love for your mother, your ex, your current partner, or your friends. The cracks it leaves are the openings through which life pours in.
63. Most people you know are not your friends.
If you have five true friendships in your whole life, you can call yourself lucky. You know a friend when you can pour out your worries and they do not run, but stay to help you distill them into lessons.
64. Let go of those who do not show up.
A relationship only breathes if both spend their energy to keep it alive. Without that, you are carrying a ghost. Even blood is not enough to hold a bond, it still has to be earned. When you stop spending energy on unfulfilling relationships, you create space for new ones to arrive.
65. Step back from those who twist truth.
Anyone who lies or manipulates others will one day turn it on you. You can be sure it will happen, so listen to the intuition you have about someone. Deception is not a habit that stays contained; it spreads until it poisons every bond it touches.
66. Lying is never worth it.
Every lie grows heavier with time. We have all tried it; some stepped away from the habit because it felt unbearable, while others are still drowning in their own lies. Leave it be, truth will always travel lighter. Lies may buy you a moment, but they sell off your peace in installments.
67. Most abuse happens in the family.
Blood does not guarantee safety or love, and research confirms this hard truth. Be careful, relatives are not always the people you should keep close. Family can be a shelter, but it can just as easily be a storm, and learning the difference may save your life.
68. Family is a mindset.
It is not handed down by blood, but created by those who choose to stand with you through time. Real family forms in the daily acts of showing up, in loyalty carried quietly, in care that asks for nothing in return. It is built in presence, not paperwork, in devotion that no document or DNA can ever guarantee.
69. Home is not a place.
It is the people you share your life with. Think twice before you commit, because they become your ground. A house is only walls; the people inside decide whether it feels like shelter or exile.
70. Most parents step in blind.
They rarely know what they are taking on when they bring a child into the world, and no handbook can prepare them for the weight of shaping another life. Acknowledge that, and be thankful for whatever they managed to give you, because even imperfect love is still love, and most of them were learning as they went.
71. Every path carries grief.
Whether you raise children, remain childfree, or cannot have them, there will be a life you did not live. Most would be happy either way, but some carry the weight of regret. Consciously opting out of parenthood carries as much responsibility as choosing it, and it helps to know which one you are.
72. Some chase everything, others choose mastery.
Many spread wide and stay average, others go deep and give their life to a few things. Both ways of living are valid. The question is not which path is better, but whether you can live with the trade-offs your path demands.
73. Having a mentor is a blessing.
It can be a parent, a colleague, a friend of the family, or even a digital creator. Life makes more sense when a guiding voice walks a little of the path with you, yet not everyone has one and not everyone feels they need one.
74. Mentors are borrowed voices.
They guide you for a time, but their task is to be outgrown. The real work is walking on your own. A true mentor gives you tools, not chains, and smiles when you no longer need them.
75. Trust builds confidence.
Confidence does not come from forcing belief in yourself. It grows when you prove to yourself you can be trusted. Every small promise you keep to yourself becomes a brick in the foundation of real strength.
76. Most people project their fears onto you.
Acknowledge what they say, but do not hand them the pen to write your life. Their limits are not yours. Listen if you must, but remember that fear speaks more about its owner than about the world.
77. You are not responsible for other people’s problems.
Everyone walks into their troubles for a reason, and helping them carry what is theirs only delays their own growth. It is not your job to correct their course. The same holds for you, you are the creator of your own world. Obvious, I know, but I had to learn it the hard way.
78. You are not responsible for someone else’s happiness.
If they guilt-trip you, ignore it. The same goes for you, your happiness is yours to carry, no one else’s. Handing someone else the key to your joy is the fastest way to lock yourself out of it.
79. Variation is the force of life.
Change keeps the current flowing, and sameness brings death. With change, things stay alive and avoid withering into stillness. Standing out forms part of the pattern itself, the spark that shifts the whole.
80. Moderation steers the current.
A little of everything feeds you, too much of one thing consumes you. Excess always carries the seed of ruin. Balance lives in keeping the river moving, flowing steady rather than flooding.
81. Many have it all and are still miserable.
Wealth, status, and comfort do not guarantee joy. An empty life can hide behind a perfect surface. Misery dressed in luxury remains misery, only with better furniture and often with fewer people around who dare to tell the truth.
82. Papers, certificates and diplomas are illusions.
They are crafted to bring order into a chaotic world. Have them if you like, but let them be tools, not your whole identity. Things shift, and even these are not set in stone. To live a good life beyond what these papers measure is a quiet rebellion, proof that your worth cannot be stamped or signed.
83. Idiots have university degrees too.
A diploma does not prove wisdom, it only proves someone passed through the system. Knowledge without reflection is just data wearing a cap and gown. You will meet this often, and you need to learn how to deal with it.
84. Rules belong to the world that made them.
The world keeps changing, and many rules no longer fit the shape of today. Progress lives in rewriting the rules, not just following them. Break them when you see an opening, and the world will thank you for creating space where something new can grow.
85. Society over-romanticises life.
It sells polished stories of love, family, work, and success. Many wake up disappointed, realising they chose based on lies. Dreams sold in glossy images rarely survive contact with real mornings.
86. The current world was built on the machine’s worldview.
Efficiency, order, repetition. Now it is being rebuilt for the human view — messy, alive, full of texture, where unpredictability is a feature rather than a flaw. With every paradigm shift a new mental model arises, and the one taking shape now asks us to design for complexity, fluidity, and life itself.
87. Nothing is what it looks like.
Every surface hides layers. What you see is only the mask, never the whole. Appearances are shorthand, and most of life is written in the footnotes.
88. We all wear masks.
The question is whether they hide you or help you reach more of yourself. A mask can be a prison, but it can also be a tool — sometimes you need one to step into who you are becoming.
89. Do not assume.
Keep your mind open. Assumptions are cages that lock you into stories that may never be true. Curiosity keeps doors open that certainty would slam shut.
90. It seems like we know so much, but we know almost nothing.
Every answer opens ten more questions. What we call knowledge is just a thin layer floating on an endless depth we barely touch. Certainty is a costume we wear to hide how little we truly understand.
91. Science is not about truth.
It lives by disproving its own guesses, and what stands for now only stands until it falls. Knowledge grows not by clinging to answers, but by sharpening better questions. That is why it is dangerous to make irreversible decisions based solely on scientific outcomes, because today’s certainty may become tomorrow’s revision.
92. Intelligence is not the same as being smart.
Not that obvious, but absolutely true. Life experience often makes those with less intelligence wiser than the brilliant who never lived outside their minds. Books can fill the head, but only living fills the bones.
93. Most people are addicted to something.
Substances, work, love, validation, distraction — addiction wears many masks. Almost everyone carries one. The question is not whether you are addicted, but whether your addictions are steering or destroying you.
94. You never know what you are capable of.
You carry the potential for terrible things. Society teaches you to polish the good and bury the bad, but sometimes what is called bad is what saves you.
95. Use AI to experiment quickly.
Let it speed up the path to what you are looking for. Do not hand it your agency, but know that sometimes it outpaces the best expert. Treat it like fire: powerful when harnessed, destructive when left unchecked.
96. Embrace your life.
It is the only one you will ever hold. Take it fully, or it will pass as if you never lived it. To turn away from your own life is to leave your story untold. Honestly, I need to tell this to myself often.
97. You always get what you truly pursue.
The life you live grows from the wants you act on. No one else writes that script for you. Desire is only the seed; pursuit is the hand that turns it into reality.
98. All love carries conditions.
Some are obvious, others are hidden, but they are always there. Love lasts when the conditions are honored, and fades when they are broken.
99. Life is not about finding the answers.
It is about living the questions deeply enough that they shape you into someone worth remembering. Answers end the story, but questions keep you alive inside it.
I carry these truths like stones in my pocket. Some are heavy, some are smooth, and some I only understand when I turn them over again. They are not rules, only fragments of a life I am still figuring out. This list is as incomplete as complexity itself will always be. Writing them down keeps me steady, and maybe reading them will steady me again when life shakes me loose.
For now, I picture them under the late summer sun in Mallorca, between the palms 🌴 and the blue sea, where they first came together.
ADRIANA