Women In Their 40s Shared Life Lessons They Wish They Had Known Earlier. These Are Pearls Of Wisdom
From a very early age, women are taught to be more responsible than their male counterparts. They are basically taught to prepare themselves to sacrifice their own happiness for their family because they are labelled as the more nurturing sex. This is why when they grow up, they deliberately take the greater share of responsibility, and caring and sacrificing becomes second nature to them. And, when they finally realise that it actually isn’t worth it to give up on your dreams and surround yourself with the duties of the household and more importantly, that it is okay to be selfish sometimes, it is too late.
There are women who have been there done that only to realise that putting someone else’s wishes before yours isn’t going to get you anywhere if that’s not what you want. If only the younger women could get some life lessons from these women who have gone through the same struggles and learned it the hard way. If only they could give us naïve, young women some pearls of wisdom! Well, luckily, it happened – on a twitter thread!
A Twitter user, Gayatri started a heartfelt and very insightful discussion when she posted a life lesson she learned in 40 years of being on earth. She wrote, “Women in their 40s, what is one life lesson you learnt late in life? I -learnt that sacrifices you make for others are overrated. At the end of the day, you’ll be held responsible for the choices you made esp. by those whose share of responsibilities you took over!” She ended the post with “Over to you!”, making the post open for other 40-something women to fill in with one advice they wish they could give to their younger selves.
Women in their 40s, what is one life lesson you learnt late in life?
I -learnt that sacrifices you make for others are overrated. At the end of the day, you’ll be held responsible for the choices you made esp. by those whose share of responsbilities you took over!
Over to you!
— Gee (@GayatriiM) August 18, 2020
The twitter thread is no less than a mine of pure wisdom. From the littlest things like replying to a message to bigger issues like having a job after marriage, Indian women in their 40s poured their hearts out and gave the best advice, aka life lessons for all the women out there. Here are some of the tweets that hit hard.
A twitter user wrote, “Don’t rush to help anyone just because you understand their pain and want to protect or care – unless asked for ? very hard to stop, but constant reminder to wait helps !!!” Another user mentioned how being ambitious as a married woman is hard in this country and what she learned from her experience. She said, “I have learnt this before 30 itself.. No one values your sacrifices. A girl who left her job at 29 to be with her husband and take care of her family is constantly taunted today for not having a job and any goal and ambition in life and also constantly threatened for a divorce.”
Someone rightly pointed out how trusting a person blindly can be the biggest mistake you make in life. “Don’t trust anyone, blindly. Try to see what lies beneath that innocent mask that the person is wearing in front of you and speaking so sweetly. Pull of his mask at the very first opportunity you get, expose people before they exploit you,” she said.
“I learned that you don’t have to reply to every message you get. I learned that it’s better to evaluate relationships based on reciprocity, and that sometimes silence works better that spelling out the truth for someone (coz no one likes people that are brutally frank),” a user wrote and honestly this one’s my personal favourite since I feel obliged to reply to every text, which shouldn’t come before my mental health.
To be selfish and to put yourself first. Because no one else will.
— Kiran Manral (@KiranManral) August 19, 2020
I learned that I missed to take a stand for myself and always care for others feelings always.
But it's never too late now I am living on my own terms and condition with more confident 😊😊— Priyall (@priyalpoddar) August 19, 2020
Also Read: People On Twitter Share Stories About Their English Teachers And How They Were Just Simply The Best. It’s So Relatable
What’s great is that some women in their 50s also dropped in their sagacious life learnings. A user wrote, “Nowhere my 40s any more but don’t save up luxuries to enjoy later. You might not live to enjoy the handmade soaps/perfume/fancy cookware/stationery/bedlinen and it will be thrown out after you’re gone.” Another wrote, Will early fifties do? My learning was exactly the same as yours. Additional learning: stop looking for positives every time, even the negatives need looking into too.”
Well, I think I could really do with some of these precious pieces of advice. It is never too late, they say but that’s not true. These ladies have learned these lessons “late”, but we have a fair chance. You don’t need to feel guilty for putting your needs before someone else’s or for being selfish for your own dreams. At the end of the day, you only live once and you most certainly do not want to live it on someone else’s terms. Am I right, or am I right?
