{"id":207,"date":"2018-05-09T17:42:51","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T17:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/?p=207"},"modified":"2018-05-09T18:14:12","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T18:14:12","slug":"life-hacks-in-your-early-thirties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/life-hacks-in-your-early-thirties\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Hacks In Your Early Thirties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By: Brittany Johansen<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m all up in my thirties, ladies. By now you can imagine shit has gotten real. Let me take you back for a minute to the year 2009. College in the rear view, but still clear as day. Starting a new job, an adult job where they give you days off and everything. Score! The love of my life, Matt, thousands of miles away finishing up college because I\u2019m a #cougar. <em>Or as he would call me, a puma \u2013 cougar in training. Apparently, I was too young to be considered a true cougar.<\/em> That summer as my birthday approached, it started to sink in just how much life was changing. What was going to be required of me to be a productive member of society. [<em>Insert giant quarter life crisis freak out<\/em>]. I remember calling Matt in a panic about how I was almost 25 and \u201cwhat am I doing with my life?\u201d and \u201cI need to figure it all out before it\u2019s too late\u201d. His response, \u201cI think you\u2019re turning 24.\u201d [<em>Insert giant sigh of relief<\/em>]. I\u2019ll panic next year.<\/p>\n<p>Flash forward to my thirties and, luckily, I haven\u2019t encountered that ugly quarter life crisis again. Twenty-four was good to me as was twenty-five and the many years after. Sure, crap happened and not everything was buttered popcorn and adoption day at Petco, but I made it work. If you\u2019re wondering what comes after that quarter life crisis, here are some things that I recommend for #adultingsohard in your thirties:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><u>GET PLANTS<\/u>. Those who know me and are reading this are thinking, \u201cShe\u2019s killed every plant she\u2019s ever had.\u201d While that may historically be true, I\u2019m getting much better and they still are a major quality of life improvement (for however long you keep them alive). They better the air around you and cozy up any space. They give you a sense of responsibility and purpose. Like, you have to water them and make sure they get enough sun, or they don\u2019t SURVIVE. Plus, they\u2019ve got a, \u201cShe\u2019s really got her shit together\u201d vibe. I started to feel like a mega adult when I got plants. Friends in their thirties notice things like this too. Makes for good small talk. #Bonus<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><u>FRET LESS. ENGAGE MORE<\/u>. This one is super important. Starting my career in my twenties, I was focused on the hustle. \u201cI am only worthy if I\u2019m productive\u201d or something like that. \u201cI am the sum of what I accomplish\u201d or something like <em>that<\/em>. As meaningful as it is to work your ass off (and trust me, I\u2019m not encouraging you <em>not<\/em> to do that), the stress that overworking and overthinking can cause isn\u2019t worth it. <strong>Turns out what matters most in life are the lives around you, the earth beneath you, and the energy you pass around on the daily<\/strong>. Engage more in these things. The finer things. The real Michelin stars of life and Pulitzers of your existence. If you fret less and engage more with what matters, you will find yourself. And with a lot of other work in that department, you might even love yourself! [<em>shameless plug \u2013 took <a href=\"http:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/toyh.html\">this<\/a> not once, but twice!<\/em>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><u>HAVE BABIES. FUR OR OTHERWISE<\/u>. If you haven\u2019t already, I\u2019d highly recommend fur babies. Me and my handsomely bearded husband have two of our own! However, this bullet should come with an asterisk. Whether you are a cat person, dog person, pigmy pig or horse of a champion breed person \u2013 having a pet means you have true love in your life. Again, similar to plants, but arguably slightly more important, is your vitality to their life. They DEMAND your presence, your care, your responsibility, your attention, and your love. Presently, I\u2019m also growing a human baby \u2013 the Great Dane babies are going to be so jealous! He or she has been baking for about 17 weeks. Having a human baby is big because not all who want them can have them. It\u2019s big because it doesn\u2019t always work out like you thought. Sometimes you lose human babies before you have them, sometimes you lose them after you\u2019ve welcomed them to the world. Sometimes, if you\u2019re lucky, you\u2019ll spend the rest of your life figuring out how to parent them, befriend them, love them and set them free. You\u2019ll need to grow up quickly if human babies are involved. <em>*Not all people are ready for this step. Maybe you\u2019re a free-spirited woman who is driven by ambition, still doing the damn thing and can\u2019t be attending to needy babes. You might be in this phase if you frequently catch yourself at the office past 10:00pm burning the midnight oil. #BossBabe. You might also be in this phase if you sometimes don\u2019t make it home at night and are unclear of the events leading up to waking up in a strange location. Also, if you have allergies. If you are allergic to pets and babies you should probably avoid having them. #FreeUnsolicitedAdvice<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Before you start judging, no I <em>don\u2019t<\/em> think this list is exhaustive or all inclusive. Not even close. I haven\u2019t even gotten into finding love, being yourself, and doing things that terrify you. Maybe this blog will end up being a series! For now, my hands are done typing and my eyes are going cross eyed. If you get anything from what I\u2019m saying, I hope it\u2019s to focus on the little things. <em>Notice I didn\u2019t say try to look like women you see in magazines and make more money than you know what to do with.<\/em> The biggest life hack I can offer you is to find connection &#8211; with yourself, with others, and with the earth. That, and maybe skip the quarter life crisis \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<p>Warmly,<br \/>\nBrittany<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cbooty\u201d in #BootyAndTheBeard<\/p>\n<p><em>Brittany can also be found practicing the art of imperfection <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shittyfirstdraft.blog\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: Brittany Johansen I\u2019m all up in my thirties, ladies. By now you can imagine shit has gotten real. Let me take you back for a minute to the year 2009. College in the rear view, but still clear as day. Starting a new job, an adult job where they give you days off and &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,8,16,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultivating-the-house-of-my-heart","category-owning-my-story","category-self-love","category-share-the-love"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-07-at-4.25.37-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houseofyourheart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}