I TURNED 30 & THIS IS WHAT I LEARNED

At the end of last week, I turned 30. I’m not going to lie I was pretty terrified!  The gap between your 20s and 30s seems exponential and I wasn’t sure how ready I was to take that leap.

Having now turned 30, it doesn’t seem all that bad.  In fact, it’s a bit of a relief as I feel more secure in myself than ever before.  For this post, I thought I’d share a few lessons turning 30 has taught me.

Comparison is the thief of joy

Cliché but so true.  I spent a lot of my 20s comparing myself to my peers and benchmarking my successes and failures against theirs.  This was such a waste of time.

Success is built upon many things, one of which is happiness.  Being happy is fundamental to a successful life.  By wasting energy on constantly comparing yourself does no one any good.  Besides, everyone’s talents lie in different places, while you’re fretting over not being good enough about one thing, you’re not noticing that you’re excelling somewhere else.

Love Yourself

We’re all blessed and lucky in one way or another and it’s essential to appreciate that.  I wasted too many years fretting and crying about not having a smaller nose or being 4 inches taller.  At the end of the day, who cares?!  The truth is there will always be someone prettier, wealthier or skinnier than you.  Love what you have, try to make the most out of it and use your positives to your advantage.

I wrote a whole post about the best ways to believe in yourself which you can read HERE if you want to know more about self-belief and self-love.

Appreciate Those Around You

Relationships, whether it be with family, friends or a partner, are incredibly important and it’s so easy to undervalue them.  Whatever you do, don’t throw them away.  I did way too much of this in my teens and 20s by skipping out on people’s birthdays or constantly forgetting to call and/or text people back.  I lost some amazing people, all because I was too busy or self-involved.  I forgot that relationships are not all take, they require hard work, patience and plenty of nurturing.

I’ve been lucky and managed to rebuild relationships with some amazing people but I’ve also lost people I wish I hadn’t.  Put effort into your relationships and you’ll be rewarded with people who truly care for you and will always have your back.

My Birthday Outfit

Totally changing the subject, for those that are here for the fashion, this is the outfit I wore to my 30th birthday party.  I really wanted to buy a new dress but I either couldn’t find anything I liked or everything was ridiculously expensive.  Instead, I delved into the depths of wardrobe and found this BCBG Runway dress which I bought over a year ago and STILL hadn’t worn.  You might remember a similar dress in white which I blogged about HERE and HERE and purchased at the same time as this one.

I’m absolutely obsessed with this dress!  It’s lace with fringe and stars, 3 of my favourite things, so it couldn’t have been more perfect for such a memorable occasion.  It just goes to show you don’t always have to buy something new to feel special.

I’m so glad I invested in this dress when I did (even though I didn’t have anywhere to wear it to at the time) as it saved me having to buy something I either didn’t love or was way out of my price range.  There is a good lesson here, if you see an incredible dress and fall head over heels in love with it, buy it!  That way when you a special event arises you already have something amazing to wear and it takes off the pressure of having to find something.

Although the dress was old, the shoes were new (check them out HERE).  I knew from the moment I saw these around six months ago I HAD to have them.  They’re so sculptural and I’m obsessed with them.  I realise they’re very similar to my other Saint Laurent Opyum pumps (see them HERE) but I couldn’t resist.  Also, unlike the other ones these are much easier to walk in.  It feels exactly like wearing a wedge, only most of the wedge is missing(!), which you can’t even feel when they’re on your feet.

If you’ve been ummm’ing and errr’ing between these or the Opyum pumps I would recommend these every time.  They’re stunning to look at, easy to walk and a perfect conversation starter!

Don’t forget you can also keep up with me on Instagram @thatnewdress, Twitter @thatnewdress, Bloglovin That New Dress, Snapchat thatnewdress and Depop @dominiquew.