3 Life-Changing Lessons I Learned in 2021

Melody Wilding, LMSW
4 min readDec 31, 2021

2021 was a transformative year in my life. I published and promoted a book, dramatically grew my business, battled injuries and health issues, and started planning my wedding.

Within all of the chaos and celebration, here are three most life-changing lessons I learned this year, in no particular order:

3 Lessons I Learned in 2021

#1. You teach people how to treat you.

You teach people how to treat you refers to the fact that if you don’t respect your time and energy, then you can’t expect other people to. For example, if you respond to work messages at all hours of the day, you are teaching people that you will constantly be responsive. Or if you are the one constantly raising your hand to volunteer for new projects at work, then it’s unlikely anyone else will step up. All of this can lead to resentment on your part.

This is a lesson I share with my coaching clients all the time, and it’s one I continue to re-learn myself. When my book came out early this year, I was scheduling calls and clients around the clock — early morning, late evenings, weekends. It was utterly exhausting. I wasn’t sleeping and had heart palpitations.

The problem was I had fooled myself into thinking I had to do these things. I…

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Melody Wilding, LMSW
Melody Wilding, LMSW

Written by Melody Wilding, LMSW

Author of TRUST YOURSELF. Executive coach to Sensitive Strivers. Human behavior professor. Featured in NYT, NBC, CNN. https://melodywilding.com/book

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