7 LIFE LESSONS FROM TAYLOR SWIFT
If you know me, you know I love Taylor Swift. Not only is she an incredibly talented and hard-working artist, she also seems to be a genuinely kind person. Additionally, she’s an incredible business woman and an outstanding creative. I discovered her music around the the “Red” (2012) era, and became a full-fledged Swiftie during “1989” (2014). I’ve followed her through good and bad and I like to think she has taught myself and her fans a few valuable life lessons along the way. Even if you don’t like Taylor Swift (I mean, what the hell is wrong with you?!?! But, whatever.) I really think you can take these 7 life lessons from Taylor Swift with you in your every day life.
1. REDUCING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA
Taylor Swift disappeared from the media spotlight and from social media in 2016, right after the whole Kanye West/Kim Kardashian debacle. She needed time to heal, to reprioritize her life.
Before that incident, Taylor had been quite present on social media. When she felt ready to return, however, she took a much more measured approach to these tools. It all started when she cleared all her social media history in order to prepare us for “reputation” (2017). What a wild time that was, mind you. I remember her first 3 posts being that scary-ass snake. It was a crazy time for us fans. Anyway, I digress…
With her comeback, Taylor also made a clear decision: to reduce her social media presence. She now mostly uses it for album announcements, sharing pictures from her concerts, staying in touch with her fans every once in a while and, of course, supporting political causes that are important to her. That’s mostly it. And you know what, I love it. I admire her for it. I love that she’s keeping her private life, private. After being in the spotlight for so long, this is a big power move on her part. It’s as if she were saying: “You know what? You’ve had enough of my private life. This is mine and mine only. You’ll only know about what you need to know about”. I think Taylor doing this also provides a great example for her younger fans. I believe teenage girls today have a tendency to overshare and emotionally depend on social media. Taylor taking this stance is showing young girls that they need to live their life, outside of social media.
2. HOW TO BUILD A CASTLE OUT OF ALL THE BRICKS THEY THROW AT YOU
In the “1989” bonus track “New Romantics” Taylor sang:
“‘Cause baby, I could build a castle
Out of all the bricks they threw at me”
In 2016, Taylor was thrown some really nasty bricks. However, as Andrea Swift said in “Miss Americana” (Lana Wilson, 2020), Taylor took that shit and made something of it. She built that castle. That castle’s name was “reputation”. I can’t tell you how much that album means for me. It’s my favorite Taylor Swift album not only because I love the music in it, but also because of what that album meant, comeback-wise. I love that Taylor Swift was called a snake and she took that symbol and made it part of her brand. That is a freaking power move and I’m here for it.
To me, “reputation” is meaningful because it’s Taylor practicing what she preached in “New Romantics”. It’s her reclaiming her power. It’s her saying: “Oh, you think I’m a snake? Sure, Look at me, I’m the Queen of snakes! What else have you got?”
“reputation” is not about Taylor lashing out, though. Nope. “reputation” to me is “Blank Space” 2.0. There’s a lot of satire. It’s her saying: “Oh you think I’m a bad girl? Sure, I can do that!” and she does it throughout half the album. But as it advances, the layers peel off and she becomes vulnerable, kind and everything Taylor has always stood for. It’s a beautiful album and a brilliant exercise. And again, it’s an amazing example to young girls and telling them: you can come back from bad times. People can only hurt you as much as you let them hurt you. Just keep doing the work. Keep working on your art.
3. IT’S IMPORTANT FOR US WOMEN TO SUPPORT EACH OTHER
Taylor promotes emerging female artists. She sends flowers to artists who manage to surpass her in the charts. In her song “You need to calm down” she criticized an industry which tends to pit women against each other. And in her “Woman of the Decade” speech at Billboard’s Women in Music in 2019 she stood up for herself and for all the women in the music industry. She stood up for Simone Biles during the Olympics and the American female soccer team. Women supporting women is important and I love that she does it.
4. WORK HARD AND STAND UP FOR YOUR WORK
Taylor Swift has been working hard on her craft for many years. She has proven herself over and over again. Whether you like her music or not, one thing’s for certain: she’s an incredibly hard-working woman and she is incredibly resilient.
I greatly admire her for her work ethic and I’ve never been as proud of her as when she confirmed she would be re-recording her masters. When she first announced that her masters had beed sold to Scooter Braun, I was heartbroken. However, when she shared she was going to re-record her albums I screamed. I couldn’t believe it, I was so incredibly happy. And it had me thinking about myself and my own work ethic. Personally, I consider myself a hard worker, but I have to say, I do get overwhelmed when any sign of conflict comes my way. Seeing Taylor overcome her adversities motivates me to do the same. I mean let’s get real, imagine if you’d spent a long time working on a project and suddenly “lost it”, for whatever reason. I don’t know about you, but it would be very hard for me to find the stamina to work on it again. To start over. But seeing Taylor Swift care so much about her music, motivates me to do the same. Your work matters, what you leave behind you matters. Make sure it’s yours. Make sure you have power over your work.
Moreover, Taylor stands up for musician’s rights. Ever since the Scooter Braun debacle, she has spoken out about the importance of musicians owning their work. Not only that, when she signed her deal with Universal Music Group and Republic Records, she asked her label to hand over to artists (not just her, ALL ARTISTS), on a non-recoupable basis, a portion of any sale of their shares. I love that she uses her power to fight for other musicians’ rights.
5. BEING SENSITIVE IS A SUPERPOWER
“I want to still have a sharp pen and a thin skin and an open heart” (Taylor Swift)
What I love about this quote from Taylor from “Miss Americana” is that I feel it sums up her superpower neatly. It’s what makes her one of the greatest songwriters of all time. She’s incredibly in tune with her own emotions. She knows how to put those emotions into words, and she doesn’t let hard experiences toughen her up. Quite the opposite, they open her eyes to new points of view, and different ways of experiencing situations. I think the fact that she has journaled her whole life has made her really attune with her emotions. It has helped with her self-reflection and with her ability to convey emotionally difficult situations through song. It’s important for people to know that being sensitive is not a weakness. Don’t listen to those people who tell you you need to toughen up. Being sensitive is a superpower.
6. YOU ARE NOT JUST ONE THING
In “Miss Americana”, Taylor also says: “I want to wear pink and tell you how I feel about politics. And I don’t think that those things have to cancel each other out.” Many of us try to fit into one box. We’re either the artistic type or the rational type, for example. You pick a lane, you stick to it, and you make it part of your identity. Don’t you dare change lanes or you’re flaky and nobody will take you seriously ever again, right? WRONG!
This just isn’t true. We can be all things at once and they don’t need to cancel each other out. It has taken me a long time to understand this, and I must admit, it’s something I’m still working on putting into practice. I’ve always been the serious, quiet, rational and hard-working type, which makes me shy about showing my blog. It makes me uneasy to share something I created, where I show my imperfections, geeky tastes and voice my opinions. As I write this, I realize I still have close acquaintances I haven’t shared my blog with. See? I told you it’s something I’m still working on. This has to change.
7. HATERS ARE GONNA HATE (AND ALL THEY’LL EVER BE IS MEAN).
Taylor Swift always has songs for the haters and bullies of the world. And it’s those songs that help me get over the difficult people around me. “Mean” is an amazing song that always makes me happy. I just love the fact that everything she sang in that song became true:
“Someday, I’ll be living in a big old city
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean
Someday, I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean”
If those lyrics don’t motivate you to follow your dreams, no matter what the haters say, I don’t know what will. You need to remember: haters are gonna hate, hate, hate and you just need to shake it off, shake it off (Whoo-hoo-hoo).
These are the 7 life lessons I’ve learned from Taylor Swift throughout the years. I’m sure as I follow her journey for the many years to come, I will learn many more from this wise and incredible artist.