Julia Coney is my Hawaiian (and Kauaian) partner in crime, my longtime beauty blogging friend from the days before everyone and their grandmother had a beauty blog and veritable guru of everything and anything. Seriously, friends. Her blog, All About The Pretty, is only the tip of her information iceberg. Her wine knowledge is next level. Follow her on Instagram at @JuliaConey and at @BlackWineProfessionals.

When I spend just an hour with her, I leave with a legitimately lengthy iPhone note packed with tips about the best apps, where to buy exfoliating gloves for a dollar, when to update my vision board (monthly, on the first), the best newsletters to which to subscribe, which fancy Asian stores to frequent for the best notebooks and pens, southern-style etiquette for thank-you notes and recipes for delicious turkey Bolognese pasta sauce. Here, I hit up the titan of travel for her Rules For Life. Here they are, in Julia’s words.


1. Life is choice-driven.
People make different choices. Don’t be jealous of another person’s life. Why? They chose differently. Those choices weren’t for you to make. If they were, you would have made them. Basically, do you. Stop trying to be like someone else, that person is taken.

2. Put your best face forward.
You don’t have to be a makeup junkie to put your best face forward, but a little makeup never hurt anyone.

3. We are blessed to be a blessing.
We are not put here just for us, we are to help others. Many people think service means giving up something. It doesn’t. This could be through our work, talking, writing, and being kind.

4. A handwritten note is one of the biggest joys in life. 
Get to writing them.

5. The mind cannot function in a cluttered environment.
Be it your house or your head.

Thanks, Julia! Read more Five Rules For Life and share yours in the comments.