The Sparkly Life founder and former Brides beauty director Alyssa Hertzig is one of the few people who not only understand the nuances of print and online, she actually excels at both. This busy gal is also a mom to two kids and still manages to have hair game on LOCK. I hit her up to share her Five Rules For Life. Here they are, in her words.

1. A good hair day changes everything.

My hair is my thing. Unfortunately it looks completely scary when it’s left to its own devices. (And I practically want to hide under a blanket when it looks like crap!) But when I have a blowout? I feel prettier, more confident, on top of the world. Judge all you want, but I’m basically a different person when I have my hair done. For years, I saved blowouts for special occasions, but I did a cost/benefit on them, and now I get them every week. It’s an expense, yes, but it’s a lot cheaper than therapy—and just as effective at elevating my mood.

2. You can do anything for a year.

There have been so many times in my career (and in my life) when I’ve wondered if I should take a new job opportunity, if I should move to a new city, etc. I make pro/con lists, annoy my friends with constant agonizing, and stress over the decision forever—and then in the end I almost always do it because I remind myself that the decision is in no way a permanent one. You can do anything for a year. If you hate it, you’ll change directions at that point and you’ll be richer for having had the experience. I almost always make the leap. And even when it hasn’t worked out, I’ve never regretted it. The thought of wondering “What if” scares me a lot more than just doing it.

3. Comparison is the thief of joy.

This is a tough one these days. It’s almost impossible not to covet the shoes/vacation/job opportunity/life of the people you follow on Instagram. But that comparison (which, when you come down to it, is really jealousy)—that “Why don’t I have that?”—only makes you feel bad. It doesn’t get you that vacation, life, job opportunity, or pair of shoes. When I feel myself starting to compare my real life to someone else’s filtered one, I try my hardest to stop it in its tracks. It’s just not going to get me anywhere. (Oh and BTW: This gem of a quote originates with Teddy Roosevelt—not with me!)

4. Bring snacks.

I am someone who always gets hungry when I’m out, but for some reason, it did not occur to me until recently to BRING FOOD WITH ME. Duh. I recently started to eat way healthier and realized that toting my own food with me was essential since it’s almost impossible to grab something that’s quick and healthy while you’re out. So now I almost always travel with a Ziploc baggie or two in my purse filled with nuts, jerky, or dried fruit. And I’m eating 100 percent fewer Starbucks pastries as a result.

5. Let it go.

(And this one is not just because my daughter is Frozen-obsessed.) I spent way too much time in my 20s stressing over things that I couldn’t change—toxic friends, ex boyfriends, guys who were just not into me, crappy roommates. Bad things would happen in my life from time to time—things that could honestly have been over and done with in a day—and then, looking back now, I can see that I would make these bad things worse, prolonging the drama myself by stressing over it, making it into a bigger deal, keeping it going for no reason at all. I’m here to tell you that, in your 30s, you start to have a better perspective of what’s important, and you can usually just put all the petty drama aside. Case in point: I’m in a coffee shop right now as I type this, and I just overhead two 20-somethings talking about how they weren’t going to let an ex-roommate into their apartment to get her stuff because she still owed some money on a utility bill, so they were going to throw out the stuff, call the cops, start all this drama, blah blah blah. It took everything I had not to intervene and tell them, “Dude, just let it go.” Yeah, your roommate was shitty, but you are creating the drama in your life by turning it into an ongoing thing. Eat the $50 or whatever it is that she owes you, give her back her stupid stuff, erase her number from your phone, and get on with your damn life. (Related: It’s possible I should find a new coffee shop to hang out in.) 

Thanks, Alyssa! Stay tuned for more Five Rules.

“Five Rules For Life” is a series on Rouge18 in which I ask others to share their five rules for life about anything and everything. You can learn a lot about a person by reading which five things govern their actions, no?