My grandmother told me: Listen to everyone’s advice, but then do what you think is best. It’s worked for me.
And my momma told me, you gotta shop around.
My mom frequently said, the only person you can trust in life is yourself.
She was right. Even, or perhaps especially, about my relationship to her.
Advice from a prostitute: “Every woman has her price”.
(For those of you following Mr. Yakuza nearby thread, you can see that some people need to be told that.)
I was told, “Begin planning for your retirement now.”
I was in my 20’s and now retired and financially secure.
“You have to do it sometime, so why not now?” (as a means of breaking out of procrastination)
From my mum, a day before my wedding: ‘Respect each other and don’t go to bed on an argument.’
From my dad on his 60th birthday when I asked him for some words of wisdom: ‘Friends are important. If you have friends, you’re going to be okay.’
"Don’t pee into the wind. "
Got taught that one when I was 3. It’s come in handy quite a bit since then.
“Always keep a good book nearby.” Can’t count the number of times this one has kept me from being bored when a short trip or visit ended up taking hours/days longer than it should have. Now that I have a nook, I have lots of good books nearby.
By far the best advice I’ve ever received though was “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” The world would be a lot better off if everyone would follow it.
From my dad: “Go ahead and be a writer, but have a profession to lean back on if that doesn’t work out.”
-kombatminipig, crappy writer but excellent programmer
From my mom: Don’t marry anyone you haven’t lived with first.
I can’t remember where I heard these exactly, but I’ll share the two I think have served me best in my life.
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Pay yourself first. I never missed what came out of my paycheck before I even received it and seeing those savings add up feels so good. The benefits of having funds available when you need them are too many to list.
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Don’t make a permanent decision based on temporary feelings. Especially in matters of the heart. Romantic love is complicated and you can fall in and out of love, so don’t make rash decisions.
“If you’re not hungry, you’re not losing weight.” (Mom)
“Eat when hungry, sleep when tired.”
–bridge graffiti.
No one ever literally said this to me, but one of my favorite quotes is “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”
“Do what you want to do and be nice to other people”- from the hubby. That quote’s done a lot to turn a rather glum pessimist into a cautious optimist.
School will always be there. It’s never too late to go back to it - it’s not like they’re gonna close any time soon.
It’s only hair; you can’t ruin it. It always grows back.
Never change lanes on a bridge.
It’s a two-parter. I was told the first part, and figured the second part out later.
- The only thing in your life you can really control is you.
You can ask other people to change, but if they don’t want to, you can’t make them. If you’re not happy with your friendship/relationship/job/living situation/lifestyle/etc., it’s up to you to change it.
- And you have total control over yourself.
You may feel like you’re stuck in a bad situation. Say you hate your job, you’ve tried to change it, tried to find another one, and nothing is working. So you feel like you have no control over the situation. It’s not true. You always have choices: you could quit today and get a job at Walmart, or take up a life of hitchhiking and panhandling, or start robbing banks. The possibilities are endless. You may say, “Well, those are all terrible ideas.” But that means that of the options available to you, you’re choosing the one that makes the most sense: stay in the crappy job until you find something better, because it’s solid income, it’s stable, it’s legal, and so on. When I realized that rather than just passively accepting what life hands me, I’m actively making choices, I started making better choices, and feeling better about my life in general.
Always assume the best intentions in other people. - my mom
My mom also used to tell me that when raising kids, they will rise or sink to the expectations you have of them. I’ve found this is true of people in general.
Dad is my favorite source for good advice.
- If someone says something and you’re not sure if they meant it as a compliment or an insult, assume it was a compliment. If you were right neither of you is embarrased, if you were wrong you’ve risen above their tactics.
- Drive like everyone is out to get you. Only a few of them really are but they’re hard to identify before they’re aiming for you.
Don’t love the company you work for, it will never love you back.
Start your own business, don’t work for someone else.
Similar ideas from two different people. When I first heard them I thought they were cynical. It didn’t take me long until I realized they were right and followed their advise.
Finally when I moved away from home I wasn’t expecting Polonius’s speech, but was amused that my father’s parting words were, “A small stepladder is a useful thing to have.” This I’ve also come to realize is true.