Bits of Wisdom That Forever Changed Someone's Way of Thinking

When I was young and having what I thought was a serious relationship talk with my first real SO, I told her that I just wanted to find the right person. Without missing a beat she said, "Everybody is looking for the right person, and nobody is trying to be the right person." Since then, I decided that I would just focus on being the best person I could be and figured someone would eventually find me.

When I was 38 I contemplated beginning a two year Associates Degree in Radiography. I was talking to a friend and had almost talked myself out of doing it. I said "I'm too old to start that. I'll be 40 when I get my degree." My friend said, "If you don't do it, you'll still be 40, but without the degree." 

I was trying to teach my sister to dive into the pool. She kept shouting, "But I'm afraid!! I'm so afraid!!" An old woman who was swimming nearby looked at my sister, raised her fist defiantly in the air and said, "So be afraid! And then do it anyway!"

"Bran thought about it. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?'

'That is the only time a man can be brave,' his father told him."

"It's only embarrassing if you're embarrassed." 

"Everyone you meet knows something you don't." 

"If you think you know something, find someone who disagrees and listen to them."

We judge others by their actions and ourselves on our intentions.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

One old man told me, "The hardest thing about getting old is running out of people who understand you." That is, each generation has a unique way of looking at the world and what it means to be alive in it, and as new generations come and redefine what the world is, one's world gets smaller and smaller as there are fewer people around who understand your world in the same way.

"You are not required to set yourself on fire to keep other people warm". As someone who spent the majority of her life feeling like she had to take care of others at all costs, it was kinda a shock to the system to hear that I was allowed to have my limits even with people who truly needed help.

"Never regret anything in life. You did something stupid? Shrug it off and never do it again. Lost something valuable? Forget about that and convince yourself you'll get something way better and you will. Regret never helped anyone. It just adds to the load on your back. You can't turn back time so when something is done don't ask tell yourself I should've done this, I shouldn't have done that. Tell yourself I will never do that same mistake again."

A single situation can be good and bad depending on how you look at it. Your car broke down? Well, time to take a walk then, little work out never hurt anyone. Your SO left you? Good, more time to work on yourself becoming a better person. All your plans for the day collapsed? Fantastic, now you have no expectations, and everything will be better than expected. An adventure awaits.

After I made a particularly stupid mistake at work, my boss said, "Okay, so that happened. Nothing we can do now, how do we fix this?"

“Everybody’s got to be somewhere; might as well be here.”



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