Normally, I write about ideas that helped me the most. But I’m just one person, and it’s quite possible that what made the biggest difference to you is different from what made the biggest difference to me.
So today, I’d like to hear YOUR point of view. What piece of advice changed your life the most? What single insight made the biggest impact on your quality of life?
It could be something you read on a blog or in a book, a quote from a famous person, or even something your grandfather told you when you were a kid. Any advice that really changed your life.
I don’t want to skew your answers by sharing my personal answer – so I’ll share that in a few days, when I sum up the most interesting answers I get from you.
Please share your answer below in the comment form (you can do it anonymously). (If you’re reading this in your RSS reader, click through to the site.)
Thanks for your input! I’ll see you again in a few days.
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
“Son, we are to poor to buy cheap things.” (from my grandfather and dad)
“Money doesn’t make you happy, but having some in the background keeps you calm.” (my other great-grandfather)
Material things can be replaced, so don’t value them higher then family, friends or your health.
Since I only recently started to develop my own lifestyle, I have a lot of advices that are seriously helping me. The one that changed my life the most is “focus only on the essentials in your life, cut everything else out”.
For me the best collection of one-line life advice comes from the sunscreen song. Including – “Don’t worry about the future, or worry, but know that worrying is about as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum”.
- “Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with those who are reckless with yours”
- “Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults”
- “Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements”
- “Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it, but in your own living room”
- “Be nice to your siblings, they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future”.
- “Live in New York city once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft”.
- “Travel”
- “Be careful with whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it”
I heard this song the day I finished secondary school and it really has helped shape my life for the better. I even took the NY/California part literally
“Follow your gut,” which amounts to listening to your instincts and following them rather than ignoring them to do “the right thing” or what you think others expect of you.
Quite simply: “You can do it…”
Everything exists for joy. There is not one other reason for life than joy. We’ve got nothing to prove to anyone, because nobody other than All-That-Is is watching.
In other words, we’re not trying to get brownie points from some other galaxy.
We’re not trying to get someplace else; we’re not trying to get it done, because there is no ending–we cannot get it done.
Everything exists for the purpose of joy in the moment.”
~ Abraham-Hicks
Good health is one of the most important things. Take care of your body because when it’s not working right it will make you miserable.
@Markus:
Those are some great words of wisdom about money! I’ll throw in one more I’ve heard:
“Money is like oxygen. It’s no big deal unless you don’t have enough of it.” (something I need to remind myself of, because I regularly meet people who aren’t as fortunate as me.)
@Rob:
Nice one!
@Benny:
It’s not much of a song, most of it is talking :p. But yeah, great advice there! I’ll add one to your list from that song, because it particularly stuck out at me:
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
@Getsheila:
That’s something I’ve personally needed to work on. I’m still working on it
@Dan:
Sweet and simple. I like it.
Mine would be from a Sean Covey book: “No one can hurt you without your permission”…i had been going through a tough time and this single line turned everything around.
“I am awesome”.
Self-confidence helps me get out here, do whatever I want, and whether I succeed or not I’ll be better of than if I hadn’t tried.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afF_sCyqfXw
Too much thinking complicates things….let go what’s inside.
There is always a sunrise after every darkness. (My own quote, which I made up this morning after watching a beautiful sunrise!)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit (Aristotle)
A former housemate gave me this little gem, which she inherited from her mother…
“What you tolerate, you deserve.”
@Eden:
That’s a great one. Most people don’t realize how much our bodies influence how our minds feel.
@Kamya:
That is an awesome piece of wisdom. I actually wrote a blog post recently on a very similar note, and when I finished it I thought it was so awesome, I’d offer it to the big blogs as a guest post. With any luck, they’ll publish it soon
@Shadowart:
Yes, you are.
@Smilingmind:
*mind blank*
@Salman:
Ah yea, I also love quoting myself
I love the second quote you gave. I think I first read it on the Zenhabits “about” page.
The greatest piece of advice I have ever learned comes from this quote: Take the first step–no more, no less–then the next will be revealed. Perhaps many will not grasp the wisdom behind this word but I saw through it.
Everything we need is right before us yet we are blind to see them. The reason is that we navigate though past and future, we never really live in the present. This is why we miss the answers and opportunities that we seek.
“be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle” -plato
(or as my friend pam says: do you want to be right or kind?”
If I wrote down all the good advice I’ve had, it would fill a book. But what’s helped me a lot recently is “Change habits one at a time.”
Oh yeah, and the Deli Lama: “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
My dad told me very early on;Brother (my nickname) you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shit even if you use Hellmann’s. Never forgot it and always think about it when making decisions. He was also very big on “You can’t fight facts, by definition they’re indisputable”. Pretty pragmatic guy.
You miss 100% of the shots you never take.