As you get older, what do you realize about life?

I’ve recently realized it’s not necessarily so important in life where you end up in life as how you get there. Life is too short to sweat the details but rather to savor the experience as you go.

To be in the moment.

Try not to sweat the small stuff, and most troubles are small in retrospect.

Always continue to learn new things no matter how trivial or complex.

Pursue happiness.

Don’t feel badly about relaxing.

Simplify whatever you can.

Certainly that much of the stuff we worry about in our youth is irrelevant. However, I’m also increasingly conscious of the idea that we should take more risks in our youth. I’ve always done this to a point, but I could have done it more. I want my children to be more adventurous. To go after their dreams. I want them to stope worrying about consequences, that with hindsight, I can see aren’t that important. I hope I’m making sense!

Your health is everything.

Stop…not stope…

Everyone has their own problem, so it’s better to show more tolerant.

That reading or participating in to many negative conversations can affect you negatively, and in time make you pessimistic about life and also affect your health.
It’s not to say that one shouldn’t oppose or seek information or seek to inform others but that it should always be kept in balance.

If you see you are being affected, take what I call a garbage break and avoid all pessimism until you feel renewed. Like right now. I need a garbage break. No politics, and no news for a while. Just me, and my garden and my dog and some fall cleaning. Going to hit my closets hard and find stuff to give to charity. At least the last one is my plan. Hopefully most of my clothes don’t convince me to give them another year. LOL

That we never brought kids into this planet.

I learned that whatever you feared, some will come to pass. Then they are no longer fears, they become experiences.

1. It doesn’t last as long as I thought it would
2. My reality is not the same as everyone else’s, just because someone has a different belief system than me it doesn’t make them wrong or bad
3. Relationships are more important than being right
4. Love is the answer to a lot of conflict
5. Worry doesn’t change one thing
6. Things that have happened in my past only define who I am if I allow them to
7. Having happiness be the goal sets me up for disappointment. Life will ebb and flow, and if my goal is to be kind, and leave the world a better place than I found it then the unhappy times can’t devastate me
8. I have zero control over another persons feelings or reactions. All I can do is set a positive intention, but if others can’t accept it, I don’t have to feel responsible for their happiness
9. I need to take care of myself before I can take care of others with any effectiveness
10. I have value. (Took me a long time to get this one.)

@Judi, great list.

Gee @Judi…your answer is so full life’s experiences that I embrace and define how I too see where you end up when the hurricane of life passes by and lets you take a breath. The irony is how oblivious I was to these wise realities when I was plowing head first through life in my 20’s 30’ even 40’s. Once the YOLO and LITS sinks in and only when they do….your top ten becomes relevant and sinks in deep…very deep! Thanks for sharing!

This is such a great question, I’m going to pose it to my Facebook friends. :-)
Thanks for asking me to take inventory. I love it.

You can’t sleep off the bad parts.

It’s really long.
Can we get a pause button here? Re-group session?
Life is so…relentless.

Guess I’ll have to make-do with the comedic distraction commercials.

as I said on Facebook: it is fleeting, but full of possibilities for joy.