What is the best piece of advice you were ever given?

Get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it was available to me.

I was about 10 years old, and my Dad brought me to his shop to work a Saturday.
I was sweeping the area, and my Dad pointed out places I missed. I showed him that other people missed those same spots, and he told me not to do as good a job as others, but do it better.

@Caravanfan stole my response!!! One other that has served me well in my lifetime is Don’t sweat the petty stuff…just remember that it is ALL petty stuff. Of course, covid has made me rethink the 2nd half of that statement although the basics of the idea are still relevant!!!

“You should never get married or have children.” Or maybe it was “You need to get married as soon as you can and have lots of babies.”

I can’t really remember… but I’m working on it.

I think.

Grandma my dad’s mom :
Don’t judge or be bad to people who haven’t harmed you. You never know when your life might be in danger, and that will be the only person around.

Do what you want to do while you can do it.

Pick yourself up by your bootstraps.

“Nothing is impossible. The hard stuff just takes longer.”

Don’t sweat the petty stuff, and don’t pet the sweaty stuff. As my old pappy used to say.

From my father:

“When you need less, you get more.” (He was talking about emotional needs.)

And from my mother regarding sexual activity:

“I made two rules for myself:
Never to do anything with a guy I wasn’t comfortable doing.
Never to do anything with a guy who didn’t like me as a person.”

Those rules were from my mother who grew up in the 20s and 30s and I thought they were pretty great advice.

My dad was a big (6’3” – 215 lb) guy and we spent a lot of time sailing together. On his big ol’ steel ketch, there was stuff I couldn’t reach, and things I wasn’t strong enough to do (I was a small person). When I would get frustrated at my limitations, and complain, he would say: “Don’t tell me why you can’t, show me how you can.”

I’ve carried that with me for life, it has always helped me to look at things from a different perspective, and often with an engineers eye.

Never put anything in print that you wouldn’t want the whole word to know.

Never criticize anyone unless you have walked a mile in their shoes.

In the first place, you will be a mile away from them when you criticize them, and, you’ll have even their shoes!

Always be responsible for yourself and your actions.

A man is defined by his actions. A good man shows compassion and control of himself at all times.

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will over fish and drive the spieces to extinction.

@si3tech, thanks! That is one on the things I tried to teach my daughter.
It actually went more like, don’t tell anyone anything you don’t want the whole world to know, because even a best friend can get mad and betray you. God help you if you write something personal, because not only can an enemy use it, they have proof to show others.