What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

To live my life for myself. Never have expectations of anyone because then you will just be let down. I have complete control over everything I do, but none over anyone else.

Whenever I complain about something (I wish I were skinnier, or taller, or had smaller breasts) my mother asks me…
“What would you give up in exchange for that? Your brains? Your talent? Your art? Your knack with animals? What would you trade?”

Of course there’s nothing about me that I would give up for something so shallow, and I would always admit that and find that I was once again grateful for everything I have, and that I was grounded.

Dont moon a pitbull after sitting in
A-1 sauce.

“Remember who you are”

“don’t trust anyone further than you can throw them”

There is always someone who has it worse.

“Never question worse.”
“Don’t take on everything that comes your way. Choose your battles wisely.”

It isn’t what you say, it’s how you say it.

Think before you speak.

My grandfather and grandmother raised me when I was young on a farm. For a few years, food was very very very lean and we barely survived. Whenever a neighbor or a friend needed food, money, whatever, my grandfather would hand it out. He would always tell me to “help when you can because you’ll never know when you’ll need it yourself”. I consider myself very fortunate to not need help but always try to do the “good karma” thing….

@googlybear ditto to it all!

Life is not a dress rehearsal…Go For It!

Mine is kind of similar to what Tantigirl said, but it’s a good one anyway. “Talk less, think more”

Life isn’t always fair.

Life is a lesson that’s worth your full effort!

“Be as eager and as speedy about ‘getting even’ with someone who has bestowed even the smallest kindness upon you, as you would about returning the gravest insult or embarrassment heaped upon you by an enemy. Neither act should go unnoticed, nor unrepaid.”

“Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.”

Never ask a question if you don’t want to hear the answer.

The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

I was told to always remember it and use it as a guide in difficult situations to decide whether there was really anything I could do to change the situation or not.

“Good”, “better”, “best”.
Never let it rest
until “good” becomes “better”
and “better” becomes “best”.

My late father taught me that and I never forgot it.

Do not react to the way a person treats you, it is not a reflection of your personality, but a projection of their own reality.

Then there’s

“Go to college.
Continue your knowledge.
Be a person wise and true.
For if they make penicillin out of moldy cheese
they could SURELY make something out of YOU!”

My grandmother taught me to work as hard as you can and not to worry about what your coworkers are doing or not doing and when times are lean you will still have a job, and she is right about that one because so far in my work life I have seen four sets of layoffs and I have been spared my job, one of them two different departments was asking for me to work for them when my job was out sourced. And my father was a great example of how to work even with personal problems, he was an alcoholic and work five days a week and was on time every day. My aunts taught me to read as much as you can and not to worry about what’s on TV because the people on TV won’t pay the bills.

“Give back more than you take from life. Your children will reap the rewards of your efforts.”

My dad started teaching us that from a very early age. It took me a little while to understand that he wasn’t talking about material rewards, he was talking about being a better person.

“Just because someone is worse, doesn’t mean you’re not bad.”

My Dad used to say that to me ALL the time and to be honest, it really is true. We all compare what we do to other people and justify it by saying, “Well at least I’m not as bad as <insert name here>,” but that logic is fatally flawed – as shown by the advice/quote. The other quote my father always says is, “The known evil is better than the unknown evil,” and I think that in many ways that is FULLY true. My Dad also gave me my first quote that I left and my Mother the second. ツ (smiley jacked from robmandu)

“Don’t be an idiot.”

It changed my life.

When I’m about to do something I stop and say, “Would an idiot do that?”

If the answer is yes, then I do not do that thing.

@malakai – the office

One day when I was working as a cashier in a drug store, I dropped something a customer had just paid for. It wasn’t damaged, but I apologized anyway and the man (who looked to be sad and a little angry) looked up and said “Never be sorry.” It was honestly the most sincere thing I have ever heard and I try very hard to follow his advice.

“You, and you alone, are responsible for yourself and everything you do.” (dad)
“waste not, want not” (mom)
“keep your negative emotions under tight control, and let the positive ones fly.” (me)

“It is what it is.” It seems like a trite saying but as someone who often wishes for things to be different, this mantra can be very centering.

@janbb I use that all the time.

Live the questions.

@ezraglenn: That is beautiful.

“It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you handle it,
so concentrate on the solution, not the problem.”

Be nice to people on the way up, you never know who you will bump into on the way down.

If it is to be it’s up to me.

@janbb and tWrex – my personal motto is similar – SO BE IT! I want it on my gravestone! you really can’t change the things you can’t change.
Best advice? Recognize if its your bullshit or the other person’s bullshit. If its yours, deal with it. If theirs, offer help, but walk away if they can’t see it or refuse.

Aww-shucks!
All the good ones are taken

Oooo, I know!
How about…
Do as I say,
Not as I do!

Haha, that’s what my grandfather used to say. Also, his most famous saying was “Fooling always ends in crying.” Not so much a piece of advice as a thinly veiled threat, but, still, a good thing to keep in mind.

It was from my Grandfather! He said, “To live each day as if someone is looking is looking over your shoulder!” And I have. My integrity is ENTREMELY important to me…

How about, Treat people as they wish to be treated, Not how you would! This I read from a very wise flutherer.

My father always says something which could be translated as “everything returns to its original nature.” This is a subtle/poetic way of saying “remember who you are, don’t pretend to be someone you are not just to fit in, and be true to yourself.”

It didn’t make sense to me when I was a kid but now I believe that its the best advice I ever received.

“Double-knot your shoes before the marathon.”

“Reduce your caloric intake, and exercise.”

“Tell her you love her.”

“Laugh about it.”

“Take an umbrella.”

All excellent, all relevant to the situation.

about riding a motorcycle: “They’re all drunk, they’re all trying to hit you, and nothing on that trailer is tied down.”

About conservation: “Use it up, wear it out. Make it do, or do without.”

@jholler we call that (use it up…) the Catholic family motto. My grandmother had stitched it and hung it in the kitchen =)

Another one from my mom: Put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

When I was younger it was just something annoying that moms said. One day it just clicked. All of a sudden I realized that having a chemical imbalance in my brain that makes me too sensitive to emotions meant that I could instantly tell what someone else was feeling because I’d been there myself. My friends are awed by my ability to just know things.

ask lefteh, he’ll verify this..

“Do what you love for a living and be passionate about it.”

“You can never fully 100% trust your friends, because at one moment you’ll be sharing a laugh, and the next you’ll be crying because they stabbed you in the back” ...continuation…“Just trust your instincts, and yourself”

It’s better to do the right thing badly than the wrong thing well.

Don’t say anything to anyone else that you wouldn’t/couldn’t say to your mother.

and

Once something is said or done, it can never be taken back.

Tanti: If I didn’t say anything that I wouldn’t/couldn’t say to my mother,
I’d have to cut out about 67.81% of what I had to say!
That might not be a bad thing per se. But still.

Nimis, yup, I’m with you there. It was a good piece of advice, and I can’t say I actually follow it though!!

Don’t pee into the wind, never whittle towards your thumb, and if you are going to kick someone when they are down, make sure you have your running shoes on.

Oh and this one my Dad always said, Throw enough shit against a wall, some of it will stick. I hope he meant it as prevaricating, and not literally.

My mom is always saying something basically comes down to” Appreciate what you have today, because it can all be gone tomorrow ”

if you’re bored than you’re boring. my grandma said that.

“Fuck a lot of women, kid. Not just one woman – A LOT of women.”

sure, now I get that advice, Tits. :-)

My dear, dear dad’s advice to me, the day before I left for college:

“Once upon a time, a dog sat down on a railroad track. A train came along, and chopped off the tip of the dog’s tail. The dog, realizing what happened, jumped up, turned around, and began to look for the tip of his tail. While he was looking, another train came by and chopped off his head.”
“The moral of the story is: Don’t lose your head over a little piece of tail.”

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you…My family. take a bow.

Knotmyday, I’ll trade ya, my family isn’t at all entertaining like that.

@ Knotmyday- that is damn funny!

“Love all, trust nothing.”

And the idea of law of attraction, “thoughts create things.” The way you think, what you think manifests all that is in your life, so think positively and BELIEVE in those thoughts and things will unfold accordingly.

“if everyone disagrees with you or treats you like dirt, do your own thing, regardless or the consequence.”

“do what makes you happy, not what makes other people happy”

Son, you never do anything right…and I don’t expect you to either.

shaunep82 you are so eager to judege like the rest of my oppressors

@kevinhardy I don’t think he was addressing you, just answering the question. Though that is a pretty awful piece of advice he gave.

in that case, sorry for misreading, i thought it was a judgement of my response

@kevinhardy: “Oppressors”? Are you in Soviet-Russia or something?

I was only answering the question. I don’t judge.

@ShauneP82: You don’t judge? What about this ? Bullshit, you “don’t judge.”

Good job. You got me. I’ll never stray from the path of greater resistance again. Fail!

@ShauneP82: I actually do hope you’re not being facetious and do realize that you were being a huge fucking asshole, but it’s hard to gauge sarcasm over the internet, sooooo…

always wear sunscreen

Be yourself and never let people bring you down.

@ShauneP82 I take that with my view of Jesus Christ. No one is perfect, and he doesn’t expect us to be. I didn’t think it was bad..

You can’t cheat an honest man, never give a sucker an even break, or smarten up a chump.

“Toughen the #$@% up”. It helps when I wanna wuss out over something stupid.

My father always said ” If you don’t have something nice to say about someone – don’t say anything”.