What is the best, most life-changing advice anyone has ever given you?

Question

I have a fourteen year old son, so I'm looking for something I haven't already heard. Thanks for participating.

Answer 1

Somebody once told me 'We are all responsible for how we feel.' That means whatever comes your way, whoever tries to ruin your day, when it all comes down to it, YOU are responsible for how YOU feel about. If you choose to be overwhelmed by life's obstacles or hurt by a careless comment, that's your bad.

Answer 2

The best advice I got was from an old boss (who didn't like me, BTW). I was young and had a real attitude about pitching in and helping. When I left the job (on bad terms, I might add), she pulled me aside and said, "It'll help you a lot in the future if instead of saying 'That's not my job," you say, 'What can I do to help?'" I took her advice, and to this day my bosses always note that I have a great attitude. It's even helped me to hold onto jobs when there were "cutbacks" being made. It just goes to show that sometimes the best advice comes from the most unlikely places!

Answer 3

You will meet many people in your life, some offering advice, others out to get you. In all the world you will come to know these people as associates or acquaintances, but on this earth gain power in the knowledge that you will only have a handful of true friends for the rest of your life.

Answer 4

Without knowing him its hard to say. People can be real good about giving advice but weak on execution. Fourteen is young and he has much to learn. I think kids that age get discouraged with failure easily and need to be encouraged to overcome disappointment in a positive way. Some of the best advice I ever got came from old football coaches. Its real easy to tell someone to get up after they just got knocked down, its a lot harder to actually do it. You will need to show him how to get up when he gets knocked down.

Answer 5

Everything that has been said is advice I try to give my own children, aged 24 to 29. For myself, whatever advice I give to my children, I have to follow. Lead by able example, not by able mouth. Do as I say, and I will do it too. Here's another quote by Gandhi that I am finding very useful:
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

Answer 6

Keep your knees bent.

Don't take anything personally.

Meditate to stay centered.

These three things have helped me navigate the chaos of life more than anything I ever learned in any kind of religious context.

I, too, have a 14 year old son. In his recent Coming of Age ceremony at our Unitarian Universalist Church, his father and I, symbolically, gave him these three truths to arm him on his journey toward a more adult self-awareness and self-realization.

Good Luck to you both! :)

Answer 7

This was not passed on to me but I thought it pretty much encapsulates what you're looking for & something that is relevant/ applies to any time/ gender/ place, etc.
It goes like this,"Life is an adventure, once you start to see it that way, you'll enjoy the journey more..."

Answer 8

This is actual a cultural proverb "if you want good, your nose has to run"
I guess everyone knows that to acheive something good in life you have to work hard and sacrifice. Also, experience comes with age.

Answer 9

Plan Your Castle in the Air
Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it.
Plan more than you can do, then do it.
Point your arrow at a star, take your aim and there you are.
Arrange more time than you can spare, then spare it.
Take on more than you can bear, then bear it.
Plan your castle in the air, then build a ship to take you there.

— Author unknown (too modest i guess)

Answer 10

Since human beings are necessarily interdependent, every human action is both self and other regarding. When we develop ourselves we awaken others to their potentials and inspire, encourage and raise them up aswell. And when they fall others suffer damage too. For me human beings cannot degrade or brutalize others or inflict emotional or moral damage on others without inflicting it on themselves. This happens in three ways;
1.To degrade others is to imply that human beings may be so treated, and thus lower the moral minimum due to all human beings from which all alike suffer.
2. To degrade others is to damage their confidence and self-respect, and potential for good, and so both deny the benefits of their possible contributions and to increase the Collective moral, psychological and financial cost of repairing the damage they were likely to do to themselves and others.
3. As beings capable of goodness and self awareness, we could not degrade or mistreat others without hardening ourselves against our victim’s suffering, we build up distorted systems of self justification, roughening our moral sensibilities and lowering not only our own moral standard but that of humanity.
As Gandhi said “no man takes another down a pit without descending into it himself and sinning in the bargain”.
This is the basis of my philosophy of loving kindness. We should not only learn HOW to be good people but WHY we should be good people-show him this and your son will be a good person.
In Deepest Kindness,
D