Lurkers' week: what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

The answer to "why me?" is "why not?".

Never go grey,don’t put on too much weight and always keep your head on top of your bottom- by a retired headmistress on her 89th birthday!

This is a wonderful piece of advice which I read many years ago in a brilliant novel, The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver.

Mrs Violet Brown advises the hero, a man who can worry himself into illness, whose name escapes me at the moment....

"You cannot stop a bad thought from coming into your head. But you need not pull up a chair and bid it sit down."

Excellent advice for worriers. I wrote it down in my notebook to remind me not to overthink things.

Make your decisions based on common sense - not on emotions.

Know your mind and use it wisely.

Divorce him

Don't let the past cloud the future.

Don't wait for things to get easier, simpler, or better.
Life will always be complicated.
Learn to be happy right now.
Otherwise, you'll run out of time.

This plack is hanging on my fridge and I read it every day.

Love yours Grannmarie and biebz! So true.
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My mother always said, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". It was the best piece of advice ever.

Wise words from my mother - You can't help what you feel, but you can help what you do about it.

Thank you, Urmstongran?.

Photocrazy, that is classic motherly advice, wish more people followed that.

Be nice to the people you meet on the way up, you never know who you might meet on the way down.

From a retired midwife when I was walking round the streets pushing a 23 hour a day screaming child and feeling like my life had ended... that I should treat the first 3 months as the final part of gestation, the baby was feeling like he was out in the world too soon and that he would settle and the crying would stop. I clung on to that thought desperately... It did - at 11.5 weeks he stopped and turned into the most wonderful, happy baby!

Don't take life too seriously, nobody get's out alive anyway!

Only do what you would want your mother to hear about.

Not always followed, I have to say but always borne in mind

Honesty is the best policy. Parents instilled that in we children and I did the same with mine. Whether they still practise that is a moot point.

Dad drilled that into us constantly., GabriellaG54. The other was " never judge a book by its cover ".

Keep your promises.

Pick your battles - Dad
It’s only people who do nothing that never make mistakes - Mum
Trust your gut - Grandad

The 90/10 rule
When I was going through a really bad patch in my marriage as a young wife and was a bit disguntruled and discontented..Something I read:

If I was very lucky I might find that my husband was 90% what I had hoped for and expected. I could chip chip chip away at the other 10% never getting anywhere and making us both miserable ...or I could decide I'm really fortunate that in this uncertain world I had reason to be happy 90% of the time. And never ask about the 10% your husband would like to change in you

Saved my marriage.

Kenver60

Never judge the ginger by the label on the jar.

Always wear a smile.

Look after your teeth, your feet and your hair.

Dont marry him just because you think you could live with him ,marry him because you cant live without him ,said by my mother about a young man who had asked me to get engaged.I turned him down,met my OH a month later and we've been inseperable ever since .45 years

From an old Arab saying I read "trust in God but tie your camel".