Best Advice For Life From My Grandmother

When you hear the best advice for life, you should always do two things: Take it in and pass it on.

If truth is relative to what you believe, happiness is directly correlated to what you pursue.

Mae West once said, “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” The question is, how?

My grandmother’s best life advice will help ensure you nail it.

Everyone is searching for how to live a happy life- in reality, the search begins with yourself.

Happiness is not something to be “found.”

It is just realized.

It is already right here.

Take a deep breath as you read this – Happiness is a choice, and everything else is a matter of perspective.

If you want to help put this great advice into practice, be sure to check out the psychological life hacks that will help you win in 2022.

The truth applies to everyone.

Stay true to yourself.

My grandmother’s best advice for life is simple.

She would tell me to check my consciousness when I lay my head on my pillow at night.
“Did you do anything that will cause you to lose sleep,” she will ask.

Put your palm on your heart.

Is everything okay?

They think good thoughts, smile and sleep.

And be grateful to God for a day well lived.

So much of our unhappiness stems from making decisions against our core beliefs.

For every one of us, deep down, you know what is right.

We don’t want to do the wrong things.

But sometimes, we listen to our heads and convince ourselves with logic.

Staying true to ourselves is the real challenge.

When we are grateful, all the unpleasant things become secondary; we learn to be neutral and respond.

Reacting takes too much energy, and we lose our equilibrium.

But suppressing our true selves is even more challenging.

Remember, do what is right by your heart!

Do what you love–not what you’re told to love.

I love to write.

That’s what I do best, and I spend considerable time writing.

To spend time doing what you love takes work.

Hard work.

And the truth is – most people give up easily.

I got a job that paid the bills and used to do what I love “on the side.”

Some people ask why didn’t you do that earlier.

My grandmother would say in her best advice voice, “The time wasn’t right back then.”

There is a time for everything.

If I had started earlier, I could have lost my motivation.

I might fall into the sweet comfort of routine.

I almost did.

“yes, you almost did,” Grandmother said.

“you would have taken the same road as those your age, gave up your passion for family life.

Give up the very thing you once valued the most – a voice.

Many look back in regret, shake their heads, and mutter, “I wish I could have…”

While it took me half a century to realize it, I am grateful for all the lessons I learned.

I am glad I felt no immense loss when I made that break.

Career and passion are two very different things.

Even if I only do it for myself, I still soldier on.

Many don’t understand, and that’s okay too.

Many see “doing something for yourself” as wasting time and energy.

Passion is not a measurable achievement.

Create the environment that’s right for you.

An omnivore is that of a person who is an introvert or extrovert.

Omniverts can both be quiet and reserved individuals and loud and outgoing.

They can be at the end of the introvert spectrum when presented with situations they do not want to be in or care about.

Many see me as an extrovert.

I know myself as an introvert.

So, it may not be evident at first.

If you are an extrovert, don’t work at a job that suppresses that part of you.

Trying to fit into an extroverted company culture is jarring for an introvert.

What is most important is your day-to-day happiness and how you do things.

Create your environment (in your head, at least) until you find a place for growth.

Surround yourself with people who understand or try to understand you.
There are always options.

You need the right environment that feeds your core and helps you grow.

Choose your friends wisely.

Remember, you are the sum of the five people you spend the most time with, so choose them wisely.

If they constantly complain, you will also learn to complain a lot.

If they are lazy, you will think being lazy is normal.

If they are not actively improving themselves, they will let life run its course and not take action that reflects that part of them.

It is tough to be happy and positive when surrounded and weighed down by negativity.

Develop positive habits.

While we sometimes believe “happiness” is the destination.

Do we discover we are challenged by what life throws at us – a curveball?

Some love challenges and thrive when the environment is challenging and grows.

We love challenges, and we thrive off the challenge.

We grow through challenges.

It is not whether it is easy or not, but our emotional state decides whether or not that process of growing and being challenged is enjoyable.

In the same way, a workout can be either pleasurable or painful.

The simple act of developing positive habits brings deeply “earned” happiness.

We are happy when we have overcome ourselves.

Create certainty and leave room for uncertainty.

Happiness is found somewhere in the middle of certainty and uncertainty.

We can have everything all planned out or unplanned.

If everything in your life is planned out, then it’s boring.

If nothing in your life is ever planned, then it’s risky.

Life happens.

You want enough certainty to feel grounded and not in any danger.

You also want to be open to spontaneity and spontaneous adventures that make memory-building fun with moments of joy.

All the best moments are enjoyed when you know you have solid ground to land on safely.

Be vulnerable.

Vulnerability is the secret that makes us human.

Sometimes, we must go to great lengths to hide who we are to receive approval.

We create and wear masks, personas, and images so the parts we feel lacking will receive approval.

To be fully human, we need to realize that we are imperfect.

We can let others do the same once we open ourselves and accept ourselves.

Our best work comes from being vulnerable.

All our art, writing, music, and creativity come from vulnerability.

You have the opportunity to make a difference in the world and yourself.

Each morning is a beautiful new beginning.

Make each day meaningful.

Once I learned the secret my grandmother taught me, I realized her best advice for meaningfully living each day.

Each morning is a chance to be grateful for being alive.

When you wake up in the morning, smile before you get out of bed, take a moment to realize – be thankful that you have been blessed with a brand new day.

How can you make the next 24 hours meaningful?

Start the chain reaction of positive tasking.

Make your bed.

It’s the simplest thing that ranks high in achieving something easy.

Try to rethink this if you are the type who rushes out the door at the last minute every morning.

There are many lessons in making your bed.

My grandmother used to tell me, “The way you make your bed is the way you sleep in it?”

I finally understood the profound wisdom in it.

“Sleep” was her metaphor for life.

If you want a smooth life, make your bed so you will lie on it later at night.

Things are not as bad as you think (or imagine) them to be.

Situations, environments, people, and tasks are seldom as bad as you imagine.

“If you don’t believe me, time yourself doing dishes,” Grandmother would say.
If you don’t like washing dishes, then wash as you cook.

Washing a pan, knives, a cutting board, and a bowl takes only one minute.

Instead of turning your back on the task that you don’t like and letting it pile up like a stack of dishes in the sink, invest in a minute and wash as you go.

Don’t make things worse than they are.

More minor problems are much easier to manage than more significant problems.

My grandmother’s best advice for life is to make big problems small and small problems even smaller.

The same goes for whatever piles you have in your life.

Piles as easy to accumulate – unopened letters, old magazines, newspaper, old clothes two sizes smaller, worn-out towels.

Whatever your piles may be, your piles say a lot about you.

Everyone has piles of stuff around the house.

We think that no one sees them.

If we don’t need them, it’s time to eliminate everything.

Remember, it is always easier and quicker to put away one towel, t-shirt, book, or letter than to put away a huge stack.

Take care of things when they are small before they grow into Godzilla!

Be mindful and considerate of others.

Don’t start by being tardy.

I always arrive ahead of schedule, even when another title comes along.

Arriving on time says a lot about you.

People are waiting for you at a meeting, a restaurant, or an airport.

“Being twenty minutes late is disrespectful,” grandmother would drum in my head.

As they wait, the negative comments about your tardiness start to grow.

8.00 AM is 8.00 AM not 8.15 AM or 8.05 AM

Is that how you want others to view you?

Set aside extra time for things to go wrong because unexpected things will most likely crop up, and they often do.

Dress for success.

Prepare your outfit for tomorrow before you go to bed.

Setting aside 5 to 10 minutes to pick out an outfit, iron it, and hang it for tomorrow means you can get dressed immediately.

People are judged by their first impressions and how they look.

When you walk into the room, your outfit says, “Here I am.”

Your clothes are your opportunity to present yourself to the world.

What do you want your outfit to say about yourself?

Start your day caring for your health.

Eating a good, healthy breakfast is an important start.

Breakfast at home is the most important meal of the day for a healthy life.

Grandmother would ensure we get a warm breakfast before heading out every morning.

How you eat breakfast says a lot about you.

There’s an old saying: “Breakfast like a king; lunch like a prince; dinner like a pauper.”

Make the first meal of your day your most significant, and only eat three meals daily.

Things happen; sometimes, you may be stuck somewhere without water or food.

So have a meal before you head out.

Change your thinking, change your life.

“Change Your Story, Change Your Life can help anyone to break free of old agreements that no longer serve them and dream a new story.”

Most of us wish for an extraordinary change of circumstance so that our lives would be great.

But the thing is this – it’s not the circumstances that were the problem.

Regardless of what changes we make in our life – a shift in

• income
• relationship or
• environment

We will always revert to what our self-image ‘tells’ us we deserve and what we expect from our lives.

Soon enough, our circumstances will change back to what we fundamentally believe about ourselves at a subconscious level.

Remember lottery winners?

According to the New York Daily News, 70 percent of lottery winners broke within seven years.

Our thinking determines what happens to us in life – not our circumstances.

To make lasting changes in our lives, we must first change how we think and fundamentally believe about ourselves.

Find a mentor and do what they’re doing.

Success leaves clues.

So, Who are you watching and learning from?

If you find someone with the desired results, you need to do what they are doing.
Invite them out for coffee and ask them how they did it.

If you don’t have someone available to you in person to learn from, then hire someone—a coach, a mentor, or someone who can give you access to a workshop, a program, or at least read a book.

Be kind to people; treat people as you would like to be treated.

I read Dale Carnegie’s classic book, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People in High School.

I remember the lesson well.

‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said and what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ – Maya Angelou.

Everyone loves to feel special.

Everyone loves to be noticed.

And if you care for people and treat them as the special people they are, they will love you for it.

My grandmother’s best advice for life is summed up in the famous words of Zig Ziglar, “If you help enough people get what they want, then you will get what you want.”

Never, never, never give in.

You may think it is difficult, and you are not Sir Winston Churchill.

In his speech about Britain’s victory in World War II, Churchill encouraged us to ‘never give in, never give in, never, never, never.

Everyone can start something.

Everyone can have a great idea.

However, seeing something significant through to completion takes perseverance and grit.

When no one believes in your actions, will you keep going?

When everyone around you resists your progress, and you’re not getting any support, will you still push through?

Will you continue fighting when you’ve had setbacks and difficulties and don’t feel motivated to continue?

While others make resolutions in the new year, why not take part in the process of building a path to your dream?

Disappointments, pain, failure, resistance, setbacks, and criticism from others all these and more will come our way.

But no matter what happens….never, never, never give in!

In this post, I share some of the best life advice that I have ever received, which has changed my life.

Enjoy!