What Piece(s) Of Advice Did You Find Helpful In Life?

Were there any piece(s) of advice that you decided to follow and ended up finding that it/they were very helpful?

One that my dad taught me was to always know where North, South, East, and West are.  
Living in a city for most of my life, that has ended up helping me immensely.

I'm not exactly Mr Confidence, although more so than back in the day.

Back in 2004-ish, when I was delivering for a local carpet store, I would go to various warehouses to pick up product. There was a particular shop that you would drive up to the back and enter the warehouse that way. The first time my boss sent me there he told me "Just walk in there like you own the place". Shockingly I did exactly that.

I've used it over the years...

crucifyd wrote:I'm not exactly Mr Confidence, although more so than back in the day.

Back in 2004-ish, when I was delivering for a local carpet store, I would go to various warehouses to pick up product. There was a particular shop that you would drive up to the back and enter the warehouse that way. The first time my boss sent me there he told me "Just walk in there like you own the place". Shockingly I did exactly that.

I've used it over the years...

Reminds of an approach I used over the years to instill self-confidence in nervous bandmates. Especially before shows. 

"Just act like you've been doing this forever, it's just another gig."

It actually worked the vast majority of the time. Sometimes it even improved their playing a bit.

About 15 years ago a local pastor was helping me work through a conflict. He counselled me to often use the phrase, "Help me understand", and MEAN IT. It's stuck with me ever since and been one of the most helpful pieces of advice I've ever gotten.

In my fire academy one of the instructors cautioned working another job or too much overtime as "You'll get used to the $$, your lifestyle will match that $$, and then you'll be stuck."

I'm a verified family man and I understood kids are only young once... and briefly... so I took his advice to heart. No regrets. There is always more $$ to earn, but time is finite.

scottmitchell74 wrote:"You'll get used to the $$, your lifestyle will match that $$, and then you'll be stuck."

Over the years I've seen so, so many people who get used to a certain lifestyle - and spending habits, and neighborhood, and travel habits, and accumulating properties and having more kids, pets, etc. and then they find themselves stuck and miserable despite having chased and caught the goods at the upper rungs of society.

A related great piece of advice I have heard and live by is to live below your means. Not at or above them, but with enough margin and enough savings to provide for any future needs or hard times.  It has served me well.  I do not recall any one person telling it to me, but I saw the spending behaviors of both (divorced) parents and my dad was terrible with money and was always broke while my mother was a cheapskate but always had money.

Constantine wrote:A related great piece of advice I have heard and live by is to live below your means. Not at or above them, but with enough margin and enough savings to provide for any future needs or had times.  It has served me well.

Same here.  I made some changes before Covid and cut out any bills for stuff I didn't need.  The biggest one was my own vehicle.  I was paying $400 per month in a vehicle payment and insurance, for a car that was sitting in front of my house 27 days a month.  Ever since, I've had no problem saving money and just driving the vehicle my wife and I both have, when I need to.  (which isn't often that I need to go somewhere beyond walking distance)

When we announced to our pastor that we were getting married, he asked both of us if there was anything we would change about the other person. Afterwards he then said "what will you do if they never change?" It put a better perspective of marriage into my mind at the time.

Always keep a waste basket in your car, cuz you never know when you're going to need it.