50 Lessons Life Has Taught Me

These are life lessons from Regina Brett, who is 90 years old around 50 years old. It prob­a­bly sounded more “roman­tic” and cool to have some­one say all these things when they’re much older so they wrote she’s 90 and spread the email around.

But the lessons here are not dimin­ished by age. They’re as help­ful writ­ten by a 50-something than if they were writ­ten by some­one who’s 90 year old.

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hat­ing anyone.

4. Don’t take your­self so seri­ously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argu­ment. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with some­one. It’s more heal­ing than cry­ing alone.

8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retire­ment start­ing with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to choco­late, resis­tance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12. It’s OK to let your chil­dren see you cry.

13. Don’t com­pare your life to oth­ers’. You have no idea what their jour­ney is all about.

14. If a rela­tion­ship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15. Every­thing can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.

16. Life is too short for long pity par­ties. Get busy liv­ing, or get busy dying.

17. You can get through any­thing if you stay put in today.

18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19. It’s never too late to have a happy child­hood. But the sec­ond one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn the can­dles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lin­gerie. Don’t save it for a spe­cial occa­sion. Today is special.

22. Over­pre­pare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccen­tric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most impor­tant sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your hap­pi­ness except you.

26. Frame every so-called dis­as­ter with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”

27. Always choose life.

28. For­give every­one everything.

29. What other peo­ple think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost every­thing. Give time time.

31. How­ever good or bad a sit­u­a­tion is, it will change.

32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of any­thing you did or didn’t do.

35. What­ever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Grow­ing old beats the alter­na­tive — dying young.

37. Your chil­dren get only one child­hood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get out­side every day. Mir­a­cles are wait­ing everywhere.

40. If we all threw our prob­lems in a pile and saw every­one else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

42. Get rid of any­thing that isn’t use­ful, beau­ti­ful or joyful.

43. All that truly mat­ters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No mat­ter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.