16 People Share The Best Advice They Received That Changed Their Lives
Let's be honest; people love to hand out advice at any opportunity, even when it's unwanted. But, have you ever received a piece of advice that smacked you square in the face and changed your life?
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Perhaps a parent, aunt or uncle, teacher, employer, or even a stranger said something to you that made you stop and change your mind about a particular situation? Or maybe even reevaluate your whole life?
Well, the 16 people below have. And they're here to pay it forward and share that life-changing advice with you now.
Scroll down to read through some of the most valuable things these AskReddit users have ever learned. And be sure to share your best life-lessons with others in the comments section below.
#1 "It’s the person you can’t live without."
“My grandpa told me this after I had moved into with my girlfriend and said living together was coming so easily:
It’s not the person who is easy to live with, it’s the person you can’t live without.
We’re married now.”
#2 "Always leave them feeling like THEY owe YOU."
“My dad told me a story about a time he bought some firewood. He paid for a cord of wood, but the guy only dropped off half a cord.
When he went to the guy’s house to confront him about it, the guy pulled a gun on him, so my dad left.
“The lesson,” he taught me, “is that when you are dealing with crazy people, always leave them feeling like THEY owe YOU. That way, they will go out of their way to avoid you.”
I have used this advice several times in my life.”
#3 "Everyone is just really good at faking it."
“Nobody has any idea what’s going on.
A lot less people actually have their sh*t together than you might think, but in reality everyone is just really good at faking it. Usually, they may have a true grasp of one or two things at best.
That advice made me a lot less anxious about doing things like trying new hobbies, giving presentations, or applying for jobs I know nothing about, because I know very few people are actually qualified to judge my performance.”
#4 "Stop worrying about it."
“My step-dad once told me:
If there is a problem and you know the solution, you can solve it, so stop worrying about it. If there is a problem you can’t solve, then there is nothing you can do, so stop worrying about it.”
#5 "Just to be alive."
“The meaning to life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple.
Yet everybody rushes around in a great panic as if It were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”
#6 "Make yourself indispensable."
“When you find a place you like to work in, make yourself indispensable.
I’m a waitress and for the last 3& 1/2 years I’ve worked in a place I love to be in. There is no job there I turn down. I clean the toilets, I can run the potwash, I’ll do the hoovering.
If cuts ever have to be made, my name will not be on the list.”
#7 "Risk something."
“There comes a time when one must risk something, or sit forever with one’s dreams.”
#8 "Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there."
“I’m a 45 yo woman.
As a teen my dad told me to go after what I wanted… College, jobs, clubs, a guy I was interested in, any goal.
He said if we all just sat around and only took the opportunities that fell into our laps we would all be miserable, so don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Rejection can be survived, but there are some regrets from which you’ll never recover.
This has served me well professionally and relationship wise. My amazing husband only asked me out because I made sure he knew I was interested.”
#9 "Work beats talent."
“Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard.”
- College professor in my life drawing class when I got frustrated about not being as talented as other students in class, I buckled down and got my B and beat the class average by the end of the quarter.”
#10 "That changed my life a lot.”
“You are an idiot to focus on things you cannot change, instead of working on things that you can change.
That changed my life a lot.”
#11 "Anxiety sometimes isn’t a bad thing."
“The reason a lot of us experience anxiety is because we are idle or unhappy.
The best advice I ever got was from a random stranger. “Anxiety sometimes isn’t a bad thing it’s our bodies way of telling us to get in gear, and to press forward to give our life meaning and fulfillment.” I went back to school quit my old job and it actually worked.
I have been Anxiety free for 2 years.”
#12 "Always keep your head up high."
“My grandmother was walking with me down the hall when I was in 3rd grade and noticed I was walking with my head down. She said, “always keep your head up high, and your shoulders back”.
I’ve done it ever since, and to this day I get compliments on how well I carry myself, and how much confidence I exude.
Every time someone says that, I’m taken back to that moment in time with my grandmother.”
#13 "The choice is yours."
“Every day you’re either getting better or you’re getting worse.
And the choice is yours.”
#14 "It's worth doing well."
“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
That was my dad’s consistent line when I was growing up. Now I’m a thirty-something father, relatively successful in life, and that line is the consistent theme for me.
If I’m going to put effort into doing something, I will do the best job that I am capable of doing. Everything from home renovations, work projects, cooking a meal, to reading bedtime stories. Giving less than my best effort to the task at hand is doing myself a disservice, and the people I am working for.
That’s not to say everything has to be perfect all the time, sometimes your best effort is just getting the job done. But half *ssed attempts at anything mostly just lead to disappointment, and more work when you have to re-do the thing.”
#15 "See how your outlook changes."
“Go a week without complaining about others and yourself.
Actively stop yourself for a week and see how your outlook changes.”
#16 "It'll leave you behind."
“The world doesn’t care about you and it’ll leave you behind unless you try to make something of yourself.
The world isn’t cruel, it’s just apathetic.”