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Lessons you’ve learned in life

Paul has made some interesting observations about lessons he’s learned in his life.

  1. The 80/20 rule.
  2. Parkinson’s Law.
  3. Batching.
  4. First, give value. Then, get value. Not the other way around.
  5. Be proactive. Not reactive.
  6. Mistakes and failures are good.
  7. Don’t beat yourself up.
  8. Your attitude changes your reality.
  9. Don’t compare yourself to others.
  10. 80-90% of what you fear will never really come into reality.
  11. Don’t take things too seriously.
  12. Write everything down.
  13. There are opportunities in just about every experience.

In addition to his 13 ideas and the fact that I’m uneasy about having 13 on the list, here are 2 of mine: that I try to use every day.

14: Smiles are infectious.  Spread them. When you’re happy, you smile, and when you smile, you are happy. (nod to Anand here)

15: Believe in yourself – because if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will.

What’s your best lesson you’ve learned?…

 

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Published Wednesday, July 23, 2008 6:51 PM by Eileen_Brown
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Comments

Thursday, July 24, 2008 7:43 AM by Kevin Ball

# re: Lessons you’ve learned in life

The best lesson I've learned is: perception is reality.

Friday, July 25, 2008 8:16 AM by TechieBird

# re: Lessons you’ve learned in life

Three things, all related, in the order I learned them:

My headmistress in primary school had an obsession with the prayer of serenity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer).  I'm not a religious person but I think it's a great philosophy to live by, so a secular version of this might read:

If you can't live with it, find a way to fix it.

If you cant fix it, find a way to live with it.

As I've got older I've added to this with "If you can't fix it and won't learn to live with it, then please just shut up about it."  Negativity breeds negativity.  Whining about something you have no intention of doing anything about is not only a waste of time and energy, it can sap the strength of those around you.

Then two years ago when I read Getting Things Done... I added "Focus on the Next Action" to my list.  This is good for 1) projects which seem too huge to get started on and 2) turning complaining into something productive.  This can be a great way to get a meeting back on track after it turns into a whinge-fest!

Sunday, July 27, 2008 9:17 AM by Eileen_Brown

# re: Lessons you’ve learned in life

TechieBird,

Wow - some amazing insights here - I'd love to get you into some of the meetings I go to which are just whinge sessions :-) You'd certainly cut straight to the chase eh?

Friday, August 15, 2008 10:24 PM by Mark Lucas

# re: Lessons you’ve learned in life

The tidbit that has made the most sense to me is:

If you're not happy here and now, you never will be.

I don't remember who said it, unfortunately.

Monday, August 18, 2008 4:26 AM by Eileen_Brown

# re: Lessons you’ve learned in life

Mark,

Happiness is self generated.  We only have ourselves to blame if we're not happy don't we? (But we're too busy being miserable to notice that eh?)

Some more tips on how to find happiness are in the links to this post too.  And don't forget to smile as it can generate happiness when people smile back at you :-)

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