Other people's wisdom

Aren't we kidding ourselves, thinking that we can really learn from other's experiences rather than from our own mistakes?

The truth is we are always willing to pass advice around even if two lives are never the same.

I like listening to older people’s advice because I have this slight fear of wasting my life worrying about the wrong things. Recently, I came across two articles and here are my favorite pieces of wisdom.

Photographer Jamie Beck on turning 30

1. Have a dream. Follow your dreams.

2. Failures are not mistakes, only the lessons that give us stories.

19. Life is too short for bad: beer, wine, coffee, food, people.

20. You never stop learning.

21. Your dreams can and should change.

27. Perfection is boring.

Writer and journalist Pamela Druckerman on being 40

Eight hours of continuous, unmedicated sleep is one of life’s great pleasures. Actually, scratch “unmedicated.”

There are no grown-ups. We suspect this when we are younger, but can confirm it only once we are the ones writing books and attending parent-teacher conferences. Everyone is winging it, some just do it more confidently.

There are no soul mates. Not in the traditional sense, at least. In my 20s someone told me that each person has not one but 30 soul mates walking the earth. (…) In fact, “soul mate” isn’t a pre-existing condition. It’s an earned title. They’re made over time.

(…)

Just say “no.” Never suggest lunch with people you don’t want to have lunch with. They will be much less disappointed than you think.

(…)

When you’re wonderingwhether she’s his daughter or his girlfriend, she’s his girlfriend.