One of the most popular posts on this blog was a list of 23 lessons learnt in life.
It provoked some of your own opinions in the comments. I’mve gathered them together and here they are: the 36 lessons my blog readers have learned in life!
Want your own say? Unleash in the comments section below.
1 Phone your mum once a week
2 Worry what your friends think, not your enemies
3 Dance like nobody’s watching!
4 Go to a Shakespeare play live at least once
5 Put your iPod on shuffle – listen to those old songs you haven’t heard in years
6 Smile at a stranger
7 Visit a mosque, a church, a synagogue, a temple before making any snap judgements
8 Travel opens your mind
9 Chuck away 10 things today that you really don’t need….
10 Read a book of fiction, and a book of non-fiction every month
11 Take cold showers to kick-start your day and your life (might not be a popular one)
12 Sign up for an event (marathon, ironman, 5k fun run) TODAY
13 Love your body for what it does and where it takes you, not what it looks like. Dislike your legs? Pah. Cycle up huge hills and whizz down beautiful valleys; it is very difficult to dislike your body when it can power you up a mountain.
14 If you don’t feel like going for a run/bike/swim, go anyway. You’ll never regret going out, but you’ll often regret staying in.
15 It is almost impossible to go for ‘just one pint’. SCIENTIFIC FACT.
16 Instead of complaining about what’s wrong with the world, do something to change your little part of it for the better.
17 If you haven’t been to a country, everything you think about it is almost definitely wrong. (Except Dubai.)
18 You are capable of infinitely more than you think you are.
19 Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.
20 Live and Love Happy.
21 Every day do something that makes your life more beautiful, more joyful and orderly.
22 Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is the special occasion.
23 It’s alright to ask for help.
24 It’s alright to say, ‘I don’t know.’ But figure it out eventfully.
25 Be here, be now.
26 Make a list of 20 things you want to do before you die
27 Vote in Anger (give a shit for once!)
28 Unplug your TV for a month
29 Have a hero
30 Meet your hero
31 Be a hero
32 Read War & Peace just so you can say you have read it!
33 Sell everything you don’t need
34 Keep your promises.
35 Sleep under the stars and learn a constallation
36 Be nice to people!
regarding 9 and 33, how about give them away to someone who needs them! Very liberating
brilliant list. Enjoyed it! And believe it. I would add a brief line from a poem I once wrote:
Be ever open to love’s song
Never are you so much who you’re meant to be
as in the time of love’s enchantment
or lost and broken at her splintered gates.
I was happily settling down to another lazy night on the sofa this week and thought of point 14.
20 painful minutes later on my rowing machine I felt great and didn’t regret missing Coronation Street at all!
Great list. Not sure about the reference to Dubai in no. 17 though.
I think that many people have the wrong impression of Dubai, and (as a resident there) I can confirm that it is not all about glizty shopping malls, indoor ski slopes etc – it is possible to live as a wildman out here (and of that I know that Al would approve). You can camp out in total isolation under the stars in the desert, eat your fill for virtually nothing in the cheap local restaurants, hike in the stark and stunning mountains 1.5hrs away. I could go on and on.
I guess my point is that there shouldn’t be any exceptions to no.17, or perhaps there should be an entirely new point – to be open minded about ALL places. And by extension, to have an open mind about all things. Visit it, live it, and then make your own mind up about it, rather than simply accepting somebody else’s viewpoint.
Ian
Good point, Ian – thanks for your thoughts!
Awesome list.
I would like to add: Disconnect from work completely. Don’t make and take calls and certainly don’t keep in touch via emailing.
I was umming and ahhing about whether to go for a run this evening even though I’m completely shattered from a late night. After reading the list I’m resigned to get my running shoes on when I get in and going out. Even if its only 1km, I know I’ll feel better after it!