The older I get, the more I realize that while I’m still learning, I’ve learned a lot along the way:
Guard against the garage sale principle. You know how when you hold a garage sale, have something priced at $20 that cost you $150, and someone wants to give you $5, you’re insulted and refuse to lower the price that much? Then when it’s still there after the garage sale is over, which it inevitably is, you end up giving it away.
Well, that can carry over into life. Maybe there’s some little thing you’re not happy with, and you let your dissatisfaction get in the way of seeing that the big picture is still pretty much in your favor. And by deciding to make a big deal in your mind out of some little annoying thing, you might just talk your way out of the whole thing — against your best interests.
Don’t shave your legs when you have goosebumps. That’s pretty self-explanatory.
If your gut is telling you to walk away or don’t do it, walk away or don’t do it.
You try on an item of clothing and start thinking through all the ways it could work if you: lose 10 pounds, take it in, use a pin, remove the elastic, cut the sleeves, cut the length, add some seams, remove some seams. Don’t buy it. It will never be right and you won’t wear it.
If you get an item of clothing or shoes home and realize it’s the best thing you ever bought, go get another one or two if you can afford it, right away. It won’t be there if you wait until it wears out in a year or 10.
Don’t lie (except for the little white ones that are solely motivated by not wanting to hurt somebody’s feelings). It will always come back to bite you.
When somebody shows you who they are, believe them. That can go either way.
Worry is my middle name. But why go there at all if you don’t have to? I gave my daughter a T-shirt for Christmas that says, “Watch for Deer!” in big letters with a tagline: “Means I love you.” I’m that mom.
I encourage you to think about all the times you’ve worried about stuff that never came to be — and for that reason, try to pack it up and put it away instead. I have worried about everything there possibly is to worry about and then some. Getting run over by a car while in a tent. A tree falling on our tent. That the only other camper in the campground is a lone man who I am certain will kill us in our sleeping bags (there is a definite camping theme here).
More often, it’s about family. That my kids will skid off the road driving in snow. My kids/grandkids will be attacked by a bear walking through the woods near our house (bears have been seen nearby). That my kids will lose their kids in public places. Things I have no control over like innocent victims of conflict in the Middle East (a lot of that lately).
If I hear a siren and any of my family is within range, I immediately worry and often pick up the phone to be sure they’re safe. When I call my daughter and she doesn’t respond in her normal timely manner, the hair on the back of my neck goes up and I call her again, and in another 30 minutes, again, only to finally get a loving but with a hint of exasperation text that she was giving the kids baths or something like that.
In fact, getting worrying under wraps is my top New Year’s resolution. Second is losing 10 pounds so I can fit into the dress I just bought that is otherwise absolutely perfect.