Laughter

Moving forward isn’t only about deciding where you want to go.

Sometimes you have to understand who you are first.

What do you believe?

What experiences shaped you?

What matters enough that you’re willing to stand for it?

And what role do you want to play in the lives of others?

Direction becomes easier when identity becomes clearer.

You’ll have an easier time deciding where you’re going when you understand why you’re making the journey.

Life has an interesting way of teaching us.

Sometimes you win.

Sometimes you lose.

Sometimes you get exactly what you wanted and discover it wasn’t what you needed.

And sometimes the door that didn’t open saves you from walking into the wrong room.

Make the mistake.

Correct it.

Lose something.

Keep the lesson.

Change your plans without changing your values.

And when life doesn’t go the way you expected, don’t be too quick to call it bad luck.

You may simply not know the rest of the story yet.

You don’t have to keep every experience life gives you. Just make sure you keep the lesson.

Read the book.

Take the trip.

Learn something you’re terrible at.

Spend some time alone.

Spend more time with people you love.

Share what you know.

Give while you’re still here to see what your generosity can do.

Pray.

Laugh.

Cook something without worrying about whether it looks like the picture.

And every now and then, do something simply because it makes a good story.

We can become so focused on building a successful life that we forget we’re supposed to actually live it.

One day, the memories may matter more than the things we were rushing to accomplish.

Build a life you won’t have to exaggerate when you look back on it.

Some of the best rules for life are surprisingly simple.

When you say I love you, mean it.

When you say I’m sorry, own it.

When you disagree, fight fair.

Don’t make fun of someone’s dream just because you don’t understand it.

Don’t let one disagreement destroy years of friendship.

And every once in a while, call someone simply because you were thinking about them.

We spend a lot of time trying to say the right things.

Maybe what matters more is making sure the people around us know they matter.

People may forget the conversation. They rarely forget how the conversation made them feel. 

Remember people’s names.

Keep your word.

Forgive when you can.

Help without always needing recognition.

Choose your friends carefully, but don’t become so guarded that nobody new can get close.

Make people feel seen. Encourage someone who needs it. Be honest without being cruel. Protect relationships that matter, and think carefully before burning bridges over temporary disagreements.

People may forget the advice you gave them or the things you accomplished.

But they tend to remember how they felt around you.

At the end of the day, perhaps one of the simplest measures of a meaningful life is this:

Were people better because your paths crossed?

You don’t have to be the most important person in the room to make someone in the room feel important.

Sometimes we make life harder by trying to manage everything at once.

Not every problem deserves your attention today.
Not every opinion deserves a response.
Not every mistake deserves to follow you into tomorrow.

Read something that makes you think. Get outside. Drink some water. Move your body. Laugh more. Worry less. Give yourself permission to enjoy an ordinary day.

There will always be responsibilities, deadlines and problems to solve. But there should also be room for sunshine, conversation, curiosity and a little fun.

A good life isn’t a life without serious moments.

It’s a life where the serious moments don’t take up all the space.

You can take your responsibilities seriously without taking every moment of life so seriously.

One of the easiest ways to become stuck is to decide you already know enough.

Keep reading. Learn something completely outside your expertise. Visit somewhere unfamiliar. Ask better questions. Talk to people whose experiences are different from yours.

Learn a few words in another language. Take a class because it interests you, not because you need another credential.

And every once in a while, allow yourself to say:

I don’t know. Tell me more.

Growing older should add to your experience without subtracting from your curiosity.

There is still too much in this world you haven’t seen, learned, tasted, heard or understood.

Stay interested.

The moment you believe there is nothing left to learn is usually the moment you stop noticing how much there is left to discover.

When something goes wrong, it’s easy to focus on one question:

Why did this happen?

Sometimes there is no satisfying answer.

A more useful question may be:

What can I do with what happened?

Learn from it. Adjust something. Try again. Change direction. Help someone else avoid the same mistake.

You cannot always control the setback, but you can decide whether the experience becomes baggage or wisdom.

You can’t always choose the experience, but you can choose whether you leave it with a lesson.

We usually measure setbacks by what they cost us.

The opportunity we missed. The plan that failed. The time we lost.

But there is another side to the experience.

Setbacks can leave behind patience, wisdom, humility, resilience and a better understanding of ourselves. Those things may not feel valuable while we’re going through the difficulty, but they often become useful later.

Not every difficult experience makes life better.

But every difficult experience gives us a choice about what we carry forward.

You may not be grateful for every setback, but you can be grateful for what you learned because of it.

Life rarely moves in a straight line.

Plans change. Doors close. Something you counted on doesn’t happen. In the moment, it can feel like you’ve been pushed off course.

But a setback doesn’t always mean you’re going in the wrong direction. Sometimes it forces you to notice another path you would have never considered.

You may not have chosen the detour, but you still get to choose what you do with it. A setback doesn’t always change the destination. Sometimes it simply changes the road you take to get there.