17 Life Lessons

1. If you think you need extra salt or sugar, take 5 bites first. If you need it, you’ll know that. If you don’t need it, you’ll realize you’ve finished it.

2. Someone acknowledges your question with “That’s a good question.” This is to preface that they may not have an answer as good as the question.

3. When someone asks for advice, they actually know the answer. They just need to hear it from someone else. It doesn’t mean it’s what they want to hear, but what they need to hear.

4. Buy good quality paper towels, foil and plastic wrap. These objects serve a purpose and when you get cheap ones, you end up losing out. This could also apply to toilet paper, but if it’s too thick, it may clog and then you’re in a worse situation.

5. When someone is upset, the first thing to do is acknowledge their emotions. It’s easy to react and become defensive. It’s takes more effort to say “I hear you.” And what happens next will change the course of the conversation.

6. With new babies, just hold them all the time. You can’t spoil them. To be spoiled is to manipulate for your own gains. Newborn babies have no such intention.

7. Don’t delay in picking up your kids due to work related reasons. Your boss won’t remember that you stayed late and compromised your family. Your children will. This actually applies to any kind of work-over-family prioritization. Decide who will remember.

8. Always be truthful. Lying is actually a lot of work and requires a lot of attention to detail, consistency and good memory. It’s so much easier to tell the truth and everyone can move on.

9. You can’t embrace the future if you’re holding onto baggage from the past.

10. Let it go. When problems look huge, think of the timeline of your life. You’ve got 20, 30, 50 years ahead of you. Looking at a timeline with so many moments and events, how important is this problem in relation to that? It’s a nit. You’ve just shrunk your huge problem.

11. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. You can overcome anything if you break it down into manageable chunks.

12. My favorite quote is “No one stumbles over mountains. It’s pebbles in our way. Remove the pebbles and you can climb the mountain.”

13. Office politics: it’s not who you send an email to, but who you CC.

14. When writing emails, use less words. People don’t read long emails. If you have a lot to say, then you’re better off calling directly to explain the information. Then, follow up with an email with details because they will forget what you told them.

15. If you smile a lot, all your wrinkles will be in the right places.

16. Create a toothfairy box for your kids. It's easier to put the box on the shelf to hold the tooth and money. Plus, it's convenient for the toothfairy to add apology notes in case she has a long day and forgets to collect the tooth.

17. If you eat ice cream standing up, out of the container or with a fork, you take in less calories, fat and sugar.  (Ok that’s not really accurate, but it is a wishful life lesson).