What's the best piece of advice you've been given?

[Brunchickle]

Could be from anyone - a work colleague/parents/a friend/a partner/a health visitor/a stranger on the street. Mine came from a little old lady outside Sainsbury's who stopped to look at my baby son in his buggy when he was about 8 months old. I was tired and grouchy, and she said to me "the days are long but the years are short." I've never forgotten it.

What's the best piece of advice you've been given and who by?

From a work colleague when I was pregnant with DD. “Get the baby used to noise. Don’t be telling everyone to shush when the baby’s asleep otherwise the slightest bit of noise they’ll be awake.” DD slept like absolutely dream and through anything.

Not really advise as such well I suppose it was as it taught me to be more patients.
I was out with my nan and great aunt.
I remember us sitting on a bench and I was mithering them to take me to the fair as they’d promised. My aunt said “We’ll go in a minute just wait. It’s better to look forward to something than to have had it and it’s all gone.”
I was only around 7 years old but Its always stayed with me.

Perfection doesn’t exist so don’t pride yourself on being a perfectionist because to be a perfectionist is deeply flawed.

From a manager who changed my life!

Become an engineer- my dad. I didn’t and I’m in a dead end career which I do love but I’ve reached my maximum earnings and it’s not a lot.

Give some people the mushroom treatment, "keep them in the dark and feed them shit". My fil told me this. At the time I would have been going through a hard time with people not treating me properly.

Don’t rush it coz you’ll fuck it.

Brilliant advice from my driving instructor years ago but translates into many of life’s little tasks

Only ask the questions to which you want to know the answers...
took a while, but works for me!

@Peasweet - that's a really good one. I think there are a lot of things you don't really want or need to know the answers to! And knowledge is not always a good thing!

Don't set yourself on fire to keep someone else warm

Said to me by a wonderful line manager and made me realise I can't do everything for everyone all the time

My mother: always buy the duvet one size bigger than the bed

Boy George: you’re my lover, not my rival

“Pick your battles.” From a great manager/mentor to a young, feisty me.

'If in doubt, hang about'.

Said to me by my mother, whilst at a roundabout, when learning to drive. I still say it to myself 30 years later, when dithering at junctions etc.

"Sleep on it. Nothing looks quite so bad in the morning".

Don't shit where you eat

(Don't shag/annoy someone at work - actually anyone at work)

Fool me once shame on you.Fool me twice shame on me.

Those that mind don't matter, those that matter don't mind.

Said by a dear friend not long after I had my first DS when I was mithering about not keeping my house up to standard.

Never apologise for how you feel, only for how you behave.

Dad's advice to me at school but also applicable in other situations 'Don't worry about them, worry about yourself'
In other words; if someone isn't doing as they're supposed to, make sure you are. If you're trying to dob them in for not doing whatever they're supposed to be doing, that then entails that you're, by default, not doing what you're supposed to be doing either. But if you ignore them and carry on and do what you're supposed to then if they end up getting a bollocking that's their own fault but at least you have been doing what you were supposed to.
Obviously dad's sentence was more succinct than my explanation.

Assumptions are the mother of all fuck ups. My mum told me this but it works wonderfully at work

"Other people are not the same as you"

" If you don't like something, try something else"

"Pay into a pension"

"Enjoy the small things in life, nature, time to yourself, sleep, small hobbies etc, be kind"

"Treat others as you would like to be treated"

When someone tells you who they are, listen to them (kind of based on the the maya Angelou quote). It helps me remember to read people's behaviour and not just what I'd like them to be; what are they showing me?

And one I have sort of devised myself, it's my yoga affirmation at the moment: 'there are no problems in my life that time cannot solve'; just basically reminding myself that these stresses in my life are all in hand, they just need time. I'm incredibly blessed and lucky to have no insurmountable problems in my life right now, and I remind myself of this a lot

Less is more, get to the point no need to go into detail or explain yourself.

And

Don’t go first!

Always read the small print

Worry once. Don't worry about worrying.

I still do but I try and use this to calm down

Forgive and forget, the anger damages your quality of life not theirs.

Not actually said to me directly, but taught to me by a very wise and loving lady.

Pay into a pension as soon as you start work & pay extra when you can afford to. It’s served me very well and means I can retire early.