The best advice

March 26, 2013   |   6 Comments

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From the beautiful “life is a collaboration with love,” to the very practical “watch out for idiots,”  the inscrutable “don’t forget your real job,” and the classic, “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” a bouquet of the best advice my FB pals ever received. Whether from their mother, the Bhagavad Gita, or Katherine Hepburn, there are some real gems in here.

Choga Nyima
Where we go one…we go All!

Michelle McSweeney
Fortune cookie: All of your tomorrows will take care of themselves if today is well lived.

Melissa Johnson
“Learn to let go of attachment.” It took me years to understand what that really meant, but when I did, it was the second most freeing moment of my life.

Sherry L. Helmke
“Let things come to you.” from Tai Chi Master Frank Fong

Mary McCracken
There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Solveig Caroline Stroeer
Let go and let God.

Beth Patterson
Never go further than too far.

Diane D’Angelo
Feeling your feelings won’t kill you. Not feeling them will.

Beth Perry
Keep your wits about you and don’t waste time grumbling.

Carrie Meinberg Burke
Strike while the iron is hot.

Tara Anderson
The greatest source of unhappiness: expectations.

Renee Morgan Bochman
if you want to know how your partner will be in a relationship, look at how they treat their family and long time friends.

Angela Nicolosi
When considering someone as your mate, don’t try to figure out how you can fit into their life, ask “Is s/he enough for me?

Vicky Lindo Kemish
“Stay in your lane” is the best advice. Do I follow it? I try but need my alignment checked frequently.

Sera Bishop
From my dad, “Don’t worry; we’re all just a bunch of peons anyway.” Makes me smirk and lightens the mood every time.

Catherine Elcik
Advance confidently in the direction of your dreams and you will have success unimagined in common hours. (though I do wish Thoreou had put CONFIDENTLY in all caps because that’s the pain in the ass about this piece of advice)
Also, as a writer, my mentor once told me to “Stop apologizing for your material.”

S Clark DiBrell
Keep your nose clean. -My Dad
“It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to get done.” Dr. Gary Neal, one of my thesis committee members.
“An idle mind is the Devil’s workshop.” — told to me by my Dad, but said by many before.
“Do the best you can at the time, and then you will never owe anyone an apology nor will you have any regrets.” Carter M. Dibrell, my Dad.

Catherine Elcik
Also, a misquote attributed to Aristotle: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is no an act, but a habit.”

Beth Patterson
Be someone that others can always trust, even if you tell tall tales!

Margaret Blackie
God isn’t afraid of questions!

Maia Duerr
“Don’t take my advice.”

Kimberly Shepherd
“Don’t marry someone you can live with; marry someone you can’t live without.” – my mother

Kimberly Shepherd
I live by, “This has happened to someone else.”

Mira Dawn
“so you made a mistake….no one died.”

Elizabeth Michaelson
Best advice: “It’s not your fault, but it is your problem.” Words to live by: “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Samuel Beckett. I also  to remind myself of this definition of insanity: doing the se thing over and over and expecting different results.

Elizabeth Cassidy
Close your eyes and picture where your life will be in 5 years if you don’t make any changes. My coach just told me that recently and it keeps my brain racing about making changes for the better.

John Young saw this one the other day and loved it…
“GIVE OTHERS AWESOME POWERS” (via Ben Malbon of Google)

Jessica Lawrence
Run until apprehended. (some of my favorite leadership advice)

Patti Digh
Just answer the question you’ve been asked.

Janet Nass
Sometimes all you can do is lay down on the floor and breathe.

Susan J Preston
I was very fortunate to have a brief one-on-one meeting with Yongey Mingur Rinpoche at a juncture in my life where I was on the brink of making some big decisions. He simply suggested, “Follow your heart.” That. Was. It. I laughed. Isn’t that what Jimminy Cricket would say? Indeed. After that meeting I came to an authentic realization that the answers are within me. There is no master or teacher with a higher wisdom than my own precious heart. And with this realization comes a great amount of responsibility.

Yvonne Daley
Every no gets you closer to yes.

Kevin Bradshaw
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

Nancy Gerlach
No mud, no lotus.

Jane Horton
Attend to the world with a mind of gratitute.

Catherine Elcik Also, I’m lucky to have a host of friends who know just the right time to drop an emphatic: “Fuck ’em all!”

Maxine Rothman
no expectations = no disappointments

Kelly Lindsey
Love deeply, Hold lightly.

Jennie Diggins Way
“Things are as they should be” and “If ever you doubt where you’re meant to be, look down at your feet.”

Brian Fuke Howlett
don’t take yourself seriously.

Sari Boren
It’s not about you.

Val Brown
spirituality is not what you believe, it’s how you behave.

Cathy R Fischer
There’s a lesson in everything.

Nancy Gerlach
The ones that are hardest to love need it the most….

Kevin Townley
Don’t be afraid of who you are.

Mel Annala
Don’t drink the water.

Nancy Gerlach
You can be inpatient or patient but you’re still going to have to wait.

Tenzin Chöphel
It’s not them.

Déborah Rupert
it’s always a matter of point of view and reference.

Tricia Bliven Chasinoff
Don’t believe everything you think…

Brett Boyar from Grandmaster Moy Yat:
Never argue with a crazy person.

Jose Luis
It’s a bit vulgar, but it goes  this (I heard it in Spanish): “If life turns its back at you, then grab its ass”

Jonathan Fields
Bhagavad Gita – Better to follow your own path imperfectly than to follow another’s perfectly

Jen Young
“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow’s a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called ‘The Present.'” -Master Oogway, Kung Fu Panda

Robyn Lindsey
Not necessarily the BEST advice I’ve ever received, but my Dad’s only dating advice to me ever was “don’t get anything on you that you can’t wash off”… it kinda works

Tammy Serata
You can go kicking and screaming, or you can go willingly. Either way, you’re going.
What you practice is what you have.
People don’t do things TO me. They do things FOR themselves

Maureen Dummigan White
I studied with a Malaysian shaman in my early twenties. He was known for a particular brand of Toaism/Confucianism that we jokingly called “confusionism.” He told me to never tell anyone about my intuition or sight. Good advice because it caused me to realize that those are my gifts. Pushed me right into the corner. Now I have meaningful right livelihood based on my intuition and sight.

Joy Christin Detor Holland
Life is a collaboration with love.

Maximo Hudson
“Next time you have a good gf, you better treat her nice.”

Jan Conley Being, a Mainer
I recall an old fisherman saying to me as a youngster “Deah, if you are goin’ thru hell, don’t stop!”

Ronald Wichin
Create happy memories…Louise Piver

Nancy Enge
Look for the helpers. (Mr Rogers)

Erin Melugin Davis
Worrying never changes the outcome of anything.

Don McLeese
This too shall pass.

Sally Tetzlaff
“…it dawns on me that I  am not breaking down or losing anything, but  constantly being refined; that this constant change is the natural state. Stasis is a fiction. I  defined not by what I have been but by what I  becoming.” -Michael Nesmith

Erik Blagsved
it’s none of your/my business – we spend a lot of time trying to figure out things we can’t know or, it wouldn’t matter if we did.
·

Alfred Smith
“Choose your passions.” told to me by a wise mentor. Advice I give my kids as they drive off to college “watch out for idiots.”

Steve Morse
From Billy Joel: “Don’t let the bastards get you down.”

Tanya Bleu Rodriguez
“You can’t protect yourself when you’re falling in love, but you can strengthen your base. Return to your practice, strengthen ties to your community.” (Susan Piver, after a talk at Shambhala)

Mahala Mazerov
Follow the path that has heart ~ Carlos Castinada

Laura Mae Noble
“Don’t play hard to get; BE hard to get.”
“Follow your bliss.”
“Be grateful to everyone.”
“Love is always the appropriate reaction.”

Sarah Jones
Treat others as you would wish to be treated.

Diane Easley
I am inexpensive sometimes, but never free.

Lilyán de la Vega
Two favorites: Grow the seeds of what you want to harvest and This too shall pass.
Another one I really love is: small is beautiful and less is more (thinking of Schumacher’s book)

Robert Chender
Don’t forget your real job.

Evie G Watts
Best ever? How about the most recent best? Choices become habits, habits become talent – Seth Godin

Juan Carlos Castro
Call the search off- Gangaji

Muffie Noble
“Would you rather be right, or would you rather be happy?”

Leslie Gibb-Street
You can get your appetite anywhere as long as you eat at home.

Ans de Vries
Trust your illusions

Carrol MoonShadow Clarkson
Think and speak with your Heartmind not your brain.♥♥♥

Abigail Wright
Laughing and crying are the same thing, but laughing makes you feel better!

Elen Ghul
Treat your first wife as your second wife.

Jigme Kunpal
“When you are locked up, try not to live both on the inside and in the free world,~you’ll got crazy. You are inside; you have to live inside.”
And “Don’t be distracted by any of this” told to me in a dream by VCTR

Andrew Sharp
Man’s greatest refuge is gratitude.

Marc Courchesne
The Six Paramitas
 (Ed.: Generosity, patience, discipline, exertion, mindfulness, wisdom)

Emily Herzlin
“Here’s a book on meditation. Read it.” – my 11th grade art teacher

Jim Kabbani
“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment”

Kimberly J. Bell
1)Be a Mother not a Martyr. 2) We are angels on earth and angels in heaven and it is all the same.

Lark Mathis
Spiritual beings in physical bodies–love is all we need.·

Danita Maria
“Love can never be made safe. It is the opposite of safe. The moment you try to make it safe, it ceases to be love.” – Susan Piver

Valerie Tate
“Practice, practice, practice.” Via my musician parents. “Are you preparing?” From my grandmother as she was dying. And, “You are going to have to go through this to get to the other side.” Various friends as I was recovering from multi-trauma injuries… which was also good practice… and preparation.

Rose Ann Mancias
Begin again !

S Ganly It’s a tie:
1. “Begin. The rest is easy.”
2. “Do not waste your time trying to be rational with an irrational person.”

Char Canvasser Brooks
start anywhere – louise hay.

Chris Zydel
“If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” ~ Katherine Hepburn
“Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, face the facts.” ~ Ruth Gordon

Sangye Choga Martin
Courage works DJKR

Aime Miyoto
Two gems from my master teacher when I was student teaching: 1) You are not their friend, you are not their mother, you are their teacher 2) The more organized you are the freer you can allow your students to be… (Boy was that a Power Truth that I find to be so true raising children as well.) ·

J. Gregory Wright
Engage in “life giving activities” – doing things for people that give them more time, or reduce stress, or simply give them a reason to be happy. They don’t have to be big things…

Jill Davis
“always be sincere” John Spannuth

Cliff A. Connaughton
If you are not creating, you are dead.

Melanee Herrera

When I was young, I was watching the show Kung Fu. The Master said to the grasshopper (student), “Will worry change the future?” It saved me from a lot of worrying.

Mark Hurwich

A friend who’s husband died a little over a year ago shared her best advice–I’m thankfully not in the situation to need it, but it seemed profoundly useful to her (and is something I’d heed): 1. look up people who knew you in high school and before you got married: they can help you reconnect you to who you also are; 2. say yes to any offers, you never know what they’ll lead to.

Hilary Barrett
“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.”

Mark Ingland
What you resist, persists.

Valerie Tate
“Pay attention. Prepare to be astonished. Tell us about it.” To writers from author Mary Oliver

Bob Bergeson
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. –Steve Jobs

Gil Steil
Pride goeth before the fall

Sharon Martinelli
Everything comes to go

Walter Logue
“‘Enlightenment’ comes from BEING everything and nothing at once, it does not come about from knowing everything.”
“If you find yourself in hell, be sure to rob the devils pockets.”
 ·

Susan Piver
Never accept responsibility without authority.

Walter Logue
Oh and one more: “Dying is easy. First live.”

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6 Comments

  • Posted by:  jane

    thank you for sharing…. some absolute gems here.

    love, jane

    • Posted by:  susan

      You are so welcome.

  • Posted by:  Carla

    I was just reading an old article of yours on the Huffington Post website which I found really helpful. At the end you mentioned a token that you carry in your wallet but it doesn’t show the picture (I’m assuming there was a picture) anymore and I was just curious to know what it said.

  • Posted by:  Anthony

    I feel some what in ligthened after reading these life felt quotes. A positive ear full .

  • Posted by:  Victoria Kemish

    Hi Susan,

    I’m trying to get rid of as much of my online presence as possible. Could you delete my comment from the above?
    Hope you are keeping well.
    Love, Vicky Lindo Kemish

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