30 Pieces of Life Advice From My Two Rockstar Grandmas

Memoirs from the discussions of a four-hour car ride with both of my grandmothers.

1. Never let other people define you.
2. Marry your best friend.
3. You should do what you love in life, even if it doesn’t pay top dollar.
4. Enjoy your youth because it flies by incredibly fast.
5. Be yourself and be honest. Not everyone is going to like you, but that’s just what happens and as you grow older you become less and less concerned with the opinions of your critics.
6. You can’t love other people before you love yourself.
7. Travel whenever possible.
8. Take advantage of the changes that are happening around you. A lot of them truly are bettering the world we live in. We have seen so many changes in our lifetimes, even in just the way we have been treated as women. Dive into social change and allow it to empower you in life.
9. Take care of your body and be mindful of your health.
10. Don’t try to change anyone else. You can’t. You can only change yourself.
11. You learn a lot from your mistakes. I know everyone says that, but you never truly understand it until you’ve made some massive mistakes. And you will, but you’ll grow from them.
12. You can never have too many close friends.
13. Don’t walk away too soon from your marriage or relationships. They take work and it’s worth fighting for. Trust us.
14. Money can’t make you happy, but it sure as hell helps. So work hard to sustain yourself financially and build a solid foundation with your work.
15. That being said, your career isn’t the most important thing in your life. People are. No matter how successful you become you must not forget that.
16. Wine is an old friend and a faithful one at that. Remember that you’re never too old or too busy to have fun.
17. Don’t compromise your beliefs or your morals for anyone else.
18. It’s really important to give back to the community that gave to you. Love where you live and live where you love.
19. If you’re looking for easy, don’t get married. It’s not always easy, but it’s incredibly rewarding.
20. Wait until you are a little older to get married. In our generation, everyone married young and there is a meaningful lesson to learn from that. Young people are changing too much to commit solely to each other.
21. At the end of your life, all the material crap that you collect won’t be there. It’s the people that you loved and loved you that will remain. So don’t heavily concern yourself with materialistic happiness.
22. Share with others whenever you can.
23. Walk away from negative people and situations. It isn’t always easy, but if you don’t separate yourself from evil, you will allow it to consume you.
24. Once you have a family, they become your number one responsibility and priority for just about the rest of your life. It’s a beautiful thing, but make sure you’re ready for it when you decide to start one.
25. As a parent, you shouldn’t worry as much about the dishes being washed or the floor being clean. Play games with your kids and enjoy the little moments. Life’s daily messes will be irrelevant in the end.
26. Parenting is a cycle. When you start out, parents take care of the children and then the children end up taking care of the parents. So appreciate each other, we are here to take care of one another.
27. Beauty starts within. A person with a beautiful heart does not need to be “pretty” on the outside to be an extraordinary person. Physical beauty is overrated.
28. Live your life with as few enemies as possible. Let go of grudges because they won’t matter in the end anyway and forgiveness is freeing.
29. Never let an old person into your body. You’re only as old as you feel.
30. No one and no amount of money will make you feel comfortable in life, you have to be comfortable within yourself. If you aren’t, the world becomes a scary place. We used to think that we needed people to be happy. We then learned in our many years that all you need to be happy is yourself. You are your own hero in this life and that’s something to be proud of.