39 Honest Life Lessons That People Often Disagree With

Can you change it? If not, then you shouldn't give a darn

If you can change things, go change them.

Make yourself happy before you try to help others with their unhappiness. It may seem selfish but if you sacrifice so much of yourself for others you'll run yourself dry and help no one.

My favorite: follow the small rules and you can break the big ones

(1984).

Practice and get good at Irish exits.

Always fact check your professors. Half truths get passed on by teachers more than anything else. Also there is no such thing as non-biased journalism.

You will be exponentially happier and achieve more in life if you are ruthless about removing any and all toxic, negative and/or unnecessarily critical people from your life and inner circle, even if they are close family.

Most people scoff at being so heartless as to completely cut someone out so quickly and completely, citing someone's other "good" qualities, bad run in life, personality, familial ties or personal difficulties excusing them for their jerk behavior that ultimately takes value from your life.

People judge you based on how you dress. Dress like trash and you will be perceived as one.

Fake it until you make it.

You might not be the most successful, the coolest, the most put together, etc. It doesn't matter. If people think that you are, they will gravitate towards you naturally.

You never "owe" anyone anything. Do it because you want to, because your honor is important to you, because you want to be a decent guy-- but you are never obligated to be miserable on someone else's behalf.


Look out for your mental health first. Your sense of security, self-esteem and stability are important. Don't get involved with people that make you feel bad or put your life into chaos.

There's no such thing as true love, you don't have a soul mate out there waiting for you and there's no happily ever after. Every single romantic film and book and fairy tale and song and TV show is lying to you, building up a collective image that is a poor reflection of reality. It's the relationship equivalent of a Barbie doll, unrealistic and vapid.

Instead of all that what you have is a lot of people whose personality is more or less compatible with yours. At some point in your life you're going to find yourself in [want] with one of those people. You're going to want to spend all of your waking hours with them, you're going to miss them so much when they're not with you that it's going to hurt. And you're going to want to do the kinds of things to them and with them that you cannot under any circumstances tell grandma about. The real depraved stuff that would cause her to drag you straight down to church to ask Jesus for forgiveness.

You're going to fall in [want] a hundred times over the course of your life. Maybe more. And sooner or later you're going to fall in [want] with someone who has fallen in [want] with you. There will be many of those too. Maybe a handful, maybe a few dozen. And out of those, eventually, if you're lucky, you'll find someone worth loving.

Now pay attention kids, because here's what love is. It's not burning passion and flaming hearts and sappy Hallmark moments. Love doesn't proclaim itself from the rooftops. Love is what comes after all of that. It's quieter than that, and more modest. Love is hard work. It's toiling, every day without end, because this person is worth the effort. Being in love doesn't mean not seeing your partner's flaws; it means knowing every single one of them, and deciding that you're going to put up with them for the sake of him or her. You don't fall in love; you dive in, and you swim for all you're worth.

Sometimes you fall out of love. Sometimes you can't give it the effort it deserves. Or sometimes it just becomes no longer worth it. That's okay. Most of us are going to be on one end or the other of this at some point in our lives. But there's good news, though. Because you chose to fall in love. And that means, once you get over the heartbreak, you can choose to do it again.

I think there are a lot of people who will disagree with my definition of love. Everyone wants the fairy tale. But the fairy tale is a lie. I like my way better.

When you're ill, ring into work, and try and act Ill. It's unacceptable because of how ridiculous and uneccessarry it is.

Use advantages to the most. If you find a flaw in a system, find a way to exploit it.

Be a bad liar when it doesn't matter so that when you really need to lie people will believe you.

You should lose some weight.

Don't tell your problems to anyone, 80% of people don't care and 20% of people are glad you have them. Sorry folks.

Pay no attention to the "professional perpetually offended" crowd, race baiters, and stupid idiots who have a victim mentality who scream "racism" at any opportunity even where there is none.

If you find yourself facing an unavoidable crash with a pedestrian, speed up. It's cheaper to pay for a funeral than ten years of medical care.

- my grandfather, former driving instructor.

No one cares about you but you. If someone is helping you it helps them in someway.

Avoid hiring unlucky people by taking half the applications and immediately throwing them in the trash.