- Never take the shortest checkout line at any major retail store. The shortest line means people have waited in this line and left before checking out. They realized the cashier is stuck on the current transaction and has called the manager for help. The manager doesn’t respond. She’s in the break room wearing earplugs, enjoying a donut and reading People magazine.
These people have extraordinary patience as they wait for the manager to help the person at the front of the line. - The grass is not always greener on the other side. At least not in Arizona. That’s because everyone in the Phoenix area has gravel instead of lawns. For Arizonans, the gravel is pinker on the other side. Or whiter, or redder, or jewel-rainbow. Whatever color someone’s gravel might be on the other side, remember they deal with the same problems you have –only with a better view of their yard, glowing in colorful, eye-popping gravel.
- Never live with regrets. Whatever you did in the past and wish you didn’t do, or whatever didn’t do and wish you did, let it go. Didn’t Elsa sing about this? Please, don’t tell me you don’t know who Elsa is. The next thing you’ll say is you don’t know who Olaf is either. You can’t change the past and it’s wasted energy. It helps to forget your regrets if you upgrade your landscaping by adding gold-sparkly gravel to your yard.
- Beware of anything advertised as “free.” Look closely at the word: remove the “r,” and you’re left with “fee.” Once you understand that “free” often means “fee,” you’ll be wise enough to avoid emails promising, “Free Webinar. Learn how to make big bucks writing children’s books.” Don’t be fooled. The two-hour “free” webinar is a power point revealing a special writing program available for only $999 if you sign up by Tuesday. If your miss the deadline, the program will cost you $9,000, available in four easy payments.
- Never apologize for being unique or different. If a stranger stops you in a store to inform you that your hair is sticking up like a rooster tail in the back—as someone once did to me—resist the urge to flatten your hair to accommodate the hairstyle police. The stranger means well and hopes to save you from further embarrassment. Thank them for their concern, smile and say, “This is how I wear it.” For emphasis, strut like a proud rooster as you walk away.
Don’t apologize for being unique or different. Don’t try to be someone that other people think you should be. - Never wait for your toast to pop. A watched toaster never pops. Go do other things. Then, before you know it, the toast is up and you have two socks folded …time efficiency is always best.
- If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. Have you asked a friend or family member or wealthy stranger to pay for your cruise to the Caribbean? If you did, you’re possibly enjoying the tropical sea breezes of Saint Thomas right now. Otherwise, you’re not. See how this works?
- Time does not heal every wound. It may mend a broken leg or help a dog bite fade, but emotional pain is different. Time does not erase heartbreak or trauma; it only helps you learn to live with what happened. The only reason we ever believed that “time heals all wounds” is because it was stated on a fortune cookie message as if it were fact. Fortune cookie messages can’t be trusted. Remember the fortune cookie message that said, “a stranger will cross your path and become your friend”? The only stranger that crossed my path told me I had rooster-tail hair.