Old is an Attitude

A young mind looks at the world with curiosity and enthusiasm and is always changing and learning. The mature mind will have a lot of experience and knowledge but may still be young in attitude. The old mind is willfully stagnant, closed to change and learning new things, this can happen to a mind of any age. Many people before have said that old is a state of mind, but it is the old mind that stops listening just because they may have heard it before...

"As we grow older, we must discipline ourselves to continue expanding, broadening, learning, keeping out minds active and open." - Clint Eastwood

People are Social Creatures

Humans are by nature social animals, even the most solitary individual may enjoy being alone but will never enjoy feeling alone. Whether you are the kind of person who has a lot of casual friends or only a few close friends, feeling like you are part of a group that supports and cares about you is an important part of mental/emotional health. Cherish and nurture healthy relationships with friends, social groups, and family... But never be afraid to leave the unhealthy ones.

Exercise Your Mind

The first best tool of mankind is it's big brain. Exercise yours regularly by challenging it's assumptions, looking at things from other perspectives, daydreaming, examining your feelings, problem and puzzle solving... Be active and curious and creative and think about the world around and inside of you.

 "The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates

Hate is Evil

Any time your actions are inspired by hate or fear they never have beneficial results for anyone involved, and thus can be considered a true evil. If people could just learn to never let their hate and fear turn into actions, we could eliminate most of the evil in the world.

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another." - Jonathan Swift

"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

Get Some Sleep

All of the science backs up the fact that people operate much better when they are well rested... so make sure to get some good sleep. If you never get good sleep, it may be time to re-evaluate things and figure out what is wrong (stress, mattress, relationship, allergies, apnea) and sort it out because being well rested really is step One.

Life is Short, be Impatient

When you are young, you may think that you have plenty of time to do things in your life. As you get older, you come to realize you should be more impatient and diligent about the things you want. Also more intolerant of the roadblocks and traffic jams in life, pointless waiting is a terrible waste of life.

" Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded." - Mary Schmich

Many Hands Make Light Work... Sometimes

Many people have in one way or another said that many people working together can accomplish exponentially more than an individual. This is very true, but what they usually fail to account for is the fact that it isn't always easy to keep people working as a group. Which is why the larger a group gets, the more likely it is to collapse under it's own weight. The coordinated, motivated group can accomplish almost anything, the factionalized, unfocused group usually accomplishes nothing.

"Many hands make light work." - John Heywood

"The whole is more than the sum of its parts." - Aristotle, Metaphysica 

People Sometimes Communicate in Strange Ways

Playground "play" is a good example of this. Was that water balloon meant to be playful or humiliating? Did John hit me because he hates me, or because he likes me? Most people struggle to express themselves and often find bizarre ways to do it, especially when it comes to emotions. Adults do it too, and it gets even stranger... So if someone's behavior is baffling you, maybe they are trying to tell you something...

Political Parties are by Definition Unethical

Political representatives are elected to represent the interests of their constituency in government. Political parties pay to get people with similar views elected to government. Although these interests may often coincide; when they do not, the party will always pressure the representative to act counter to the interests of their constituency and instead act in the self interest of the party. Thus every representative will inevitably be asked by their party to violate the ethics of the job they were elected to do.

Communication is the Key to Every Relationship

Every relationship (family, marriage, romance, friendship, business) is in some way founded on communication. Without communication we are just people standing around next to each other... That is why it always pays to work on your communication in every relationship.

There is no "Them" Only Us

I have yet to meet the person with whom I have more differences than I have things in common. If people have more in common than they have differences then how can anyone be a "them"? Also seeing someone as not the same as you, for any reason, is usually just a way of dehumanizing them as a prelude to treating them very badly.

Life is Painful so Enjoy the Little Things

For almost all of us, life is mostly hard work and pain. That doesn't mean there isn't happiness and joy to be had as well, but we should dissuade ourselves from delusions of fairytale endings and resolve to enjoy everything in our lives that brings us happiness even when life is difficult.

"Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." - William Goldman, The Princess Bride.
"Rule #32, enjoy the little things." Zombieland

Love is not Conditional

Once you have truly opened your heart to another person and trusted them completely, you cannot stop loving them. You may loose touch with them, you may fight, you may hurt each other, and one day you may want to hate them or need to leave them behind you but the love you had for them will never die. This is an amazing and wonderful thing, and occasionally a painful and terrible thing.