Best advice I ever got

 This post is a growing collection of the most life-guiding advice I ever received.

Deal with things only once

This advice probably came from a mission colleague around 1986 when I was around twenty years old. The idea was that when something comes across your platter, you can economize by reducing the number of times you have to look at it and agonize over it. If it can be dealt with now, or however it can be dealt with now, do that now.

Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle

A Facebook post (yes, it's true) around 2017 inspired me to move my focus from marches, protests, and political donations (you are very welcome, Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders) toward creating something new and daring that became NPS Global Engineers. And that brought me surprising peace as I found myself rolling out of bed every day to do my life's mission as my day job.

If you tell the truth as carefully as possible, it will lead to the best possible outcome, even if it doesn't seem like it at the moment.

My yearly resolution or goal for several years running was to do this. I feel like it brought me miracles. I am still working on it. It's hard!

Stop

A college roommate told me that he heard of a man who said, "People ask me how I accomplish so much. I tell them it's because I do nothing for three hours every day." This amazing and audacious claim never left me. I don't know if it's hyperbole, or if the man in question stopped briefly many times every hour. I do know that there is great power in habitual frequent cessation.

Stopping is salvation. There are countless spiritual teachings and mundane traditions that all point to stopping.

"If there is no lightness in what you are doing, stop."

"Do nothing until the right action arises."

"Practice Not-doing."

"The seventh is the cessation (sabbath) of I Am (the Lord) Your God."

We all must take food, bathroom, and sleep breaks often.

If you want to understand this better, read about mindfulness, presence, now, meditation, awareness, consciousness, and waking up.

Love

All the words in all the languages in the world could not explain Love. But they try. Here's my attempt. Love sees the connectedness of all. Love has compassion for the raging monster in self and others. Love is the greatest of all. Everything will fail; but Love is the greatest of all, and it never fails. My religious tradition says to pray with all the energy of heart to be fill with That Love.

Forgive

Believe

Hope