Be patient, if your intentions are pure, people will come around in the end.

You can't *make* someone do something.

Keep your head when others around you are losing theirs

Its easy to become disillusioned by others inability to extricate. Deep breaths, plaster over cracks, and show them the direction. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it saddle itself.

You can't carry it with you if you want to survive.

Question everything.

Sometimes you'll be tempted to look up to someone too much, and forgive them all their indiscretions and trespasses because you place them on so high a pedestal. Bear in mind the time will come when you see them for who they really are, and always keep in the back of your mind that someone you believe in that highly will always cause the longest fall when they let you down.

When it's all moving too fast for you to even think - reach out and hold on.

Be sure to ask for help when you need it, but remember the only person you can honestly rely on 100% of the time, is you.

Don't be afraid to reach out and offer a hand. It means more than you think.

Always say yes unless you can think of three very good reasons to say no.

Making the best of what you have

Your life has a beginning and an end. You have no choice in this. Feasibly giving up is never an option.

Since there is not an opportunity to not to it, do it.
Since you are doing it, do it well.

Trust

Trust is paramount. Don't break it by waving it around in the air. If you're worried your trust in someone else is damaged, ask them clearly and objectively about it. If they are deserving of it, you will receive a truthful answer.

The ability to be selfless silently is more honorable than being selfless and self-publicizing; bearing a cross without a murmur is an act of love without gain.

Advice given by another:

When it all goes to shit, the very best thing you can possibly do is probably to turn the lights out, put on some horrendously loud music, and roll around on the floor for a bit.

The ability to know when and how to bite your tongue for a quiet life is one which takes a lot of trodden toes to learn.

The most fulfilling thing you can do is to love relentlessly and without question; even if you find yourself wanting, even if the course which the universe takes you leaves you with a few bruises along the way, the ability to love without question, without prejudice, hopelessly and entirely, will always be your redeeming factor.

On help.

Bear in mind your opinion is just that; an opinion. It's based on your own experience, and it's unwise to offer advice, direction or well-meant assistance to another with different experiences and outlooks on life unless you portray your words as a recommendation rather than a fact.

Apologies

You can avoid saying sorry needlessly by not doing it in the first place.

Sorry is like 'I love you'; the more you say it, the less it means.

Consider how different saying "I'm fine," when it's obvious you're not - is to not speaking up in calm and calculated defiance when you are bruised by another's actions?

Speak up when it is called for - no-one knows you beat yourself up about it unless you let them know they've stepped over a boundary.

On balance

Its impossible to appreciate someone's good side if you have never seen the worst of them. The important thing is to have faith in people's ability to pull through on the good; assume the best, anticipate the worst.

Know that you are not owed anything; even when you give your utmost, this is soley a gift from which should you see it reciprocated, you should consider yourself blessed for your good fortune.

Redefinition to survive

If you ever feel let down by someone, its a sign you need to readjust your expectations, not a sign they need to change who they are to become what you expect.

When someone has made you feel emotionally compromised, try offering feedback calmly and objectively without blame inside of jumping on the offensive. You need to diffuse to get your point across sometimes.

Perspective means being able to see everything. Open your eyes a little wider.

Plans

Don't assume even the most concrete of things aren't tangible. Everything; people, emotions, situations -are free-flowing and have the capacity to change or evolve. Prepare for the worst and assume the best.

Precedents

Judge yourself by your own standards, and not by those of society.

Risking

It's much better to love relentlessly and without question than spend your life assuming that every time you take a risk, the shit will hit the fan. If you don't take that risk, you might as well wrap yourself in bubble-wrap and put yourself back in the box. Time heals all wounds. Apart from, obviously, amputation.

Lying II

saying "I'm fine" when you're not is a really disgusting habit.

Truth

Truth in its most important form means not lying to yourself. No matter how sticky and jellylike the emotion you're avoiding is, accept it as part of the dichotomy of what makes you, you. Lying to yourself will just make you confused and angry.

Decision

There is no such thing as a bad decision. Mistakes are there to be learnt from.

Pack your own parachute

Take responsibility for your own decisions. Be confident in your choices, that way even if it all goes splat on you, you can still say with conviction that you regret nothing.

The Use of Sorry.

Sorry is for when you have a) ran over someone's cat b) dropped their favourite t-shirt in sheep dip c) insulted their dead mother. You'll find that 'oops' covers everything else.