My Advice....

Good ol' U-S of A, please stand up…..

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, Colgate toothpaste would be it.
The long term benefits of Colgate toothpaste have been proven due to its different active ingredients, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own life experience….which I have much of.

I will dispense this advice now….don’t be afraid, it’s not bad.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; most will not understand the power and beauty of their youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 10 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked…..you were not as fat as you imagined and those pimples weren't glaring red lights.

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to running a marathon with no legs.  It can be done, of course, but not the conventional way.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday. Things that sneak up on you and you never even realize they were a problem until it's almost too far gone to fix.

Do one thing everyday that scares you….sing in public, jump rope with the neighbourhood kids even if they laugh. Tell a random person they look nice, leave a big tip, ask that person staring at you from across the room how their day was.

Talk to random people, wrong numbers, people that just look like they need a friend.  You never know how far a little kindness can go, and you also never know what your words might mean to someone, even if they are just words to you.  I have found this truth to be self-evident in my life when even at a Burger King drive through window, asking the woman if she was okay, she totally broke down. Everyone has a story, we'd do ourselves a justice to start listening.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Use at least SPF 15 sunscreen.....your skin will greatly appreciate such a thing.

Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.  If you truly love someone, jealousy is not only a waste of time, but it's also an evil root that can cause many other problems.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how, because I’m a 'sticks and stones may break my bones and words will always hurt me' person.
Keep your old love letters, show them to your kids, even if they aren't all from your spouse.  They will be enamoured at how "old" it all is and how "nerdy", but they'll listen.....and they may just learn a thing or two.

Don't tell a woman she's a 10, show her.

Stretch….touch those toes before you can’t see them anymore.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. Some of the most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium, your bones will thank you.

Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when you can walk no more.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, Maybe you'll divorce at 30, maybe you'll dance the Cupid Shuffle on your 75th wedding anniversary…

Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, as are everyone else's.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…
Don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own…..learn that early.

Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room. Record it and laugh at it for years later.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not trust beauty magazines; you will feel ugly, fat, poor and very boring.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good. And believe it or not, they are a wealth of information.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on.

Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young. Live in the South once, but leave before it makes you hard-hearted and close-minded; live in the North once, but leave before it makes you soft and too open-minded….if there is such a thing.

Travel….find out for yourself that the world really is round.

Accept certain inevitable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander. You too will get old, and when you do you'll 'remember when' when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Just as your grandparents had no air-conditioning, 1 bed for 6 kids and they had to walk to school, uphill both ways, in the snow with one shoe, you too will have your own “story” to tell.

Respect your elders, respect authority, but don’t be too submissive.

Don't expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Be nice to your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it.


Remember that love is just love, and it’s not a fairytale. It can conquer all, but it can be blind. If that isn’t an oxymoron, I don’t know of one.

Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the toothpaste…