1. Find good friends; keep good friends. You'll probably only find a handful of these throughout your life. Good friends help validate your existence and make l

1. Find good friends; keep good friends. You'll probably only find a handful of these throughout your life. Good friends help validate your existence and make life worth living. They will surprise you. They may turn out to be a lot older than you, or a lot younger. They may be people you grow up with, or only meet online. You may go for years without meeting/talking to them, but as soon as you're together again everything just becomes 'right' again. Good friends: they really are the meaning of life! 2. Anyone who tells you they know what they're doing - they're lying. There's no instruction manual to life. There's no Grand Design or plan or destiny or whatever. Everybody around you is making it up - somehow making life work - as they go through each hour of the day, each day of the year. What works for someone else might work for you. Or it might not. It's your adventure: go live it! 3. In spite of (2) above, learn to listen. Really listen. Open your ears, then open them again. It's how you learn stuff. Taker time to listen to people who you wouldn't normally listen to - like people you take for granted. A lot of the stuff you get to learn will be really useful - often in very unexpected ways. A lot of it will be of no use to you whatsoever, but the act of being listened to may have a profound effect on the person you're listening to. You never know - that person might just turn into your next Good Friend. 4. Growing old - it hurts. A lot. It hurts your confidence; it hurts your self-image. It hurts your bones and muscles in ways you never imagined it could hurt. I think there's a lesson in this, but I haven't managed to learn it yet. I particularly hate my bladder when it wakes me up at Stupid O'Clock because I forgot the lesson about not drinking hot beverages too close to bedtime. 5. Power naps, on the other hand - they're cool!