"Enjoy yourself - it's later than you think." I don't fully live every day like it's my last but I do try to think of each year that way - if I don't get another summer/winter, would I be OK with this one being how I spent my last?
Unfortunately it's a line from the fucking fantastic beasts movie (or fantastic breasts and where to find them as me and my sister call it) 'worrying just means you suffer twice.'
Alas. But it’s very true. Similarly when I get angry at myself for not doing something I have to remind myself that the anger is just a way of seeming to take responsibility without making an active step to resolve it. (Also lol at Claire haha)
My dad always says "better to be 30 minutes late in this life than 30 years early in the next" whenever I'm in the car with him and am going 1 mph over the speed limit
people hate "it is what it is" but I've found it genuinely useful in noticing when I have to reconcile something I dislike with my inability to change it
in Scotland we have "what's for ye'll no go by ye" which on the one hand seems to unhelpfully suggest all our paths are preordained, but if you squint becomes quite good wisdom about how, even if you don't get an opportunity you wanted, there is still a rich life to be found in the path ahead of you
My Nana used to say “there’s no pockets in shrouds” which is basically the same as “You can’t take it with you”. Weirdly, I was sat on a plane once with an elderly American woman. She turned out to be MAGA but nevertheless offered the evocative alternative: “you can’t attach a trailer to a hearse”
There are two that I really like - "The best reward for getting shit done, is getting shit done." And "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us” Joseph Campbell. Helped me with being divorced for sure. Otherwise I would’ve been resentful & angry forever.
Nearly wrote “it is what it is” before I saw your replies 😂. “Laugh through the pain”. Worked for me physically when I injured myself as a kid at my Grans but I’ve found it more useful for my MH with age. Always exercise your chuckle muscles as Ken Dodd would say.
It is warm and wise and soulful and sharp, but so funny that people don’t notice the other stuff. And it just shrugs like ‘no biggie’, carries on being amazing.
And then there’s that bit where you’re coming down the hill to the finish line and see the sea! And you’re knackered, really properly worn out but IT. IS. BEAUTIFUL
Dunno if borrowing from Spider-Man counts but ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ always sits with me. If you have any power in this world and/or over other peoples happiness best believe you better be careful how you use it
Not sure it’s normie, but “to know and not to do, is not to know” has been pretty handy when the internal monologue has tried fooling me with “I know I need to lose weight / run more / do x” etc
Mine was a simpler variant of this when I was a kid and would get upset about getting scars from cuts. Changed how I engaged with my body. Learning later the proper version is from Hunter S Thompson was very funny
It’s not why I asked but when I’m working on a new project I always ask myself at some point “WHAT GREAT NEW THING ARE YOU SAYING ABOUT THE HUMAN CONDITION?!” and I always arrive at “it’s not about saying something new, it’s about writing something that lands” which plenty a normie aphorism does
I don’t know if its aggressively normie exactly, but I find “can’t go over it, can’t go under it, got to go through it” from Michael Rosen’s Bear Hunt, a deceptively simple but profound &beautiful way to think about getting past hard things.
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It’s from a Poem by Robert Herrick but I only know it because of The West Wing.
(Think I first read it in an Anne of Green Gables book)
"I came into this World screaming and covered in someone else's blood. Come for me and you'll find out I have no problems going out the same way!"