10. There is no need to beat myself up about anything if I’m doing the best that I can.
9. I should never, ever stop learning. There is still far too much to learn.
8. I am the #1 advocate for my children and should never be intimidated to advocate for them; it’s my job.
7. If we keep our eyes and hearts open, an unexpected smile, a delightful conversation or a great lesson can be found at every turn.
6. Childhood only happens once for our kids, and they’ll be gone before we know it. Even if we’ve had a long day, we should teach them every single day how to be the kind of adults we hope they will be. And a lot of that is done by example.
4. If I don’t like something, figuring out how to change it instead of bitching about it makes a whole lot more sense.
3. It doesn’t do any good to worry about what I can’t control. Instead follow Dora’s advice in Finding Nemo: “Just Keep Swimming, just keep swimming….” It will work out, whatever it is. That was one smart fish.
2. Gratitude can make a hell of a difference in my life.
1. Life is short so I should not sweat the small stuff and instead focus on making a difference in this world, which feels crazy good.
I learned a lot more than this in 2012, but these were definitely some highlights. Thanks – as always – for being on this journey with me.
What are a few top things you learned this year?
life on wry 
All such important lessons. Thanks for such a great summary of them. (I already read the post about forgetting #5). 😉
good lessons, thank you so much for sharing!
I learned a lot about you by following your blog — more than I ever knew in the other two decades of our friendship : )
Hope that’s a good thing…. 🙂
LOVE your writing and your perspective! Please let me know if you would be interested in joining our Boomer Blog Carnival, longest-running one on the net! Laura Lee aka the Midlife Crisis Queen! e-mail: MidlifeCrisisQueen@gmail.com
Thank you so much for your kind words and for reading…!
Where is Number 5? As far as I can count, there are only 9 things. All of which are really great lessons incidentally (I could certainly do with more learning of nos. 4 and 3).
Terrific catch! Thank you! And thanks for reading….
Love your top ten.. we share many of the same things..
Probably why I love your blog. 🙂
Good and timely advice for all of us. I am grateful for your blog! Merry Christmas!
thank you and thank you for reading!!
Oops….I’ve also learned that phones mess me up @ every turn. (see website above for my comment….oops)