Advice for Day 8: Unintentional Advice is the Best Advice

Last Christmas, Grandma casually said to me over her third glass of white wine, “Nik, I hope you have as much fun in the next 60 years, as I have had.” To this day it is one of the most meaningful pieces of unintentional advice I have ever received.

Maybe it is the 90 years of experience she is packing or maybe it is just her constant optimism, but Grandma always seems to be just chocked full of these granulates of inspiration. On my way home from the Northwoods, I stopped in Antigo hoping to be gifted with some notoriously wise Grandma words.

For almost three hours we talked about life, about World War Two, about the election, about her junior prom, about getting married in a blue suit. We never talked about my job hunt or the uncertainty of the future. We talked about life.

And these were perhaps the best words I could hear; words about a life lived, and lived well. They are inspiring words because they showed me the power of living life instead of talking about living life.

Grandma gives the best advice by not talking at all; but simply by living her life.