Don’t Worry, Be Happy

The best advice from my father was these words of wisdom: Worry is a waste of time. If you can do something about it, don’t worry — just do it. If you can’t do anything about it, it’s out of your control, and no amount of worrying can fix it. Being a natural worrier, I refer to his words nearly every day and try to enjoy life more.
Janet Mehling
Greenwood, Indiana

My father’s best advice to me has been the way he lives his life. He loves his family unconditionally and would do anything for us. He loves his job and honestly enjoys going to work every day. He loves to teach and help others. Most of all, he sees the humor in life and never forgets how lucky he is.
Vineeta Mahajan Bonthala
New York, New York

As I was growing up, from time to time I would whine to my father about how so-and-so did better than I did at something or had something that I didn’t have. He would always smile at me and say, “Just be happy for them.” This taught me at a young age to find joy in the successes of others and that someone else’s good fortune didn’t mean I was a failure.
Connie Specht
Chelsea, Alabama

Lessons Learned

My father told me once, “Don’t ever be concerned that your children don’t listen to you, because they watch everything you do.” I think of this often when dealing with my three children.
Cheryl Carpenter
Houston, Texas

When I was about 21 years old and in between colleges, I was trying to find myself and figure out what my next move in life was going to be. I was explaining to my dad that I had been praying about it and didn’t feel that God was giving me any direction. Dad, after some thought (because he always thinks before he speaks — another lesson I should learn), said, “Maybe you’re not hearing God telling you to go somewhere because he’s not done with you where you are. Maybe you’re supposed to stay in the same place for a little while longer.” I did stay where I was for another six months, and during that time I really found who I was. Every time I start to feel antsy or I’m praying for direction and not getting any, I remember that advice.
Heather Mancera
Fort Worth, Texas

Never be jealous of other people. Dad always says, “You’d have to take the whole package.” So when I start to envy someone’s weight loss or financial means, I remember his words. If I wanted that life, I’d have to have her husband and her children and her problems. No thanks. I love my life just the way it is, in no small part because of my father.
Rebecca McKiernan
Louisville, Kentucky

My dad is a Harvard-educated economist. He always told me and my sisters, “Goofs are for learning.” No matter what situation we were in, he wanted us to know that when we made a mistake, it would help us to do better in the future.
Cynthia Eicher
St. Paul, Minnesota

Ever since I was a little girl, my father has told me, “Life is full of peaks and valleys. When you’re in a valley, you need to buckle down, toughen up, and do what you need to do to climb out of it.” These powerful words not only have gotten me through every valley of my life but have also inspired me to appreciate the peaks that I’m so fortunate to experience.
Beth Eldridge
Costa Mesa, California

This might sound cliché, but it has saved me an inordinate amount of heartache over the years. My father has always told me never to burn a bridge, because you never know when you’ll have to cross it again. And when people tell me that my father is one of the kindest, nicest men they have ever met (either personally or professionally), I know just how right-on he is. His karma is too good not to heed his advice to the letter. It has brought him a highly successful and respectable career in radio broadcasting for the past 30-plus years, and it has kept my karma in check for as long as I can remember.
Molly Carroll
Charlotte, North Carolina

Keep your car maintained. Have the oil changed and the fluids filled; check the air in the tires; make sure the gas tank never gets below half-filled; keep salt, a shovel, and a blanket in the trunk during the winter months. Also, for their own safety, girls should know how to change a tire. Due to my father’s advice, I have never been in a jam, but over my lifetime, most of my friends have had at least one preventable incident.
Phoebe Blizz
Chiefland, Florida

My father was a very intelligent man and taught me so much while he was here. But it was going through the loss of my father that showed me that life really is short. He was here one week, gone rather unexpectedly the next, and all I was left with were cherished memories of him. The second lesson I learned is that when I’m gone, I want my loved ones to have pleasant memories of me. Reminding myself of this on a regular basis helps me keep my priorities straight and be mindful of the way I treat others.
Heather Thompson
Newnan, Georgia

I think the only good advice I’ve ever gotten from my father was to never think that my parents’ divorce was my fault. Maybe that sounds cliché, but coming from my father, it was so unexpected and loving that I did a double take. I didn’t know he had that kind of compassion. From that moment, I saw that he really did care and that I was greatly loved.
Cynthia Livingston
Kansas City, Missouri

“Remember who you are and whose you are.” It always made me stop to think that everything I did reflected not only on me but on my parents as well. I hope my child follows the same advice when he’s older.
Tonya Barnard
Knightsdale, North Carolina

It’s all about balance: work and play, vegetables and dessert, saving and spending. Don’t go overboard in any area and you’ll usually be just fine.
Jamie Gowins
Corvallis, Oregon

My favorite piece of advice from my father was to be proud of my Mexican heritage. Latinas have come a long way in society since then, and I’m confident and proud to be who I am, thanks to my father.
Tracy Cabrera
Willowbrook, Illinois

I am the oldest of seven children. When I got married and talked of having kids, my father told me, “If you wait until you’re ready to have children, you’ll never have them.” I guess he was speaking from experience.
Ellen Drake
Louisville, Kentucky