The Wisdom Project

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Jeannette, age 70

 

What are the top 1-3 things you would like to pass on to others? How did you learn this?

  1. The nature of happiness – which comes from going outside oneself and doing for others. It’s the panacea for feeling stuck or anxious. Having my daughter revealed to me I could love someone more than myself.
  2. Inertia is an enemy – don’t sit still waiting for something to happen. I was getting depressed working as a waitress in my early 20’s and knew I need to do something else with my life.
  3. Don’t sweat the small stuff, things not done – make the moments count more. I had a couple of health scares in my life but thanks to 2nd and even 3rd opinions, everything turned out ok.

 

You’ve seen a lot of significant events and changes over the course of your life. What wisdom can you share from your observations and experiences of the world in your lifetime so far?

Attending college in the 70’s helped shape my approach to life and I became involved in political activism and volunteering. I’ve traveled all over the world for 50 years and came to the conclusion years ago that it is important to realize connectedness. Nationalism is ridiculous – everyone is connected. Americans haven’t always been the heroes we could have been or could be now; however, we are complicated, just like everyone else. Volunteer!

 

What obstacles and disappointments have you faced that you were able to put into perspective, turn into a positive, and/or contribute to in a way that made things better? What did you learn from these experiences that you can share with those who did not have those same experiences?

Once on a particularly difficult job, I had to deal repeatedly with a man in parallel authority in a different department. He was arrogant and condescending and constantly made the work for my department more difficult. At one point, with that history between us, I had a loud confrontation with him in the presence of others. Afterwards, I didn’t feel good. I felt disappointed in myself. Nothing was really accomplished except that I got something off my chest. Upon reflection over the following days, I came to believe if I hadn’t been so resistant to him at that point, if I had been a mirror rather than a wall, things might have been resolved (they weren’t) and I might not have felt all of that anger eating me up. You hear your whole life, “Don’t let it get to you.”  But it really is good advice. People can’t land a punch if there is nothing hard to land on.