I have opinions on many things and beliefs about many others.

I'm not particularly religious, but I have my own spiritual beliefs.

A lot of my philosophies are simple and not deep ponderings. My brain works too much to remain on-task with deep thought.

Here are a few of my own personal thoughts, ideas and philosophies...

1. Everybody is the same - regardless of generation.

I still feel the same now as I did when I was 21, I just know a bit more and look slightly different (but not much!). People still experience age old problems. Parenting problems are still the same... Things which have changed over the generations have not been personal, they have been outside the person (money, employment, housing etc - economy and government).

2. Walk a mile in someone else's shoes.

Don't automatically judge a person or their actions. Take a step back and consider they WHY of it all. Put yourself in their shoes and gauge how you would feel, react or deal. Explore the options.

3. Children are the same - only the names change.

The average child thinks, acts and behaves exactly the same as past children and future children... It's just the children's names that are different. How many times have we who are parents mentioned that our child did this or that to a friend and our friend has agreed and said their child did the same thing? All of us have! It's where advice and ideas come from... Advice and ideas from parents who have experienced it before.

4. Life experience begets life experience.

Everything which has occurred in our past gives us strength, maturity and motivation to deal with what occurs in our present. What goes on in our present adds to our strength and skill from the past and evolves to strengthen us for what may occur in our future. As we get older, we take with us what we have already discovered within ourselves and we use those discoveries, along with new ones, to deal with the next event.

5. We leave a legacy - a personal footprint to say "I was here!"

We fill our lives with mementos. Photographs, souvenirs, keepsakes, little things that meant something about something. We do it to remind ourselves of that occasion. Some things become heirlooms and some things just remain through the generations as having belonged to us in "our day". Our visions, ideas and thoughts are also a part of this. How many of us have heard "My granny used to say that..."? Almost all of us! Everything we do and say leaves our personal footprint through time.

6. Don't sweat the small stuff.

There is always something worse that we could be dealing with. There is always someone out there who is dealing with something worse than we are. What may seem to us to be a big thing is more often than not something that is actually quite small. It is us who make it into that big thing.

7. Tackle it from another angle.

More often than not, if something is not working or going as planned, it is because we are repeating the same mistakes. It may be that we are continuously attracted to the same sort of person and it constantly leads to anguish. Or it may be that we're trying to get the DVD player to work but not matter what we try we can't get it to function... Take a step backwards and try something else. If it fails, you had nothing to lose.

8. Troubleshoot.

Instead of going directly to somebody else for their advice or ideas... Troubleshoot first. Attempting to help yourself helps to create the better you. It gives you more skills. It gives you a legitimate right to gloat! Look at the problem and work backwards... Then work forwards from there step by step. By doing this you also get a better understanding of what caused the problem, not just what will fix it.