6 Nuggets of Wisdom that Stuck with Me in 2015

This is the third year I’ve rounded up my takeaways; I look forward to it all year long.(Here’s 2014 and 2013!) It’s so nice to have many of your life lessons nestled in once place. It makes a whole year of learning and growth feel more… tangible.

These aren’t as much lessons I learned from living as they are lessons I learned from listening. I hope they get you thinking about what you’ve learned in 2015!

1. 6 Seconds of Touch

When I read in a friend’s post {Why You’re Hugging All Wrong} about the influence six seconds of physical touch can have on you, I was sold. I long for connection in my own life (I think all humans do), and I want to fill my kids’ buckets up to overflowing. If six seconds of hugging is what it takes to get the oxytocin and serotonin flowing, I’m all in!

2. Mastering Habits

Okay. This. This podcast {Mastering Habits Based On Your Personality with Gretchen Rubin} prompted a lightning-bolt moment for me. The kind of thing that once you hear it, you immediately change. I’m not saying that will happen to everyone who listens to it (or that it will absolutely stick with me forever), but it made an impact. I was fired up about my habits after listening and was particularly invigorated by the discussion of abstaining vs. moderating. (No more nighttime sugar for this girl!)

3. Love Does

Every time I think of the book Love Does by Bob Goff, my heart swells up a couple of sizes. I loved everything about it. Bob sees God and the world the way I want to see God and the world. And he is a pretty incredible example as a parent, too. A few gems that I want to remember—

• “I used to be afraid of failing at something that really mattered to me, but now I’m more afraid of succeeding at things that don’t matter.”

• “I used to want to fix people, but now I just want to be with them.”

• “It has always seemed to me that broken things, just like broken people, get used more; it’s probably because God has more pieces to work with.”

• “I think God sometimes uses the completely inexplicable events in our lives to point us toward Him. We get to decide each time whether we will lean in toward what is unfolding and say yes or back away. The folks who were following Jesus in Galilee got to decide the same thing each day because there was no road map, no program, and no certainty. All they had was this person, an idea, and an invitation to come and see.”

4. You Confuse, You Lose

I heard Donald Miller (another author I love) say this in a video about entrepreneurship: “You confuse, you lose.” It’s simple but incredibly true, and I’m striving to apply it to my writing, to the story I’m telling with my life, and story we’re living as a family. (It’s another reason as a parent that I’m so passionate about family purpose statements. Let’s make our messages ring clearly in our kids ears and hearts!)

5. Unless You Know Something…

“Unless you know something you are unlikely to love it.” Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods

In context, he was referring to kids developing a love of nature, and it resonated. But it really applies to anything that we want our kids (or ourselves) to develop a love for. It reminds me to let my kids cover their hands in paint, run outside barefoot, stay up way too late with a good book, lick the beaters when we make cake.

Unless you know something—unless you taste it, touch it, smell it, experience it—you are unlikely to love it.

6. Everything Is Love

I saved the best for last.

While listening to another video on entrepreneurship, I heard Glennon Melton Doyle say in passing that “everything is either love or a cry for love.” She dropped these words so casually, but they hit me profoundly.

Such a wise concept to remember when you encounter a critic, a crabby neighbor, or a child who is acting out.

Every act is either an expression of love or a call for it. 

---

Off the top of your head, can you think of any nuggets of wisdom that stayed with YOU in 2015? 

Here’s to another year of personal growth!

Linked up with Emily Freeman’s What We Learned This Year.