The World According to Winnie the Pooh

I have incredible grandsons! Hands down they are the sweetest and kindest teenage boys you’d ever meet.

The oldest just graduated from high school. Unbelievable!

One of our most favorite things to do when he was little was curl up on the couch with a quilt, get a snack, and watch Winnie the Pooh movies together. I told him, “Winnie has great lessons to teach us.”

For his 18th birthday, I put together a leatherbound journal filled with quotes from Pooh and expounded on each of them with lessons I’ve learned in life. Building this journal was an incredible joy. I laughed, cried, and felt immense pride for this young man as I wrote it. He is loving, kind, and thoughtful. An incredible testament to my daughter and her husband who raised such a fine person. I thought I’d share one of the ideas from the journal with the hope that it resonates with you!

As you get older, a world of choices and freedom open up for you. It’s very important to remember this: always be true to yourself.

There will be voices telling you who to be, what to do, and how to live. Some of those voices will be people who care about you. Others will be people who don’t really know you, but think they have the right to comment on who you should be. But only you get to decide who you are.

Trust your gut. Stick to your values. Remember where you came from. Don’t shrink yourself to fit in, and don’t change just to be liked. The right people will respect you for who you are, not who you pretend to be.

It takes courage to stay true to yourself in a world that often wants you to follow the crowd. But that courage will serve you well and it will lead you to the kind of life that feels real, meaningful, and uniquely yours.

You don’t have to have it all figured out. Just keep showing up as the real you. That’s more than enough.

You are more than enough.

I think this is good advice at any age.