With ‘This Is Us’ getting well underway on its second season, I am left here reflecting on the first season and the countless lessons that I took from the show.
I know that I am not the first nor will be the last to do something like this – but my word, this show is incredible.
- Take the sourest of lemons that life has to offer and turn it into something resembling lemonade.
- A tragic ending doesn’t have to mean the story behind it isn’t beautiful.
- Our pain, no matter how small or large, is part of who we are – we have to embrace it as it is something wonderful.
- Hiding your anger will never get you anywhere.
- Life is going to give us a lot of ups and downs, it is what we do with them that matters.
- Pain, as John Green wrote, demands to be felt – this can be seen all throughout the first season.
- Our destiny is not laid out in front of us to grab and take as we see fit – sometimes we won’t realize exactly what it is until it is right in front of our faces.
- You need to embrace every single second of the life that you are living – savour all of its pieces.
- Being good, in all of its forms, is so fucking hard.
- But if you are genuinely good, you will change the lives of many.
- When things don’t work out, you shouldn’t quit, you shouldn’t let those set backs hold you back from trying to make it work out in another way.
- Your person will find you and they will love you unconditionally.
- You only get one epic, big love in your life – don’t settle, don’t waste your time on mediocrity.
- You have to show up – it’s that simple.
- You always choose the ones you love.
- The ripple effect is real – watch your mouth.
- You have to give people the space that they need to forgive you, no matter how long it takes.
- Want your life to be a little bit easier (but in no means simpler) – be brutally honest and straight forward with your thoughts and feelings.
- We all seek guidance from the ones we look up to in life, it’s part of our genetic makeup to need reassurance.
- Believe in someone.
- Sometimes the right thing to do for yourself may not be the right thing for someone else, but you still have to do it.
- Children will affect your marriage – how you let it affect it will depend on you both and the strength of your love.
- Create a life that suits you and not your family.
- Your parents will make mistakes.
- Your perception of how things are may be different to someone else’s.
- Being a parent is the hardest but most beautiful thing this world has to offer you.
- Making mistakes doesn’t make you a terrible or a bad person, it means you are real.
- You don’t have to treat all of your children the same – they are not the same person and they all demand different things from you.
- Don’t waste your life doing something that makes you feel like shit.
- Sometimes you have to blow caution to the wind and just go with the go.
- The more that you allow yourself to let go of things, the happier your life will become.
- Happy life does not equal easy life.
- No matter how hard you fight, sometimes things will play out the way that they are meant to be.
- You were here long before you were born, you will remain long after you die.
- God’s plan for us is way better than any plan we would ever be able to create for ourselves.
Now, I have to admit, it takes a lot of effort to put these lessons into work.
I am trying.
Maybe you should too.