Do You Have A Guidebook For Life?

There are two book heroines I always turn to for real-life advice: Anne Shirley and Lila Fowler. All bases covered, that way!

I don't have a guidebook for life either. Typically, I try to boil things down to the Golden Rule. Sounds simple, but sometimes, not so much!

I'm considering writing a juicy little playbook for life when I'm 45 (one year to go.)

I don't have a guidebook. Life would certainly be much easier if I did. Like you, I have many guidebooks from many sources. Often, they conflict and I have to find my own way.

i just kind of wing it through life. i learn life lessons from watching others. there have been occasions when i needed a guide to get me through patches of life that were rough, aka parenting, child health books, and of course the emotionally uplifting reads like A Course in Miracles and the Bible

Is it strange that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one of my life guidebooks? It reminds me how absurd this big, beautiful world of ours really is.

I wish I had a guidebook for life! Wouldn't that be nice? Not to second guess yourself or have any regret. Although it would be boring if at every turn you knew what was coming and had no surprises. I'm not sure which is worse. Not having a "guidebook" to life, or worrying you didn't follow the rules and having regret.

There's a difference between guide book and rule book.

A book that I keep remembering lines from is How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. Some people may find it antique-ish, but I think he was ahead of his time in many ways. One ex.: Don't allow anyone you don't like to have rent-free space in your head.

In other words, don't give a jerk the power to dominate your thoughts.

But a good cookbook like The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook can be a lovely guide as well!

No single guidebook, although the Bible is a major voice. But like you, I take guidance and inspiration from many sources every day.

I don't feel like I have a single guidebook for life, but I do feel like I have ones for various aspects of my life (The Omnivore's Dilemma guides much of my cooking and eating, for instance, and I think often of Lance Armstrong's memoir about pushing on through difficult times).

No guidebook here. Unless my Martha Stewart cookbook counts! I'm a go by the seat of my pants kind of gal!

To me, there is no guidebook. That's part of living, isn't it?

We change day by day and we learn from what works and what doesn't work. We make edits. we learn what makes a mess and what's easier. We learn how the easy stuff makes us feel and how the hard stuff makes us stronger.

But yes, we all do have soemthing. Something, even if it's just minor, to keep us on track. It's an instict that just is. A built-in guidebook of sorts, I suppose!

For me, it's my attitude. Out of everythign in this world that I have no control over, I can change and control my attitude. And truthfully, to me, that's made all the difference in my life. After battling depressino and anxiety, attitude has been my driving force. Though, I couldnt' have overcome my anxiety all on my own (and no, counseling and medicatino didn't help). That I did need help from an acupuncturist who I see monthly.

In one hand, my attitude. In another, my acupuncturist.

Probably must like wesleysmom I just wing it. I read magazines and books, take tips, but I'm not nearly as anal as I used to be in this regard. There is no owner's manual to life.

I've had different books that have guided me through different times in my life.Mostly though, I'm just winging it.

I know I'm among "my people' when I see so many common themes here! I can't say I have one guidebook, but several books that have played big roles in my life: the Bible, The Joy Luck Club, Bird by Bird, Dr. Sears' The Baby Book, The Artist's Way, the AP Style Guide, Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, to name a few.

A few years ago, I typed up my favorite inspirational quotes about writing, creativity and being true to oneself and put them in a frame I painted. It sits next to my computer, so when my mind wanders they're right there.

Like many others, I wish I had a guide book as well. Don't get me wrong, I read a lot of books. But none of them are MY guidebook. I read parenting books, relationship books, religious books, etc. I like to read about topics that interest me and challenge the way I think about a topic. But I am not one to read something from a book and believe it and follow it like doctrine.

Ha! I wish I did! Although, I can say that Animal Vegetable Miracle did more than any book to change my way of life and continues to do so all the time. I don't live completely by the tenets Kingsolver espouses, don't have the time, money or energy, but I really admire what she does in that book. Maybe I'll get there someday!

I have how to say it and another book with appropriate phrases for cards. They help a lot. I practically memorized etiquette books as a child. I suspect Google is my biggest guidebook now. Where I once would have flipped through a book on whether a symptom is doctor worthy, Google can answer. Where I would have looked up information in an encyclopedia or dictionary, I now get it with a few clicks of keys.

I definitely don't have a guidebook either. Well, I guess there have been many books that have helped me through things. Music, too. I am not someone who is good at following rules, either. If I was handed a guidebook by god himself, I would probably immediately want to do the opposite of what it was suggesting.

I have my bible, which I don't read often enough, butnI think my biggest "Guide Book" is the blogosphere.

I have many online friends and acquaintances that have kids the same or close to my own kids ages, or they've been through what I'm going through, or know someone who does. Many times when I need a little help with a difficult area of my life I turn to them for guidance and support.

While it may not be a book I pull off a shelf, it is definitely a guide I couldn't live without.

I don't have a guidebook, although I have to admit that I'm not so good at following directions anyway, so that may be why! My aunt did give me a guide to keeping house and such a few years after I graduated college, but I took it as an insult and keep it now only for laughs. I would like a guidebook for the wee ones, however!

I don't have an actual "guidebook", per se, but there are many things in the books that I read on a daily basis that resonate with me. I doubt there can be one catch-all book of instructions for how to live your life. If there was, wouldn't things be so much easier?

I don't have one, I'm like Kath_Stewart -- I have certain sentences that come to me when I need them, even when I can't remember the name of the book or who wrote it.

Uhm, yes and no?

Any of the "this is how you should be living your life and/or doing things" type books that I have actually resonated with were based on very specific things -- not really a "whole life" kind of book. For example, there's a book about parenting and discipline and attitude that I really, really like right now. Prior to that, the No Cry Sleep Solution and the No Cry Discipline Solution were absolute guides in my life. Prior to that, a pregnancy book (that wasn't the one that everyone read). Prior to that? I don't know.

All of this is to say that I think that there are certain books that guide us through various phases of our lives, but I don't think that there is a book that covers all the bases. Except for maybe Bossypants, but again, that's only if you have kids and a career. See? Exactly.

I agree with what Kath_Stewart said: "I find books I read come to me at the appropriate time and I can find messages in them, there is always something that speaks to me." There have been a few of those over the years: BIRD BY BIRD by Anne Lamott is one, and THE SPARROW by Mary Doria Russell is another. (The "bird" thing is strictly coincidental. I don't even like birds all that much.) However, there's no one go-to that provides a regular source of guidance and direction for me.

A moral compass, yes, but no guidebook or much of a road map. I'm kind of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants gal!

I definitely don't have a guidebook for life. In fact, I think life would be rather boring if you had to follow all the rules set forth by someone else. I think it's best to let life unfold in whatever way is most natural. Along the way I try to be cognizant of the things that are going on around me and to appreciate all that I have.

My son uses Plato's Republic. I go to Billy Collins' poetry for advice.... although Joy of Cooking is a pretty good fall back.

a/b

Like you, I don't have one. I find books I read come to me at the appropriate time and I can find messages in them, there is always something that speaks to me. Which is a big reminder that we are all "universal". I do turn to Women who Run with Wolves every now and then, but the books I pull over and over from the shelves for inspiration and comfort are my cookbooks!

When I first thought about this question, I didn't think I had a guidebook on life that I followed, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the Bible could be considered a guidebook for so many aspects in my life. I don't find myself searching for answers as much as I probably should, yet I still know the foundation and feel that by continuing to go back to the Bible again and again, it guides me through life.