PM
Never be rigid in your thinking, be open.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 July 2023 source ↗
The question
What lesson has mattered most in your life?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Others on this question
View all 138 →That there is time. I doggedly prioritise and pursue tasks, and the day seems to open out and everything does get done. Chill.
John Simm
English musician and actor
Live in the moment. Enjoy life because time cruelly speeds up as you get older and becomes scarily finite.
Kevin Rowland
British singer
Shakespeare said, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” – I think that’s true.
Do not take life too seriously, this is all a sham.
More from Pauline McLynn
View profile →Eight or nine years ago, I disgraced myself in the Japanese ambassador’s home in Dublin, at a celebration for my late mother-in-law’s book about living in Japan. Afterwards, when I had to apologise, she told me it was the worst night of her life and, because I was drunk enough not to remember the details, it will never not be the most embarrassing night of my life. People are filling in details even now – “Remember when you fell under the table during the first course?”
I talk over people all the time.
A hairdresser – I still want to be a hairdresser.
Actors live in a constant state of disappointment. I’ll never be happy with what I’ve done.
Not being able to breathe – I get very panicky at the thought.
I hope the happiest moment is still ahead of me.
More on time & hindsight
- What period or moment in your life brought you the most joy? 577 answers
- What counsel would you give your twenty-year-old self — and what should they ignore? 78 answers
- What worries you about getting older? 61 answers
- What counsel has proved most valuable to you? 28 answers
- If you could put a message on a giant billboard, what would it say and why? 25 answers
- What line from a parent, teacher, or mentor do you still repeat to yourself? 23 answers
Also answered this
Minnie Driver, Robert Carlyle, John Simm, Felicity Jones, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Rose Ayling-Ellis
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject