The Best Four-Word Advice, For Twenty-First Century Life

Good advice doesn’t have to be detailed

Karen Banes
6 min readApr 29, 2018

The best advice is often the simplest. I’ve noticed most of my favorite snippets of advice are around four words long, though the impact they’ve had on my life is huge. I’ve compiled just a few pieces of four-word advice, that are particularly relevant to the way we live our lives today.

You are your choices

People misunderstand this concept all the time. They point out that they didn’t choose to get sick, lose their job, or have their spouse cheat on them. And that’s true, of course. Not everything that happens to you is your choice, but every time something happens to you, you make a choice about what to do next. That’s where your life is shaped. In the decisions you make when you have no choice but to make a choice.

Pick your battles wisely

When you decide to stop fighting over every little thing and focus on the things that truly matter to you, something big happens. You start to get what you really want. Notice I said you get what you really want, not everything you want. There’s a big difference.

The reasons are twofold. You’re focusing your energy, time, and resources on fighting for what’s most important, and by only…

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Karen Banes

Freelance writer sharing thoughts on life, society, creativity, and productivity. https://changetheworldwithwords.substack.com