I can’t put into words how much I love this quote. Currently, it’s proudly displayed on a letter board in my room. Simply put…it’s a staple in my life philosophy.

Ronald Reagan left us with plenty words of wisdom and in my opinion, this is the most important. He’s basically telling us how to navigate life as we know it! Let’s break this quote down into 5 parts and why we should take them to heart.

Part 1: “live simply”

The finer things in life are pretty tempting, but remembering the simple things are the key to being successful. We tend to get so caught up in what’s trendy and what’s not that we forget the simple things are where we began. We have influence over the simple things in life. We get to choose how we let them impact us. Don’t get caught up in making life seem like a picture perfect movie. Hate to break it to you, but life doesn’t have scripts.

Part 2: “love generously”

In my last Word Wednesday I talked about love surrounding us in all aspects of our lives. This is where that philosophy comes in. With love constantly surrounding us, there is nothing but generous amounts of it to go around. You don’t want to leave this world having regrets, so let love guide you. Bask in it, consume it, give it, and spread it. Spread it like cream cheese on a bagel…overflowing to the point where it’s all you can taste.

Part 3: “care deeply”

It’s impossible to go through life not caring about at least one thing as it’s human nature to have feelings. Those feelings aren’t rare, especially when you have an extreme passion about something. Whether it’s a sport, hobby, school subject, social issue, or person, we all care about something to an extreme level. Here, Reagan is saying that we need to care with that extreme level more frequently. We tend to not care about topics that don’t pertain to us, but we need to. We need to show more care towards to our lives. While it can be hard, it is extremely doable. Starting with yourself, begin showing care towards small things, things that don’t seem worth caring about. You’d be surprised just how much might change.

Part 4: “speak kindly”

Seems easy enough right? We should always have kindness in our voices, yet we tend to let negative emotions, such as anger, hurt and sadness take over at certain times. Kindness is hard to constantly maintain, but you’d be shocked at the effect you have on the world around you when kindness is your first response. Society already has so much negativity within it, so kindness needs to be a priority. If we all put a little more caution into our words and “treat people with kindness” as Harry Styles says, then we can take one step closer to creating a society of positivity and acceptance.

Part 5: “leave the rest to God”

You always save the best for last. This part is the most important, the most impactful of the 5. I know I’ve said this before, but God has so much influence on our lives that we have no clue what’s going to happen. God has a unique plan for each and every one of us and nothing we do is going to change that. God already has provided us with all we need to make it this far in life, so why not leave the rest up to him? Besides…he did write it.