Just because our general life expectancy has gone up, that doesn’t mean that we are all guaranteed a long life

Anyone who has lived more than seventy years knows a thing or two about how to survive. Whether they live a good life or not, share the same values as you do, or come from the same culture—there are certainly things that you can learn from your elders.

We are all doing our best, using ingenuity and persistence to carve out a decent living for ourselves. Someone who has been able to do that for decades can teach us something, even if it just one simple lesson like, “always floss.”

Don’t dismiss the elderly. Even if you can’t understand their perspective on certain issues, do your best to listen to what they have to say. At the very least, listening to their thoughts and opinions will help you question why you believe in certain ideas and paradigms.

It is better to learn from the mistakes of others than to learn from just your own—you can avoid a lot of personal pain by simply observing how other people live. Better yet, listen to the regrets of your elders, that’s where the real nuggets of wisdom are.

Image credit: Unsplash