I have noticed that folks are just about as happy as they have made up their minds to be. - Abraham Lincoln

There is a lot of life experience in the wet shaving community. Much of this experience is shared in the forums, on blogs, and in the videos made about the hobby. Here is what I learned about life from shaving in 2016.

While it's nice to be important it's far more important to be nice.

Responsibility almost always comes with benefits. But these benefits do not belong to you, they belong to the position of responsibility. When you no longer have the position, you are no longer entitled to the benefits. You have to be humble, pass the flag along gracefully, and take advantage of your influence instead of your benefits.

If people would boss themselves they would have no need for bosses.

Don't worry yourself about what other people are doing to hold you down, figure out what you have to do to pull yourself up and out. When you need help, get help. There is nothing wrong with that. But at some point you have to declare yourself independent and self-reliant, or you will forever live in your parent's house under their rules.

The fellow who is pulling on the oars hasn't time to rock the boat.

Trolls are everywhere. It seems like everyone has something negative to say on the internet. If you give them something to do, they won't have time to troll. People feed not off of power but off of responsibility. After all...

...the only safe and sure way to destroy an enemy is to make them your friend.

In everything, there is a right way, a wrong way, and everybody else's way. You don't have to do things the same way as everybody else. As long as the end result is the same, you did it right.

It is a pitty that so much reform begins with remorse.

When things don't go our way we begin to question their validity rather than criticize our own technique, response, and motive. Were your actions truly altruistic? If given another chance would you do the same thing in the same way? Or, as Steve Jobs would ask, "If today were your last day on earth, would you want to do what you are about to do today?" When the answer is "no" for too many days in a row you know it is time to make a change.

A great command enables one to be still.

Its okay if you cut yourself while shaving. The razor did not set out to cut you that day, it just happens sometimes. Likewise, the person that cut you off in traffic did not set out on the road to specifically target you, lying in wait until just the right time. You just happened to be there. It wasn't personal, people are just rude sometimes. Bumping in to people as we go about life is unavoidable, but we can control both our actions and reactions.

Life's precipices are mostly bluffs.

Challenges always seem more difficult than they really are. To accomplish something usually all you have to do is get started.