10 Beautiful Life Lessons Barbara Bush leaves All of Us SMART Women: How to Ditch your Fears & Start Embracing Your Life's Story

smart lessons smart women

Relationships Matter

"At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal," she said. "You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend or a parent."

Authenticity

Barbara Bush was beloved and I would bet it is because people perceived her as real. She didn’t try to be something she was not.

Make a difference in the world

“Believe in Something Larger Than Yourself.”

Transparency

She was honest about her size (14), her hair (white since she gave up dying it in her 30s), her weight (always a few pounds over the ideal) and her pearls ($90 fakes).

Love

In her class note for her alumnae magazine last spring, “I’m still old,” she wrote, “and still in love with the man I married.”

Tragedy Happens – There is power in how you handle adversity.

In 1953, the Bushes’ second child after George, three-year-old Robin woke up feeling tired and was shockingly diagnosed with leukemia. Barbara’s hair turned prematurely gray during that difficult eight months.

Depression affects many women – It can be beaten.

She had a mid-life crisis where menopause, an empty nest, and incipient Graves disease left her with an undiagnosed depression that lasted months. She got over it on her own and while she never sought a career, she did become her own person.

Self-Compassion

As that very wise young woman said, "Diversity ... like anything worth having ... requires effort. Effort to learn about and respect differences, to be compassionate with one another, to cherish our own identity ... and to accept unconditionally the same in others." (From Wellesley)

Have Fun

"One of the reasons I made the most important decision of my life ... to marry George Bush ... is because he made me laugh. It's true, sometimes we've laughed through our tears ... but that shared laughter has been one of our strongest bonds."

Reach for Your Dreams

"So I want to offer you today a new legend: The winner of the hoop race will be the first to realize her dream ... not society's dreams ... her own personal dream."

My hope is that we can all adopt many of these life lessons. Thank you Barbara Bush for your valuable contributions to our world.

Imperfectly Yours,