To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 50 recently, so below is an update.

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

Reprinted by permission of the author. Regina Brett is a metro columnist at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. The PD is the largest newspaper in Ohio and one of the top 20 newspapers in the country with a Sunday circulation of 400,000 and a readership of over 1 million. Regina was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in both2008 and 2009. Her columns are tucked in wallets, pressed in Bibles and stuck under refrigerator magnets all over Ohio. They are also forwarded all over the country in email forwards.

Regina won the prestigious National Headliner Award for columns she wrote about being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998. During her chemotherapy and radiation treatments, she shared extensively and candidly about her experience. The award put her in the great company of past Headliner recipients, which include Mitch Albom, Anna Quindlen, Dave Barry, Leonard Pitts and Carl Hiaasen.

Eleven years later, Regina still gets requests for reprints of those columns from women newly diagnosed with cancer.