Take nothing for granted in life

There was a lecturer in our college. She was very lenient; a very nice woman. She wouldn't shout at students or create an atmosphere of order. All she said was “study for yourself.” She would also help students in achieving minimum attendance. In return, students took her for granted. Her class would only have 15–20% attendance. Students wouldn't work on projects. Some could casually sleep in between the class. No one was bothered even if she felt bad. Another lecturer wouldn't allow grown-up students to go to the washroom. She would throw registers, insult students, throw out students of her class and mark them absent.

There was complete order in her class, almost full attendance, pin drop silence and an atmosphere of respect and order. I am not saying that the students were evil. It's a general human tendency to take leverage, to use the one being used, to abuse nice people. So people will always take you for granted if you let them take you for granted. So- Don't be too too nice. Don't ignore every mistake. Don't treat people as indispensable. Don't let people walk over your self-esteem. Create personal boundaries and do respect them. Respect yourself, a little more than you respect others.

People who live well often believe they don’t have to worry about having a safe home, food to eat, clothes to wear, health care when they are sick, and so on. People also often assume that they will keep their jobs and their families and friends will simply always be there to help them. They take for granted that they have these things and that they won’t lose them. Sometimes they even believe they deserve these things more than people who don’t have them, which, obviously, is not true in most cases. But, life can be unpredictable. Even very lucky people can be unlucky sometimes.

When English speakers lose a family member or job or a comfortable lifestyle, you will often hear them say they took it all for granted. They thought they “owned” what they lost and couldn’t ever lose it, so they forgot to be grateful for it. Now they regret their old attitude and wish they had appreciated their previous luck. People sometimes say after a divorce that the ex-spouse took me for granted. They mean that the ex-spouse didn’t treat them well, appreciate them or feel lucky to have the relationship but instead treated the person as if they were simply a possession they would always own. This feeling of being taken for granted causes a lot of marriages to fail.

This expression is often used to encourage people to be grateful and to appreciate what they have. People should always be thankful for family, friends and the good things in life and remember they can be lost without warning and sometimes for no good reason. However, people are selfish and tend to always want more, more, more. So we warn them don’t take it for granted that you are rich, healthy, happy, etc. This could all change in a second, even if you are a good person who works hard and makes good choices.

Simply it means that ‘we’ have a serious attitude toward everything and do not take anything for granted, say, do things based on rough and unfounded assumptions rather than carefully check the details. In addition, the commonly used phrase “take things for granted” means “accept a fact or someone’s presence, actions, etc., without questioning its rightness”. This phrase also says that ‘we’ appreciate things we receive or have rather than regard them as naturally available for us.

We take nothing for granted” means, that “we take everything seriously”. Every single thing is duly observed and kept in mind as a mental note. It may be used for a kind of reference in the future(distant or near) or at present or may be used to draw a comparison with an event from the past. But, none of the things shall be forgotten, from an act of kindness to an act of vengeance to someone’s dress or hair. We assume nothing, we take nothing as fact in this matter until we have ascertained the facts for ourselves, we do not depend upon what's believed or been told. We make no predictions, we don't allow ourselves to expect anything from this moment or from this situation. Little is certain, nothing is assured.Cheers!