Find the silver linings where you can

“Well, we like our internet slow, okay? We can turn it on, walk around, dance, make a sandwich. With DSL, there’s no dancing, no walking and we’d starve. It’d be all work and no play.”

Life’s too short to spend time dwelling on the shoulda-coulda-wouldas, so make like the Gilmore Girls and make a point of searching for the silver linings in life – they may not be obvious at first, but trust us when we say that they’re there. That could be making the most of a slow internet connection (see above), or refusing to let the stuff you can’t control get on top of you.

Whatever happens, try to remember that an optimistic, mug-half-full-of-coffee mentality will help you deal with the bad times.

Stop wishing, start doing

“You won’t get anything unless you ask for it. And if you ask for it and you don’t get it, maybe it wasn’t worth having in the first place. Some things are just never meant to be, no matter how much we wish they were.”

Life doesn’t hand you everything you want on a golden platter, you guys – and that’s something Lorelai and Rory Gilmore learn throughout the entire run of the Gilmore Girls. And, sure, their fairytales do come true – but it’s all because they ask for what they want (Rory writes to every newspaper in the country for an internship, remember), they forge their own opportunities and they work damn hard to make their dreams come true. Inspiring stuff, right?

Celebrate the amazing women in your life

“I just want you to remember three things when you’re sitting up there. I love you. You’re the greatest kid in the world. And you’re in a skirt, so keep your knees closed.”

We always say congratulations to our pals when they get engaged, or announce that they’re having a baby – but what about the women who ace that first job interview, get accepted onto their dream college course, nail that promotion, pass their driving test, break up with that toxic boyfriend, start volunteering at a local shelter or speak up for something they’re passionate about?

Exactly.

It’s time to start celebrating all the amazing things that women do, rather than focus on the stuff that falls into that old-fashioned narrative of ‘love, marriage, baby carriage’. Look at Lorelai’s excitement over her daughter attending Yale; she goes around telling absolutely everyone about it. And we mean it when we say everyone. Now, that’s the way to blow someone’s trumpet for them.

And on that note, call your mum more

“My mother never gave me any idea that I couldn’t do whatever I wanted to do or be whomever I wanted to be. She filled our house with love and fun and books and music, unflagging in her efforts to give me role models from Jane Austen to Eudora Welty to Patti Smith. As she guided me through these incredible eighteen years, I don’t know if she ever realised that the person I most wanted to be was her… Thank you, Mom. You are my guidepost for everything.”

Lorelai and Rory remind us that our mums really can be our best friends, biggest champions, tutors, pupils, partners in mischief, allies… and, on occasion, enemies. Remember when Rory moved into the pool-house at Emily and Richard’s and refused to even give her mum the time of day? It was horrible, and worse than any TV breakup. When they finally made it up, we were all cheering – but we couldn’t help feeling bad about all the time together they’d lost out on. Because watching these two on screen just makes us want to spend more time guzzling coffee, chowing down on Chinese food and cuddling up on the sofa with our mummy dearest.

Call her now, get a date in the diary and hang out ASAP. You only ever get one mum, so make the most of her.

Gilmore Girls: The incredible life lessons we learned watching the TV show