10 Rules To Live By

1.      Focus on what you want.

Do you focus on the road ahead or in the rearview mirror filled with the past? By focusing on the past, you tend to worry about the future because your focus carries the negative experiences from your past into your present. "Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye and you will be drawn toward it." - Napoleon Hill

 

2.      Never give up.

Thomas Edison said it best -- ""Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

 

3.      One day at a time.

We achieve our dreams one day at a time, so set goals for each day that will take you, step by step, toward your desire. The pyramids weren't built in a week so learn to be patient. Do the best you can, enjoy this day, and be satisfied with what you've accomplished.  (This was a very difficult lesson for me to learn.)

 

4.      True happiness lies within you.

Don't waste time and effort searching for happiness, peace and contentment in the world outside. Reach inside yourself and pull out the better angels of your nature and give to someone else.

 

5.      Learn to be grateful.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow." - Melodie Beattie  (I am so grateful and thankful that I learned this lesson.  An exercise that helped with this was to keep a daily gratitude journal for 30 days.  That really works!)

 

6.      Expand your comfort zone.

Not a whole lot can change or happen when we stop challenging ourselves.

 

7.      You’re closer than you think.

There's an old Chinese proverb that goes something like this: "The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed."

 

8.      Don't take yourself seriously.

Learn to lighten up. Life is a game. Don't sweat the little stuff.... 'cause it's all little stuff.

 

9.      Be nice.

What is that old saying? You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Just another way of saying you can win people to your side more easily by gentle persuasion and flattery than by hostile confrontation. (Sometimes my own nature is to just spit it out and keep it moving.  I didn’t realize that this is sometimes considered hostile confrontation to some people.)

 

10.  Get out of your way.

As Warren Buffet said to a University of Washington audience several years ago regarding how he and Bill Gates became so successful: "Everybody here has the ability to do anything I do and much beyond. Some of you will, and some of you won't. For those who won't, it will be because you get in your own way, not because the world doesn't allow you to."

 

~~Namaste