Tag: love

10 tips for a happy life

To live a happy life, you need to do the following things:

1) Live in alignment with your values…if you do something that morally doesn’t sit well with you, it will haunt you. What do you value?

2) Only worry about what you can control. You can control your effort and behavior. You can control your thoughts and actions. You CAN’T control what other people think, say, or do. If you feel compelled, try to help them make what you deem “better decisions.” But realize you only can control yourself, no one else.

3) Understand that this moment is only temporary. Whether you’re expert the best or the worst day of your life, it’s temporary. Treasure the great days. Enjoy the time with your friends, your family, and even yourself. When something bad happens, understand that this is only a page (or a chapter) in your book. Tomorrow is a new day.

4) See the positive in any situation. Even when bad things happen, spin it around – how can you learn/grow from this?

5) Develop am attitude of gratitude. What you focus on grows. Focus on being positive and on seeing the positive, and your life will become more positive.

6) Don’t take life (or yourself) too seriously. Life is meant to be enjoyed. Often, we place too much emphasis on what is happening right now. “What if I don’t get an ‘A’?” “What if ‘X, Y, or Z’ does/doesn’t happen?” In the end, you’ll realize that cumulatively, yes, it all adds up, but individually it really doesn’t matter. Will you be on your deathbed and regret not getting a better grade in 8th grade math?

7) Smile and laugh everyday. Do it as often as you can. It will make you feel better.

8) Be healthy. A healthy body and a healthy mind will help keep your mindset positive.

9) Surround yourself with others who are generally, and genuinely, happy. You are the average of the five people with who me you spend the most time.

10) Be yourself. Do what you feel is right. Don’t try to “keep up with the Joneses” or impress other people…other people will come and go. But you have to live with yourself until your dying days. Be you. Love you. And don’t care about what other people think.

On loving exercise

Once you get into it, there’s not many things better than exhausting yourself in some healthy competition with good company.

Think about it…you get to challenge yourself mentally and physically, you get to feel like you accomplished something difficult (because you did), and you get to feel companionship.

The endorphins that are released help you feel better throughout the day AND if you start your morning with exercise, it can help you build the momentum you need to make the lifestyle choices you desire.

Love yourself – but don’t use it as an excuse to not get better

One thing that I both agree and disagree with is how society tells you to accept yourself as you are.

You should accept yourself. You should love yourself. But loving yourself, to me anyways, means to try to improve every day. Loving yourself will sometimes require you to do things you don’t want. You need to have the discipline to force yourself to do things that you don’t always feel like doing, but know they will help you in the long run. Sure, you can take time to enjoy things and to splurge every now and then, but don’t mask happiness with pleasure.

Your best life will involve you overcoming obstacles, learning, and growing. But if you use the excuse to “love yourself as you are” as a means of telling yourself that you don’t need to get better, you are doing yourself a disservice.

Recognize where you are in your journey and don’t beat yourself up for where you are compared to where you want to be or where others are. And don’t let that stop you from trying to get better.

If you are 100 pounds overweight, have diabetes, need to be on all sorts of medications, etc., you can and should still love yourself. But the best way to love yourself is to try to improve your diet and exercise regimen, to improve your mindset, etc. Don’t beat yourself up if or when you miss a day, but don’t use the excuse that you love yourself as you are to continue your lifestyle and slowly kill yourself by doing so.

Learning from your mistakes

Learn to forgive yourself. If you mess up, that’s OK. If you keep making the same mistakes, that’s not OK. You need to learn from your mistakes.

Forgive yourself when you mess up because we are all human and we all matter. But if you keep messing up and doing the same thing over and over again, eventually it’s not just a once off. That is a habit that you have formed and you need to get rid of it. Always work to improve yourself.

Default: Forgiveness

Train yourself to default to forgiveness. If someone offends you or if they’ve wronged you, have it planned ahead of time that you will forgive them. Rise above your circumstances.

If you hold a grudge, it’s only hurting yourself. Let go. That doesn’t mean that you should forget what happened. But you should use what you learned from that experience and move forward. You may trust someone less, but holding hate in your heart will slowly destroy you.