Lighten up and live well

You are an important, indispensable part of life on this day. Yet that is no reason to be arrogant. You have a vital job to do. Yet that doesn’t mean you must be stuffy and overly serious. You do things best when you do them joyfully. Lighten up, have fun, and spread true joy everywhere you go. Be mature and responsible, but don’t be dull and brooding about it. Be purposeful and determined, but don’t be uptight about it. Demonstrate your determination not with a rigid scowl on your face, but with joyous achievement. Life is an amazingly grand adventure, so allow yourself to experience and express delight in every moment. See yourself as happily dancing through the moments of this day, and nothing will be able to bring you down. Live lightly, live joyously, and live well.

LIFE SKILLS

 Integrity: to act according to your sense of what’s right and wrong.

Initiative: to do something because it needs to be done.

Flexibility: to be willing to alter plans when necessary.

Perseverance: to keep at it.

Organization: to plan, arrange, and implement in an orderly way; to keep things orderly and ready to use.

Sense of humor: to laugh and be playful without harming others.

Effort: to do your best.

Common sense: to use good judgment.

Problem solving: to create solutions to difficult situations and everyday problems.

Responsibility: to respond when appropriate; to be accountable for your actions.

Patience: to wait calmly for someone or something.

Friendship: to make and keep a friend through mutual trust and caring.

Curiosity: a desire to investigate and understand your world.

Cooperation: to work together toward a common goal.

Caring: to feel and show concern for others.

Courage: the ability to persevere and withstand danger, difficulty, or fear.

Essential to life

You are not too old or too tired or too broke or too disadvantaged. You are uniquely qualified to add substance to life. Don’t get caught up in making judgments about what is fair or unfair or easy or difficult. Just get on with the satisfying and fulfilling business of making a real positive difference in the world. You’ve done it many times before and you know you can do it many more times again. You know how great it makes you feel to know you truly matter. So get busy, get some good stuff done, and feel that great feeling again and again. Forget about the silly excuses and focus on the significant difference you can make. There are lots of great people in this world. Yet there is no one who can do a better job of being you than you. Life is great, and you are essential to that greatness. Do your part, in your own special way, and feel how truly great it is.

SINCERITY

The way to appear sincere is to actually be sincere. The way to gain the trust of others is to live with uncompromising integrity. The way to be believed, and to be believable, is to always speak the truth. The way to show how much you care, is to really, truly care. The way to speak to the heart of another is to speak from your own heart. Clever words and fancy trappings will soon fade, and the real substance of the person behind them is what will be remembered.The most effective strategy for successful living is really no strategy at all. It is, rather, to be real, to be honest, to be authentic, to be you. There’s no value in pretending to be someone you are not. When you speak from the heart and act from the heart, who you really are is always more than enough.

SINCERE CARING

It’s very easy to say you care, and even to look like you care. It’s much more difficult to actually do it. Sincerely caring about others isn’t just a matter of being nice and agreeable. In fact, when you truly care you often must disagree, even if it would be much easier to just be nice. There are times when the most loving and compassionate thing you can say is no. There are times when the most respectful and considerate response is to disagree. Challenging people to do their best is much more empowering than letting them get by with halfhearted efforts. Helping people to become self sufficient is much more generous than letting them become dependent on your generosity, though it is also much more difficult. Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do for someone is to hold that person accountable. One of the most valuable things you can give to another person is the opportunity, difficult as it may be, to grow stronger, more capable and more dependable. The world cries out for caring people, yet merely being nice and generous is not enough. Care enough to respect, to positively challenge, to insist on nothing less than the best, and permanently raise those you care about to a higher level of living.

BE ORIGINAL

Don’t limit yourself by what has already been done. You can do so very much more. Don’t get too caught up in making judgments about what might or might not work. Put your authentic effort and creativity out there, and you’ll find out soon enough what works and what doesn’t. Safely following the crowd is not the strategy of a leader. The way to achieve what’s never been achieved is to do what’s never been done. You are not a job title or a demographic data point or a technique or a college degree. You are a brilliant, shining, powerful focal point of life itself. You are a genuine, one-of-a-kind original. So think like it, act like it, feel like it and live like it. In this brand new moment bring a brand new, beautiful world into existence. Make it outstanding, make it an original, and make it your very best.

NO SUBSTITUTE FOR HAPPINESS

There is no substitute for happiness, nor does there need to be. Because happiness, peace, contentment and fulfillment are there for the living of them. You can fill your life with excitement and thrills, but those things on their own will not make you happy. You can load yourself up with material possessions, yet they are no substitute for being genuinely happy. Happiness is not something for which you must wait until the conditions are right. And happiness is not something that the right conditions, on their own, can ever bring you. Happiness is not just for a lucky few. It is for anyone who chooses to live and to express it. Happiness is not a selfish pursuit. Indeed, your genuine happiness brings value not only to you, but to those around you as well. You need no reason to be happy, and there is no reason that happiness can be withheld from you. Choose happiness, and choose to live each moment with the joy that is surely here.

HARMONY

Harmony does not mean that everyone is in agreement. It means that no one is attempting to force his or her opinions on others. Harmony does not mean that everyone is the same. It means that everyone respects and tolerates and even celebrates the differences that give so much richness to life. Harmony is not ever achieved by brute force. Harmony is reached when every individual understands, on his or her own terms, that it is by far the most effective way to live. Harmony does not come about through intimidation or scolding or threats of punishment. Harmony is reached through understanding. Harmony cannot exist where people are interested only in what they can take. Harmony is built through giving. Harmony comes not by giving in or by being weak or by surrendering one’s most treasured principles, or by the cowardly attempt to control others. Harmony is the domain of those who are confident enough in their own lives to allow others to peacefully flourish.

MIRROR

The good you find in others, is in you too. The faults you find in others, are your faults as well. After all, to recognize something you must know it. The possibilities you see in others, are possible for you as well. The beauty you see around you, is your beauty. The world around you is a reflection, a mirror showing you the person you are. To change your world, you must change yourself. To blame and complain will only make matters worse. Whatever you care about, is your responsibility. What you see in others, shows you yourself. See the best in others, and you will be your best. Give to others, and you give to yourself. Appreciate beauty, and you will be beautiful. Admire creativity, and you will be creative. Love, and you will be loved. Seek to understand, and you will be understood. Listen, and your voice will be heard. Teach, and you will learn. Show your best face to the mirror, and you’ll be happy with the face looking back at you.

BEAUTY

Appreciate beauty, and you will be beautiful. Give joy, and you will be joyful. Offer fulfillment, and you will be fulfilled. Even in the most painful times -- especially in the painful times -- absorb and enjoy the beauty that is around you. There is no virtue in keeping yourself miserable. Always, there is beauty to be found, and it is yours to enjoy. Drink in the beauty that is around you, and you’re able to give joy to others. Be thankful for the beauty and abundance of life, and it will grow. When you look for beauty you will find it, even in the most difficult circumstances. And that is when you need it most. Remember, life can be beautiful, and it will be if only you will let it be.