Show respect for your parents. Sure, we may have made mistakes when you were growing up. In fact, I guarantee you we did make mistakes when you were growing up. But if we're like 90% of parents, we did the best we could and we love you unconditionally. Remember, living with you wasn't exactly a cakewalk either.
Write a real letter to a friend at least once a month. Not an email. Not a note. A real letter. Tell them what you're doing and what you're up to. When they receive a letter like that in the mail, they'll be thrilled. And you will have made their day--maybe even their whole week. And all it cost you was thirty minutes of your time and a stamp.
Be content with your surroundings and what you have. We really do live in the greatest country in the world, in spite of all of its problems. Maybe you don't live in La Jolla or
Dance.
Be grateful. We all have things to be thankful for. When we focus on all we have rather than all we don't have, we're a lot more interesting to be with and talk to. Even when the only conversation we're having is with ourselves.
Learn the social graces. Men, walk on the outside of the sidewalk--even though the days of horse-drawn carriages throwing mud on the boardwalks is a thing from the last century. Pull a lady's chair for her. Help her with her coat. Rise when she enters a room when you're in public. Ladies, don't slurp your soup. Don't talk too much. If there is a lull in the conversation, don't fill it with needless noise; make room for poignant silence. And by the way, it's perfectly okay to ask us guys to put the toilet seat down.
Take a walk everyday. Take your dog if you have one. Take yourself if you don't. A daily constitutional is good for your body, but more importantly, it's good for your mind. In this busy and fast-paced world where we're so conditioned to run, taking a walk is not only not such a bad thing, it's a very good thing.
Find a hobby and pursue it. Make it a passion. Whether it's learning to play the fiddle or planting and tending a rose garden or painting still lifes or landscapes, do it. Spend time with it. Improve and learn and grow. It will relax you and stimulate you at the same time. Besides, one-dimensional people are boring.
Be grateful. We all have things to be thankful for. When we focus on all we have rather than all we don't have, we're a lot more interesting to be with and talk to. Even when the only conversation we're having is with ourselves.
Learn the social graces. Men, walk on the outside of the sidewalk--even though the days of horse-drawn carriages throwing mud on the boardwalks is a thing from the last century. Pull a lady's chair for her. Help her with her coat. Rise when she enters a room when you're in public. Ladies, don't slurp your soup. Don't talk too much. If there is a lull in the conversation, don't fill it with needless noise; make room for poignant silence. And by the way, it's perfectly okay to ask us guys to put the toilet seat down.
Take a walk everyday. Take your dog if you have one. Take yourself if you don't. A daily constitutional is good for your body, but more importantly, it's good for your mind. In this busy and fast-paced world where we're so conditioned to run, taking a walk is not only not such a bad thing, it's a very good thing.
Find a hobby and pursue it. Make it a passion. Whether it's learning to play the fiddle or planting and tending a rose garden or painting still lifes or landscapes, do it. Spend time with it. Improve and learn and grow. It will relax you and stimulate you at the same time. Besides, one-dimensional people are boring.
Smile.
Go to Italy
Pray with your kids. Don't just pray for them, pray with them. Pray with them while they're still in the womb, so they get used to the sound of your voice when you pray. Pray with them when they are infants and toddlers and young children and teenagers. Pray with them when they are young adults and middle-aged parents of your grandchildren. Pray unceasingly.
Go ahead and dream. Don't be discouraged by the naysayers who say that dreamers have their heads in the clouds.Edison dreamed of harnessing electricity to make light and he did it. Hillary dreamed of scaling Mount Everest and he climbed it. Michelangelo dreamed of creating a masterpiece on a ceiling and he painted it. Nothing great was ever accomplished that was not preceded by a dream. So go ahead and dream. Dream big. Your dreams are the first step to getting there.
Don't worry about how much you have. Worry about how much you give. The great irony is that by giving, you'll ultimately be the receiver. By getting and hoarding, you'll ultimately come away empty-handed. Have as your goal at your funeral a church overflowing with family and friends and many who never knew you but were touched by your generosity. It will be much greater and more interesting than a hearse and a brief graveside ceremony.
One more thing about the small stuff. Remember to separate the minutiae from the small stuff. The small stuff isn't small because it's not important. It's small because it's a part of something bigger. Minutiae--now that's unimportant. Need an example? Your son wants you to play catch in the backyard. That's small. That's important. Your co-worker tells you that the shipment will get there a day late because of a blizzard in theRockies . That's minutiae. You make a phone call and tell your customer what's happening, and you've already done all you can. Beyond that, it's unimportant.
Pray with your kids. Don't just pray for them, pray with them. Pray with them while they're still in the womb, so they get used to the sound of your voice when you pray. Pray with them when they are infants and toddlers and young children and teenagers. Pray with them when they are young adults and middle-aged parents of your grandchildren. Pray unceasingly.
Go ahead and dream. Don't be discouraged by the naysayers who say that dreamers have their heads in the clouds.
Don't worry about how much you have. Worry about how much you give. The great irony is that by giving, you'll ultimately be the receiver. By getting and hoarding, you'll ultimately come away empty-handed. Have as your goal at your funeral a church overflowing with family and friends and many who never knew you but were touched by your generosity. It will be much greater and more interesting than a hearse and a brief graveside ceremony.
One more thing about the small stuff. Remember to separate the minutiae from the small stuff. The small stuff isn't small because it's not important. It's small because it's a part of something bigger. Minutiae--now that's unimportant. Need an example? Your son wants you to play catch in the backyard. That's small. That's important. Your co-worker tells you that the shipment will get there a day late because of a blizzard in the
Laugh. Laugh uproariously.
Hug someone or shake someone's hand everyday. Hug your wife or your husband. Shake your co-worker's hand. You can even shake the hand of the person in back of you in line at the grocery store. Whoever it is, and whatever the circumstances, you will be making someone's day a little happier and a little brighter. And remember, by giving you're actually the one who is getting. It works out that way.
Teach your kids how to save. In our society of easy credit and instant gratification, the simple act of saving is becoming a thing of the past. Our parents and grandparents lived through the Great Depression, when having clothes for school and a hot dinner every night was nothing to take for granted. Nowadays we're not only complacent about that hot meal, but we choose between eating at home or eating out, between Thai food or Italian, between the local corner restaurant or our own dinner table. We buy a new pair of jeans because they're on sale, not because we really need another pair. We lease a new car every three years because the lease on our "old" one has expired, not because we really need a new car. Old Ben Franklin was right: a penny saved really is a penny earned. So teach your kids how to earn more by saving more.
Choose happiness. It really is a choice. Life does throw us curve balls, it's true. And it is also true that sometimes life isn't fair. But guess what? When it happens to you, you're not the only one. And in spite of what you may think, your circumstances are not unique to you. It's not whether we hit that curve ball out of the park, because chances are that we won't. What matters is whether we keep swinging, even when the curve balls keep coming.
Hug someone or shake someone's hand everyday. Hug your wife or your husband. Shake your co-worker's hand. You can even shake the hand of the person in back of you in line at the grocery store. Whoever it is, and whatever the circumstances, you will be making someone's day a little happier and a little brighter. And remember, by giving you're actually the one who is getting. It works out that way.
Teach your kids how to save. In our society of easy credit and instant gratification, the simple act of saving is becoming a thing of the past. Our parents and grandparents lived through the Great Depression, when having clothes for school and a hot dinner every night was nothing to take for granted. Nowadays we're not only complacent about that hot meal, but we choose between eating at home or eating out, between Thai food or Italian, between the local corner restaurant or our own dinner table. We buy a new pair of jeans because they're on sale, not because we really need another pair. We lease a new car every three years because the lease on our "old" one has expired, not because we really need a new car. Old Ben Franklin was right: a penny saved really is a penny earned. So teach your kids how to earn more by saving more.
Choose happiness. It really is a choice. Life does throw us curve balls, it's true. And it is also true that sometimes life isn't fair. But guess what? When it happens to you, you're not the only one. And in spite of what you may think, your circumstances are not unique to you. It's not whether we hit that curve ball out of the park, because chances are that we won't. What matters is whether we keep swinging, even when the curve balls keep coming.
Fly.
Dwight Eisenhower said that those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Always have a list of goals and review that list at least once a year. How are you doing in accomplishing those things? And if you're not achieving those goals, how do you kick yourself in the butt to do them? The goals don't have to be huge, but you do need to begin achieving them. It will boost your self-confidence. It will help you bounce out of bed in the morning. And--best of all--when you scratch those goals off your list because you achieved them, you'll be replacing them with new goals that are even bolder and bigger.
Be kind to yourself. Okay, so you don't have the body of Elizabeth Hurley, the voice of Andrea Bocelli, or the brains of Albert Einstein. Guess what? The guy next to you doesn't either. What you do have is your own uniqueness, your own style, your own way of doing things. Every one of us has something we do do better than 90% of our peers. So don't focus on what you aren't or can't or won't be. Focus on what you are and can and will be. You will be a lot happier, and the world really will be a better place.
Dwight Eisenhower said that those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Always have a list of goals and review that list at least once a year. How are you doing in accomplishing those things? And if you're not achieving those goals, how do you kick yourself in the butt to do them? The goals don't have to be huge, but you do need to begin achieving them. It will boost your self-confidence. It will help you bounce out of bed in the morning. And--best of all--when you scratch those goals off your list because you achieved them, you'll be replacing them with new goals that are even bolder and bigger.
Be kind to yourself. Okay, so you don't have the body of Elizabeth Hurley, the voice of Andrea Bocelli, or the brains of Albert Einstein. Guess what? The guy next to you doesn't either. What you do have is your own uniqueness, your own style, your own way of doing things. Every one of us has something we do do better than 90% of our peers. So don't focus on what you aren't or can't or won't be. Focus on what you are and can and will be. You will be a lot happier, and the world really will be a better place.
Oh yeah. Don’t forget to sweat the small stuff.
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