My 29 Highly Personal Reminders on How To Live Better

Dear Nicholas, Some years ago when I was attempting to “get a grip,” I wrote down in a little blue notebook random bits of wisdom on how to live better. I carried it with me in my pocketbook. Some days I’d open the notebook at any page and let what I’d copied there influence that day.

I ran across my little book, which had been retired for years (maybe I got a grip?)

It was in a drawer of tangled belongings where I was hoping to find a bathing suit but didn’t. Instead I started browsing all the advice to myself.

When The World Is In Turmoil….

It’s important to be one’s best self.

This is all borrowed wisdom and I didn’t note my sources. If I’ve plagiarized you here, do let me know. (Retired psychologist husband Bob volunteers that any wise sayings can simply be attributed to him.)

 

My How-To-Live-Better Life Hacks

1. Of all the ways of avoiding living, perfect self-discipline is the most admired.
2. Think long-term.
3. Procrastination is the habit of making something larger than it is.
4. Don’t force solutions.
5. Do the work and then step back. (likely from Gandhi)
6. Shoulders back and down (Mom?)
7. No grasping
8. Do more of what works.
9. Spend the time on the most important things.
10. Ask for help.
11. To rescue people from the results of their actions can damage them.
12. OHIO and fearlessly (Only Handle It Once)
13. Reside in the center.
14. No decisions based on guilt or others’ approval
15. Take in what’s good and let the rest drift past.
16. We’re all a little rest away from being goddesses and gods.
17. Remember to reap.
18. “Judging oneself is a barrier to being in the Presence. Not even God can help with self-imposed judgment.”
19. Boundaries breed respect
20. Freedom first, service second.
21. Stop chasing shadows and rest in yourself.
22. Allow people their disappointment.
23. What am I telling myself that I can tolerate, when really I can’t?
24. Drink water and moisturize
25. Better bone density
26. Believe in yourself or you’ll have to work very hard (a Native American wise man in Mexico and I still don’t understand this.)
27. Play Chinese checkers: use the obstacles to get where you’re going. (made this up myself)
28. “Stay in the experience of the timeless vast moment rather than live in a world dominated by your hopes and fears.”

And a new one I would add: Say to myself, “I’m here and God is with me.”

Sincerely,

Peggy

 

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Tags: advice to myself, ask for help, believe in yourself, boundaries breed respect, decisions based on guilt, do the work and then step back, get a grip, hopes and fears, judging oneself, perfect self-discipline, use the obstacles