You’ve heard the saying, “The best things in life are free.”  Well spending quality time with family and friends, listening to or playing music, enjoying your pets, seeing your children smile, experiencing heart-felt moments with your significant other – these times are precious and priceless.  Don’t get so caught up in the rat race, working 60+ hours a week, to the point where you are too stressed and exhausted to enjoy your closest relationships.  Simplify your life, making conscious choices along the way, Work fewer hours and enjoy more of what truly matters.

Don’t be someone who goes through greater lengths to avoid change than you do to obtain what you desire.  Your life will begin to improve when you define precisely what “improve” means to you.  The agonies and frustrations will start to ease only when you have something real and positive to replace them with.  Be specific.  Success and happiness are not goals, they are the result of a life well lived.  The question is:  How do you want to live going forward?

1. Kindness is always the best response to any situation.  When you grow older and you look back on your life, you will inevitably forget a lot of the stuff that seemed so important when you were young.  You probably won’t remember what your high school or college GPA was.  You will look at your old classmates on Facebook (or some other online social network) and wonder why you ever had a crush on that girl/guy.  And you will have the toughest time remembering why you let certain people from your past get the best of you.  But you will never forget the people who were genuinely kind – those who helped when you were hurt, and who loved you even when you felt unlovable.  Be that person to others as often as possible. 

The world does not owe you a living.  You owe the world a life.  So stop daydreaming and start DOING.  Develop a backbone, not a wishbone.  Take full responsibility for your life – take control.  You are important and you are needed.  It’s too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something someday.  Someday is now; the somebody the world needs is YOU.  Focus on being productive, not being busy.  Don’t just get things done; get the right things done!

People cannot connect with you if you’re constantly trying to hide from yourself.  And this becomes a truly toxic situation the minute they become attached to your false persona.  So remember, no matter what age, race, sex, you are, underneath all your external decorations you are a pure, beautiful being – each and every one of us are.  We each have light to shine, and missions to accomplish.  Celebrate being different, off the beaten path, a little on the weird side, your own special creation.  If you find yourself feeling like a fish out of water, by all means find a new river to swim in.  But DO NOT change who you are; BE who you are.  Don’t deny yourself, improve yourself. 

It’s very hard to be around people who refuse to let go of negativity – when they ruminate and speak incessantly about the terrible things that could happen and have happened and the unfairness of life.  These people stubbornly refuse to see the positive side of life and the positive lessons from what’s happening.  Pessimism is one thing – but remaining perpetually locked in a negative mindset is another.  Only seeing the negative, and operating from a view that everything is negative and against you, is a twisted way of thinking and living, and you can change that.

The truth is that what people say and do to you is much more about them, than you.  People’s reactions to you are about their perspectives, wounds and experiences.  Whether people think you’re amazing, or believe you’re the worst, again, is more about them.  So much hurt, disappointment and sadness in our lives comes from our taking things personally.  In most cases it’s far more productive and healthy to let go of other people’s good or bad opinion of you, and to operate with your own intuition and wisdom as your guide.