I posted this Note a year ago on Facebook. Printed it out and hung it up on my fridge and in my office. I figure now's as good a time as any to review and see how many of the suggestions I actually followed:
HANDBOOK 2010
Health:
1. Drink plenty of water. Define "plenty."
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar. I think I may have kept a little too much royalty in my diet.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants. What if I ate lots of both?
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy. I live with 3 pets. Does that count?
5. Make time to pray. This, I did. Unfortunately, it tended to be more product of desperation than deliberation.
6. Play more games. This, I also did.
7. Read more books than you did in 2009. I added more to the stack on my nightstand, anyway.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. This, I also did. I won't mention where.
9. Sleep for 7 hours. I assume this was a daily (nightly) recommendation -- I managed it about once a week.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile. Epic fail.
Personality:
11. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about. I often reminded myself of the latter. Didn't keep me from doing the former.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment. Ha!!!
13. Don't over do. Keep your limits. I moderated in moderation.
14. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does. Oh, I laugh at myself all the time. Would be nice if I could learn to laugh with myself more.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip. Gossip's so often effortless, though...
16. Dream more while you are awake. I could go with it all having been a
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need. I wonder if this line works on creditors?
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness. No comment.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others. This is honestly something I very rarely do. I won't say never.
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present. How does one make peace with one's present?
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you. True. Very true. Mind telling them that?
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime. It's been quite an education thus far.
23. Smile and laugh more. This, I did. But you know Newton's Law about every action having an equal and opposite reaction?
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree... I agree.
Society:
25. Call your family often. This I do.
26. Each day give something good to others. If I had to guess, I'd put my average at around .500 on this. Plenty of room for improvement.
27. Forgive everyone for everything. Mmmhmm.
28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6. Plenty of over 70's; not so much the under 6's, but I have enjoyed the heck out of my 8 year old.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day. I tried. Most days.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business. And my ignorance is my bliss, I'm sure.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch. My friends are the best. Fortunately, I work with several of them.
Life:
32. Do the right thing! Oh. That.
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful. Thank goodness my Mom holds yearly garage sales!
34. GOD heals everything. Thank God He's God!
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change. Also true. I haven't yet found the key to freezeframing the good.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up. This, I did. Sometimes, that was all that I did, but I still did it.
37. The best is yet to come. As long as it's not followed by the worst, I'll take it.
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it. Working on it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy. This works best when one's "inner most" doesn't go AWOL.
Last but not the least:
40. Please Forward this to everyone you care about, I just did. Assuming posting it on FB qualifies, I did this.
I looked at the list frequently this year. But I rarely looked past "Drink plenty of water." I know I often fell short - and I own a lot of that, though not all of it. It's a long list, and maybe a bit much to try and maintain in focus. So, I think for 2011, I'm going to try and keep it a bit simpler:
1) Drink more water.
2) Write more.
3) Keep your feet on the ground.
4) Love the people who love you and love them well.
5) Focus on what you have instead of what you don't.
