Act as if you'll live a long healthy life.

How would a person who will live a long healthy life live? Eat? Exercise? Take care of themselves? Think? Believe?

The person who has the most control of whether you live a long healthy life is you – right?

How are you acting?

Not everyone will approve…

We’ve all heard the saying that one way to be unhappy is to try to make everyone else happy.  I used to think I had that one handled – that I tried to make the people who were important to me happy (family, customers, employees) and I wasn’t trying to make the world happy – so I’m good.  

But in the end, I don’t want people to dislike me.  I guess I’m no different than most people.  There will be people that say nasty things about you behind your back, or anonymously online.  If we take it to heart, we will change our behavior and start living small, where you can’t do much people can criticize.  In fact, you wouldn’t do much at all. That would be giving your power away to the critics.

The reality is, that people levy harsh criticism of others mostly because of what is going on with themselves, not you. Your existence just happened to cross paths with their attention, and they spewed some unkind words.  But a few minutes later they were on to something else, and forgot about you altogether.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t listen to the feedback the world is giving you.  But even if you are doing great stuff, not everyone will approve of what you are doing.  And there are always the snipers, who have personal shame, shortcomings or pain they are trying to mask by bringing someone else down.

Take any power they have over you away.

Ignore them.

Big doors swing on little hinges

The big results in life come from lots of small efforts and tasks completed well. Habits, that don’t seem to make a big difference in the span of a day, make all the difference one day.

Do the small things you do, day in and day out, move you towards your most important goals?

A wise man once said – nothing.

Sometimes it’s better not to say anything. Why argue it? Why stir it up? Why engage that one?

You could save your energy and attention for something better.

Access points to your brain

What we see and hear comprise most of the distractions we are constantly subject to each day that prevent us from focusing and doing “deep work” (our best work).

Shut off things that beep, ping, vibrate and talk, and go to a place where visual distractions, including people who want to talk to you, are cut off.  With these access points to your brain shut down, you can concentrate your attention and thinking and create something greater, better and bigger than you could otherwise. 

Being competent to be happy

I think most of us understand that we aren’t going to be good at everything, but we all need to feel like we are good at something to be happy.  What is it for you?

To build others up, acknowledge them for being good at something.  Today, make it a point to comment on the skills of others – and see how they respond to you.

Ikigai

The people of Okinawa, Japan live the longest of any people on earth.  They have more people over 100 years old than anywhere.  Interestingly, they do not have a word for “retirement.”  Instead, they have a word called “Ikigai” which means “a reason to get up in the morning.”

When we strip away the popular conditioning that “work is unpleasant,” we have to admit that being productive gives life meaning; a meaning we need to keep going.

Ya' catch more bees with honey

“You are fool enough, it seems, to dare war with me, when for your faithful ally you might win me easily.” – Aristophanes

Who do you have a conflict with now?  How about being genuinely nice?

We do – we feel

We don’t feel like doing the thing we should.  Should we wait until we feel like it? If we do that, we’d never do the thing we should.  

Do it.  Get your body in motion.  Step out the door.  Go.  

When we do it, we’ll start to feel like doing it.  This feeling will sustain us so we can keep doing it.

Do first.  Then you’ll feel like it.

Let’s get going.

Are you "done"?

If we have made up our minds on everything, defined the boundaries around our life and world, and live the same weeks over and over…

Are you “done”, or is there more to experience, more to learn, more places to go, things to try, our own opinions to change, and person to become?