30 THINGS TO START
DOING FOR YOURSELF
WRITTEN BY: MARC
SHARED FROM: http://www.marcandangel.com
1. Spend time with the right people.
People you enjoy, who love and appreciate
you, who encourage you to improve in healthy and exciting ways. The ones who make you feel more alive, embrace
who you are now, and also embrace and embody who you want to be, unconditionally.
2. Face your problems head on.
Your problems don’t define you, it’s how you react to them
and recover from them. Problems will not
disappear unless you take action. Do
what you can, when you can, and acknowledge what you’ve done. Take baby steps
in the right direction, inch by inch.
These inches count, they add up to yards and miles in the long run.
3. Be honest with yourself about everything.
About what’s right, as well as what needs to be
changed. About what you want to achieve
and who you want to become. Be honest
with every aspect of your life,
always. Because you are the one person
you can forever count on. Search your
soul, for the truth, so that you truly know who you are so that you’ll have a
better understanding of where you are now and how you got here, and you’ll be
better equipped to identify where you want to go and how to get there.
4. Make your own happiness a priority.
Your needs
matter. Value yourself, look
out for yourself, and stick up for yourself.
Remember, it IS possible to take care of your own needs while
simultaneously caring for those around you.
And once your needs are met, you will likely be far more capable of
helping those who need you most.
5. Be yourself, genuinely and proudly.
Be yourself. Embrace
that individual inside you that has ideas, strengths and beauty like no one
else. Be
the person you know yourself to be – the best version of you – on
your terms. Above all, be true to YOU,
and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.
6. Notice and live in the present.
Right now is the only moment guaranteed to you. Right now is life. Stop thinking about how great things will be
in the future. Stop dwelling on what did
or didn’t happen in the past. Learn to
be in the ‘here and now’ and experience life as its happening. Appreciate the
world for the beauty that it holds, right now.
7. Value the lessons your mistakes teach you.
Mistakes are the
stepping stones of progress. Failing
makes you want to try hard and learn. Take
risks, stumble, fall, then get up and try again. Appreciate that you are pushing yourself,
learning, growing and improving.
Significant achievements are almost invariably realized at the end of a
long road of failures. One of the
‘mistakes’ you fear might just be the link to your greatest achievement yet.
8. Be more polite to yourself.
The way you treat yourself sets the standard for
others. You must
love who you are or no one else will.
9. Enjoy the things you already have.
We think we’ll be happy when we reach a certain level in
life – a level we see others operating at – your boss with her corner office, that
friend of a friend who owns a mansion on the beach, etc. Unfortunately, it takes awhile before you get
there, and when you get there you’ll likely have a new destination in
mind. You’ll end up spending your whole
life working toward something new without ever stopping to enjoy the things you
have now. So take a quiet moment every
morning when you first awake to appreciate
where you are and what you already have.
10. Create your own happiness.
Smile because you can.
Choose happiness. Be the change
you want to see in the world. Be happy
with who you are now, and let your positivity inspire your journey into
tomorrow. Happiness
is often found when and where you decide to seek it. If you look for happiness within the
opportunities you have, you will eventually find it. But if you constantly look for something
else, unfortunately, you’ll find that too.
11. Give your ideas and dreams a chance.
In life, it’s about
taking a chance. You’ll never
be 100% sure it will work, but you can always be 100% sure doing nothing won’t
work. Most of the time you just have to
go for it! And no matter how it turns
out, it always ends up just the way it should be. Either you succeed or you learn
something. Win-Win.
12. Believe that you’re ready for the next step.
You are ready! You
have everything you need right now to take the next small, realistic step
forward. Embrace
the opportunities that come your way, and accept the challenges –
they’re gifts that will help you to grow.
13. Enter new
relationships for the right reasons.
With dependable, honest people who reflect the person you
are and the person you want to be.
Choose friends you are proud to know, people you admire, who show you
love and respect – people who reciprocate your kindness and commitment. Pay attention to what people do, because a person’s actions are much more important than
their words or how others represent them.
14. Give new
people you meet a chance.
You cannot keep every friend you’ve ever made. People and priorities change. As some relationships fade others will
grow. Appreciate
the possibility of new relationships as you naturally let go of old
ones. Trust your judgment. Embrace new relationships, knowing that you
are entering into unfamiliar territory.
Be ready to learn, be ready for a challenge, and be ready to meet
someone that might just change your life forever.
15. Compete
against an earlier version of yourself.
Be inspired by others, appreciate others, learn from others,
but know that competing against them is a waste of time. You are in competition with one person and
one person only – yourself. You are competing to be the best you can be. Aim to break your own personal records.
16. Cheer for
other people’s victories.
Notice what you like about others and tell them. Have an appreciation for how amazing the
people around you are leads to good places – productive, fulfilling, peaceful
places. Be happy for those who are
making progress. Cheer for their
victories. Be thankful for their blessings,
openly. What
goes around comes around, and sooner or later the people you’re
cheering for will start cheering for you.
17. Look for
the silver lining in tough situations.
Take a few deep breaths and look for the silver lining – the
small glimmers of hope - when things are hard, and you feel down. Remind yourself that you can and will grow
stronger from these hard times. Remain conscious of your blessings and victories
– all the things in your life that are right.
Focus on what you have, not on what you haven’t.
18. Forgive
yourself and others.
We’ve all been hurt by our own decisions and by others. While the pain of these experiences is
normal, sometimes it lingers for too long.
We relive the pain over and over and have a hard time letting go. Forgiveness is
the remedy. It doesn’t mean
you’re erasing the past, or forgetting what happened. It means you’re letting
go of the resentment and pain, and instead choosing
to learn from the incident and move on with your life.
19. Help those
around you.
Care about
people. Guide them if you
know a better way. The more you help
others, the more they will want to help you.
Love and kindness begets love and kindness.
20. Listen to
your own inner voice.
Discuss your ideas with those closest to you, but give
yourself enough room to follow your own intuition. Be true to
yourself. Say what you need
to say. Do
what you know in your heart is right.
21. Be
attentive to your stress level and take short breaks.
Slow down.
Breathe. Give yourself permission
to pause, regroup and move forward
with clarity and purpose. When you’re at
your busiest, a brief recess can rejuvenate your mind and increase your
productivity. These short breaks will
help you regain your sanity and reflect on your recent actions so you can be
sure they’re in line with your goals.
22. Notice the
beauty of small moments.
Find happiness
in the small things that happen every day. Little things like having a quiet cup of
coffee in the early morning, or the delicious taste and smell of a homemade
meal, or the pleasure of sharing something you enjoy with someone else, or
holding hands with your partner.
Noticing these small pleasures on a daily basis makes a big difference
in the quality of your life.
23. Accept
things when they are less than perfect.
‘Perfect’ is the enemy of ‘good.’ One of the biggest challenges for people who
want to improve themselves and the world is learning
to accept things as they are.
It’s better to accept and appreciate the world as it is, and people as
they are, rather than to trying to make everything and everyone conform to an
impossible ideal. Learn to love and
value things when they are less than perfect.
24. Work toward
your goals every single day.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Start taking small, logical steps every day
to make your dream happen. Get out there and DO something! The harder you work the luckier you will
become. Only an astute few of us
actually work on it. ‘Working on it,’ means
consistently devoting oneself to the end result.
25. Be more
open about how you feel.
If you’re hurting, give yourself
the necessary space and time to hurt, but be open about it. Talk to those closest to you. Tell them the truth about how you feel. Let them listen. The simple act of getting things off your
chest and into the open is your first step toward feeling good again.
26. Take full
accountability for your own life.
Own your choices and mistakes, and be willing to take the
necessary steps to improve upon them. Take
accountability for your life or someone else will. And when they do, you’ll become a slave to their
ideas and dreams instead of a pioneer of your own. Directly control the outcome of your
life. It won’t always be easy. Every person has a stack of obstacles in
front of them. You must take accountability for your situation and overcome
these obstacles. Choosing not
to is choosing a lifetime of mere existence.
27. Actively
nurturing your most important relationships.
28. Concentrate
on the things you can control.
You can’t change everything, but you
can always change something.
Wasting your time, talent and emotional energy on things that are beyond
your control is a recipe for frustration, misery and stagnation. Invest your energy in the things you can
control, and act on them.
29. Focus on
the possibility of positive outcomes.
The mind must believe it CAN do something before it is
capable of actually doing it. Overcome
negative thoughts and destructive emotions by developing opposing, positive
emotions that are stronger and more powerful.
Listen to your self-talk and replace negative thoughts with positive
ones. Focus on what you DO WANT to happen,
and then take the next positive step forward.
You can’t control everything that happens to you, but you can control how you react to things. Everyone’s life has positive and negative
aspects – whether or not they’re happy and successful in the long run depends
greatly on which aspects they focus on.
30. Notice how
wealthy you are right now.
“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” (Henry
David Thoreau). Even when times are
tough, it’s always important to keep things in perspective. You didn’t go to sleep hungry last night; you
have a bed to sleep in; you have a choice of what clothes to wear; you have
access to clean drinking water; you have access to medical care; and you can
read. Some might say you are incredibly
wealthy, so be grateful for all the things you
do have.
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