Pic: Chelsea Victoria |
I first read this list on Being Brazen a few weeks ago.
It's called 30 things to stop doing to yourself.
You might think, like I did at first, that it's a bit trite and full of cliches you've heard a thousand times before.
But read it. Some of the points have stayed with me and keep popping back into my head at the strangest moments - when I'm tying to find a gap in traffic, when I'm bathing my daughter. I suppose that means that they are relevant and someone is sending me a little reminder that there are some things I need to work on...
(Below is my selection from the list and italics are mine. Here is the complete list )
- Stop spending time with the wrong people. – Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.
- Stop trying to be someone you’re not – Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you. Don’t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.
- Stop trying to buy happiness – Many of the things we desire are expensive. But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free – love, laughter and working on our passions.
- Stop being idle – Don’t think too much or you’ll create a problem that wasn’t even there in the first place. Making progress involves risk.
- Stop trying to compete against everyone else – Don’t worry about what others are doing better than you. Concentrate on beating your own records every day. Success is a battle between you and yourself only.
- Stop being jealous of others – Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own. Ask yourself this: “What’s something I have that everyone wants?”
- Stop doing the same things over and over without taking a break – The time to take a deep breath is when you don’t have time for it. Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly.
- Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments – Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things. The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.
- Stop trying to make things perfect – The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done.
- Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn’t – It’s okay to fall apart for a little while. You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well.
- Stop trying to be everything to everyone. – Doing so is impossible, and trying will only burn you out. So narrow your focus.
- Stop worrying so much – Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy. One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time? Three years? Five years?” If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.