Day 51 - Words to Live By

10 Tips to Living a Youthful Life
- No Matter How Old You Are

1. Throw out all the nonessential numbers. This includes your age, weight and height. Strive to be healthy, but don't waste your time or your life worrying about that which you cannot change.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches will pull you down fast. Let Negative Nelly live in her problems if she has to, but you are not required to sink with her!

3. Keep learning. Look for things to study. Read. Learn more about the computer, your hobby, golf, gardening, whatever...learn an instrument; do something you've never done before. Don't let your brain sit in neutral. Idle too long, and that's all you're ever going to do.

4. Enjoy the simple things in life. Try to take at least a few moments every day to contemplate something beautiful and pure and free....a blue sky, a flowering bush or a majestic tree, the sound of birds singing, the silkiness of a pet's coat, the ring of a friend's true laughter. These are the greatest treasures of our lives. Stop and appreciate one thing every single day.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. Then, share that joke, story or a laugh with someone else. When you give to another person, you also give yourself an important gift. In this same vein, help others to achieve their goals whenever you can. As the great motivator, Zig Ziglar, said: "The best way to get what you want is to help someone else get what they want."

6. Tears happen. Don't avoid or bury sad moments; feel them. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who will be with you your entire life is you. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, art, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Make your home your refuge.

8. Cherish your health. If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve on your own, get help quickly.

9. Avoid taking guilt trips. Take a trip to the park, the mall or to another country but do NOT travel to the land of guilt. It will eat you alive. Forgiveness is a key ability inside us all. Before you can forgive anyone else, you must first forgive yourself.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them - every chance you get.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments
that take our breath away!