1) “Try to have conversations with people you casually meet
in everyday life.”
Actually, I do this every time I go out: I use people’s
names when I speak to them, I smile, and I bid them “good day.”
2) “Remind people in your life how much they love you and
mean to you.”
I make sure to give my husband and children lots of love
every day. We give each other hugs, tell
each other “I love you,” and frequently do little things to show love. We have funny little words we use to tell
each other we love each other, such as “bunkies,” and “gobs.”
3) “Text people back right away.”
Unless I’m driving, I text people back right away. I feel that if that person has taken the time
to attempt to contact me that I should respect them enough to respond. It really doesn’t take that much effort, but
that person might be waiting on my response.
4) “Ask yourself how you can be a better friend to people or
better support them.”
At some point, everyone feels they are doing their best, but
there is another point where everyone feels they cannot do any worse. Hopefully, we can find a happy medium
somewhere. If we love our friends, and
if our friends love us, we will all appreciate each other and forgive our
mistakes. If one of your friends is
doing something you would like stopped (or if you would like that friend to do
something) you really need to discuss it with that person. Only communication will help in this
situation. You never know—that thing
that has been driving you nuts might actually turn out to make sense, and you’ll
learn to love it.
5) “Get up early.”
Well, I get up at 2 am most mornings.
6) “Smile more and laugh more.”
I smile when I feel happy, I laugh when there is something
funny. I frown when I am sad, and I cry
when I am very sad. I run the gamut of
feelings. I allow myself to feel, I
allow myself the luxury of understanding my own feelings. I think it is very sad that many people do
not even know how they feel. Many people
don’t allow themselves to feel anything “negative.” I think this is a mistake. You cannot learn to fix whatever is “negative”
if you don’t even know when you have those feelings.
7) “Do something you didn’t think you could or always wanted
to do.”
I am studying Sociology at University, and will graduate by
the end of Spring 2014 :D
8) “Learn how to apologize.”
I have to say, this one was difficult for me. Learning to accept when I have made a
mistake, learning to forgive myself, and learning to ask for forgiveness has
been a process. Sometimes I apologize
without accepting my own apology.
Sigh. We all have room for
improvement.
9) “Let go of our anger, envy, and hatred.”
Wow—this one can be difficult as well. There are times when I can be very angry, and
not want to let it go for a while.
Sometimes I get angry that I feel anger.
Now *that* can be a vicious circle!
10) “Don’t use your iPod all the time.”
From this, I figure Ms. Lang includes all music playing
devices: these can include MP3’s, portable CD players, or even (for those old
schoolers) walkmen. Also, from her text
it is clear that Ms. Lang is advising all to listen to the natural sounds
surrounding them.
To this sentiment, I cannot add anything more.
11) “Complain less and make fewer excuses for yourself.”
Well, this assumes that the reader frequently complains, and
makes excuses—that may be true, but should not be assumed.
That being said, those who do complain just might need to
learn to appreciate more. Also, those
people might need to learn to accept responsibility.
From me, “appreciate the beauty around you, accept the
responsibility that is yours, release responsibility for what is not yours.”
12) “Do something nice for someone else—the kind of favor
you might not see returned.”
If you only do things for people because you will get a
favor in return, you are missing out on many opportunities in life. When you do something for the sheer purpose
that it needs to be done (even without gaining recognition for it), you get a
satisfaction you could never gain by only doing things with the purpose of a
reward.
13) “Give someone a completely unsolicited compliment.”
I have always felt that the compliment doesn’t mean as much
if I had to ask for it. If the compliment
wasn’t going to be given freely, I probably didn’t deserve it.
14) “Do something completely unexpected or spontaneous.”
Tattoos are cool ;)
15) “Try something new—just for the experience.”
Does blogging count?
I’m sure you can tell, I’ve only been doing this a few weeks.
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