29 Secrets to Happiness

29 Secrets to Happiness:

1. Live beneath your means and within your seams.
2. Return everything you borrow.
3. Donate blood.
4. Give all the clothes that you haven't worn in the last three years to charity.
5. Stop blaming other people.
6. Every day do something nice and try not to get caught.
7. Admit when you make a mistake.
8. Listen more and talk less.
9. Every day take a 30 minute walk in your neighborhood.
10. Skip a meal a week and donate the money you saved.
11. Strive for excellence, not perfection.
12. Be on time.
13. Don't make excuses.
14. Get organized.
15. Be kind to people.
16. Be even kinder to unkind people.
17. Let someone cut ahead of you in line.
18. Take time to be alone.
19. Read a favorite book.
20. Cultivate good manners.
21. Be humble.
22. Understand and accept that life isn't always fair.
23. Know when to say something.
24. Know when to keep your mouth shut.
25. Don't criticize anyone for 24 hours.
26. Learn from the past, plan for the future, and live in the present.
27. Don't sweat the small stuff.
28. Try to smile at everyone you pass by.
29. Make this year the best yet!

*Thanks to the 12th Ward Relief Society (women's group in our church) for giving me this great list.

Wow. There are SO many things on this list I need to work on. Some are hard for me to admit that I need to work on, but they are blaring off the page from all of the rest! The "physical" things are so much easier for me to actually DO; give clothes to charity, take a walk, let someone cut in line. It's SO much harder to quantify the "mental" things and go about DOING them; stop blaming people, don't make excuses, be humble, accept that life isn't fair. 

You can tell someone, "Yeah, I gave a bunch of clothes to charity today", but how do you explain, "Well, today I finally accepted that fact that life isn't fair and boy, I feel great!" It doesn't work that way... or does it? I think the mental things are more like tracking your progress... doing a little better each day. The mental things are the ones I need to work on.

I'm going to pick two each week to work on. When I get to the end I'll start over. I'll try my best and hopefully over time I can develop some better habits. I want to be a better person. I feel like Satan is really working on me lately. I have to constantly keep a prayer in my heart to do what is right and to have the Spirit with me.

Another quote I really like from Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Don't judge me because I sin differently than you." I find myself thinking things like, "Well, at least I don't do THAT or I would never do THIS!" And you know, I'm justifying my poor behavior by weighing it against the behavior of others that I consider "worse". Yeah, I'm a real piece of work. A work in progress. :)

I just wanted to share this list with all of you and I hope it will help you be happier. No secrets here!

Here's a picture of Beck from our camping trip this weekend:

This was BEFORE he got into all the dirt -- he had SO much fun! 

I've never seen a kid play in the dirt like he did.

P.S. My stomach is churning and my hands are sweating.... right at this moment, our buyers are supposedly at the title company signing the papers to FINALLY close on our house!! Oh, I hardly dare get my hopes up... it might really happen! :) Maybe I can finally sleep at night.