Master List of Life Tricks
When Mary shared her life tricks with her friends and family at her recent birthday, she asked everyone to send her their life tricks...and they did! Check it out!
- Love extravagantly but know you deserve the best.
- Date someone who actively works to build you up, someone who recognizes your potential and does everything in their power to help you become incredible.
- There is only love.
- Love your family: those near and far, they are the best friends you have in life.
- Tell the people you love how you feel about them every opportunity you get.
- Marry someone with a good sense of humor who is loving.
- Laugh. It makes almost everything better.
- Invite your friends over and have no particular plans in mind. Be spontaneous! Do whatever sounds good in the moment, and if you change your mind halfway through, move on to the next idea!
- Reconnect with old friends. This includes but is not limited to: childhood friends, former teachers, and past romantic partners. You'd be surprised at how much joy you can give someone by simply lending them your voice for an hour.
- Know your angels are watching over you from above sending their love and support
- The advice/way I use it is to tell people questioning or going through a transition in job/career to: make a list of what you’re most interested in (skills/talents/activities would do full time if money was not an issue), a list of what you’re amazing at (what you’d consider yourself to be better at than most people) and a list of skills/talents that you have that others will pay you for. Then find and pursue a direction where the three lists intersect – passion+talent+value. If they don’t intersect, keep adding to the lists until they do.
- From Steve Jobs: “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."
- Make time to do the stuff you like to do and figure out what those things are.
- Choose a song to be your anthem. It can be anything that makes you happy, whether it be a reflection of your own personality, something that brings back a particular memory, or something else entirely. For me, this is "Believe" by Cher.
- Be Marcella. To thine own Bug be true.
- Try to stay positive and work hard. If you do, people will open doors for you that you didn’t know existed and you will have an adventurous life.
- Know that there is a silver lining for everything, we just can't always see it right away
- Don’t sweat the small stuff.
- Detach from the outcome. All will be well.
- Don’t let crazy in the door.
- Think of your anxiety as a little monster who shows up and lies to you. When you start to get anxious, yell back at the anxiety monster, “Shut up! You’re lying! That’s not going to happen!”
- If something or someone makes you angry or anxious, write down a sentence that summarizes what you are feeling. And then write the same sentence again and again and again until the emotional response to the concept is lessened.
- Sometimes when you are angry, it helps to go into a bathroom with a loud fan, close the door and just say cuss words over and over.
- To get back to sleep at night try these two tricks:
- Breathe in deep and count as high as you can and then exhale and count to the same number. Do this at least 20 times.
- Count backwards from 300 by threes. And if over time that gets too easy do 900 by nines and 700 by sevens.
- Every day try to be the best version of you that you can be that day
- Stay in the moment. Don’t worry about yesterday or fret about tomorrow.
- Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is the special occasion.
- Show up
- Don't avoid doing something because you think you can't. Try. Then the next time it comes up, you will feel more confident.
- From the Dalai Lama: "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
- Just because something hasn't been done before, doesn't mean it shouldn't be
- When challenged, remember how difficult it was to overcome obstacles as a child (memorizing multiplication tables, making friends with new students, learning to tie your shoes). Reflect on how easy those things are now... One day, today's challenges will also be a breeze. Some things are worth the struggle.
- Don't ever quit. Once you quit, quitting is always an option.
- Tend to the pieces and parts. The whole will take care of itself in good time.
- Pick up what is next and do it as well as you can.
- Make lists of everything you have to do and if you are dreading having to do something on the list, do it first! It will get it out of the way and make the rest of your day better.
- Fake it till you make it. Act the way you want to feel.
- In these trying times, please keep in mind, even though you may think nothing of it at the time, your small act of kindness might be the one thing that makes someone’s day, or keeps another holding on!
- Strive for grace and all those other nice virtues.
- Be kind: You don't know everyone's full back story, and it never hurts to just be kind.
- From Maya Angelou: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
- It’s not about you. Be careful about what you take personally.
- Lower your expectations of people. Don't expect emotional maturity when it's just an idea at this point.
- Find refuge in loving kindness.
- Learning is essential.
- Travel as much as you can, whenever you can, save your pennies and travel.
- Welcome all experiences - treasure the good ones, and learn from the bad
- If someone criticizes you, don’t take it personally. Just thank them for the feedback and later think about whether what they’ve said could be valuable for you.
- Read: books, newspapers, magazine articles, recipes, or blogposts. Just read.
- Take care of your body so it’s a nice place to live.
- Exercise as often as you can! In my experience, even a simple 5 push-ups after climbing out of bed can increase your day's productivity level tenfold
- Embrace your mortality so you live life more fully
- Mindfully create your legacy
- To be happy, don't compare yourself to others
- Enjoy the journey. Be careful not to label events as "good" or "bad"
- Be clear about what you want
- You can train your brain for optimism, success and better health