17 Rules To Live By


Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much
you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the
music will play and you will finally be able to move forward toward the
life that God intended for you...with grace, strength, courage and
confidence.

Today, and every day, deliver more than you are getting paid to do. The
victory of success will be half won when you learn the secret of putting
out more than is expected in all that you do. Make yourself so valuable in
your work that eventually you will become indispensable. Exercise your
privilege to go the extra miles, and enjoy all the rewards you receive. You
deserve them!

Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at
it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for
occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals.
No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of
your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without
an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come.

Always reward your long hours of labor and toil in the very best way,
surrounded by your family. Nurture their love carefully, remembering that
your children need models, not critics, and your own progress will hasten
when you constantly strive to present your best side to your children. And
even if you have failed at all else in the eyes of the world, if you have a
loving family, you are a success.

Build this day on a foundation of pleasant thoughts. Never fret at any
imperfections that you fear may impede your progress. Remind yourself, as
often as necessary, that you are a creature of God and have the power to
achieve any dream by lifting up your thoughts. You can fly when you decide
that you can. Never consider defeat again. Let the vision in your heart be
in your life's blueprint. Smile!

Let your actions always speak for you, but be forever on guard against the
terrible traps of false pride and conceit that can halt your progress. The
next time you are tempted to boast, just place your fist in a full pail of
water, and when you remove it, the hole remaining will give you a correct
measure of your importance.

Each day is a special gift from God, and while life may not always be fair,
you must never allow the pains, hurdles, and handicaps of the moment to
poison your attitude and plans for yourself and your future. You can never
win when you wear the ugly cloak of self-pity, and the sour sound of
whining will certainly frighten away any opportunity for success. Never
again. There is a better way.

Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant
things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes
along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no
cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours
when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change
in your routine. No more busywork. No more hiding from success. Leave time,
leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!

Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find
"tomorrow" on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday's defeats, and
ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make
it the best day of your year. The saddest words you can ever utter are, "If
I had my life to live over again..." Take the baton, now. Run with it! This
is your day!

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or
stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each
person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and
understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of
any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining
self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure
your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible
defeat of the moment. Banish tension and concern and worry with laughter at
your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the
solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously.

Never neglect the little things. Never skimp on that extra effort, that
additional few minutes, that soft word of praise or thanks, that delivery
of the very best that you can do. It does not matter what others think, it
is of prime importance, however, what you think about you. You can never do
your best, which should always be your trademark, if you are cutting
corners and shirking responsibilities. You are special. Act it. Never
neglect the little things.

Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special
gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you
were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set
the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through
your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false
start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.

You will achieve your grand dream, a day at a time, so set goals for each
day-not long and difficult projects, but chores that will take you, step by
step, toward your rainbow. Write them down, if you must, but limit your
list so that you won't have to drag today's undone matters into tomorrow.
Remember that you cannot build your pyramid in twenty-four hours. Be
patient. Never allow your day to become so cluttered that you neglect your
most important goal-to do the best you can, enjoy this day a and rest
satisfied with what you have accomplished.

Never allow anyone to rain on your parade and thus cast a pall of gloom and
defeat on the entire day. Remember that no talent, no self-denial, no
brains, no character, are required to set up in the fault-finding business.
Nothing external can have any power over you unless you permit it. Your
time is too precious to be sacrificed in wasted days combating the menial
forces of hate, jealousy and envy. Guard your fragile life carefully. Only
God can shape a flower, but any foolish child can pull it to pieces.

Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and
you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the
darkest valleys you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a
deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you
learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without
trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper.

Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort
searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember
that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving.
Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on
others without getting a few drops on yourself.

--- From A Better Way to Live by Og Mandino