Have you ever considered your own mortality? (And by the way, I want to preface this with the fact that this may be a bit of a rambling post. So I apologize for that).
For some reason I was thinking about my own mortality for a really long time last night. It made me think about my brother. I remember when he died. All those people at the public memorial! SO MANY! He touched so many people as a person and with his work. There were friends, family, work people……….from everywhere! Even knowing my brother I did not realize the incredible impact that he had had in his short, magnificent lifetime! Do you think about how your death will touch others? How the world will go on after you are gone? Over your lifetime have any of those thoughts (if you thought of them) changed? The truth of the matter is that life will continue on after you die. So, until you get there it is prudent to live your life well. All those “Golden Rules of Life” truly do have meaning! I found this on www.upgradereality.com How wonderful it would be if we all lived by this! 10 Golden Rules to Live By 1 – Do unto others as you want others to do to you. Maybe you believe in karma and maybe you don’t. It’s my experience that you reap what you sow or “what goes around comes around”. Treat others with kindness and respect to get the same in return, but treat others like garbage and then you can be pretty sure it’ll come back to you (although maybe only much later and not the same people you did it to). 2 – Treasure your body for it is the vessel that guides you through your life. You may think that money or success is important, but nothing is as important as your own body. Without it you can’t live. Make it a habit to eat a healthy and natural diet, be sure to exercise regularly and above all get plenty of sleep. Also try to keep your life as stress-free as possible, stress makes you age faster and makes you old before your time. 3 – Be honest and always tell the truth Honesty is the best policy and it will do you far more good than harm. Be honest in your relationships, with your business ethics and with your personal morals. Although honesty is usually the better option, there will be times when a white lie is necessary to prevent hurting people’s feelings. 4 – Success requires hard work, persistence and a little creativity. The best advice I can give you if you want to be successful is to not hope for a quick fix but to be prepared for the long haul. Real success with anything usually takes months and even years to achieve. Believe in yourself and believe in your dreams, keep learning and never give up. Try to find yourself a mentor to speed the learning process up. Sooner or later you’ll achieve your goals. 5 – Make a difference to at least one other person’s life. I believe that we’re all on this planet together. Life isn’t meant to be completely selfish, we’re here to give to and help each other. Right now there are countless people who could use a helping hand so why not give back a little? You don’t necessarily have to give money. You can give some of your time or experience to help someone else with something you’ve already overcome. Helping someone else is one of the most rewarding things you can do. 6 – Admit when you’re wrong and apologize. Nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes from time to time. It’s perfectly okay. Even if you screw up and waste money, or time or hurt people’s feelings. But only if you admit you were wrong and apologize. You’ll be amazed how understanding people are when you’re humble and modest enough to admit that you made a mistake. 7 – You can learn something from everyone. Don’t think you’re too good at something to listen to someone else. Don’t think that you’re better than someone else. Just as you can learn something from the successful CEO or entrepreneur, you can learn something from a homeless person. Everyone has something that they’re good at, so don’t be too quick to dismiss someone as having no value. 8 – Don’t be scared, go through life as fearlessly as possible. Fear is an emotion designed to keep us alive. In our primitive days it kept us aware of our surroundings, suspicious of harmful situations and weary of unknown territory. Fear also holds us back from following our dreams, telling people how we really feel about them, and it can force us to stay inside our comfort zone for way too long. Ask yourself, “Would you rather play it safe to not risk failure or would you rather risk failure to really live and do what your heart tells you that you should do?”. 9 – Smile and laugh every single day. A simple smile from a stranger can light up your entire day. Laughing makes your worries disappear. Make it a habit to laugh and smile as much as you can, because life is just so much better when you do. Positivity is contagious, and you’ll find that people will like you a whole lot more if you’re always happy compared to being grouchy and cynical. 10 – Count your blessings and be thankful for all the good things in your life. The past is history, the future is a mystery and right now is a gift, that’s why they call it the “present”. You have no idea what tomorrow will bring, so be thankful for every single moment that you’re alive. Be grateful for your family, friends, freedom. Be grateful for the food you eat, for the fact that you have a warm, dry place to sleep with a roof over your head. Soak up every single drop of life you can, because all you’ll ever have is this moment, right now. When I die (I hope it is very far in the future) I hope that those that know me were glad to have known me. I hope that my daughter is proud that I was her mom and that my soon to be grandson (and any other future grandchildren) remembers me for great love and great moments of happiness. Many experiences, joy and learning. Sure, I would like to be known as a great artist……but I’d like that fame before I go. I’ve tried to live my life well and like everyone, I have made mistakes along the way. But with luck those mistakes are dim compared to the rest of my life and what I have contributed to this world. Each day, live it with purpose! Leave positive energy in your wake when you depart!
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