Daily Gratitude: I have decided to adopt this as a life plan. I am so good with procrastination but I’m done with that. If we sit around deciding what we’re “going” to do when we’re ready, it may never come – there will always be some voice telling you “you’re not ready yet so go better not try this yet”. That infamous word “yet” is good and not so good. When you say “I am not good enough”, you should add “yet” letting your subconscious know that you’re not condemning yourself in general and that you are becoming better and continually working toward improvement. However, when you’re talking about starting something, do NOT say “I can’t do that because I’m not ready yet”. You’ll never feel ready. Just start. Even if what you end up doing is cruddy it doesn’t matter. You began. You started and that’s what’s important! Start now!

Daily Gratitude: I think learning to be calm in moments of chaos is the most important habit you can establish. I only started working on this over the last couple of years but it has helped me in so many ways. Two days before I was to leave for Tennessee (for Vol State) I went out to my “new” (to me) car and the dashboard had all these messages flashing that this and that feature needed to be checked and “call your dealer”. The windshield wipers came on and i couldn’t shut them off. For once I didn’t panic. In fact, I amazed myself that I was so calm. I had no clue what was wrong or what to do but I just did the things I could think of. None of my fallback systems worked (the people I relied on were out of town), the auto shop I use was closed for the holiday weekend, the dealer wasn’t open yet, etc. so I sent my dealer and the manager emails and went to autozone and then just went about my business knowing I could take my old vehicle if necessary even though I got this one for the trips. after a couple of hours the dealer called and said he was going to send a tow truck and they would try to get it done before I left. Turns out the tow truck guy worked his magic and got it going. But the entire time I remained calm and it felt wonderful. I never have experienced that before. So I highly recommend investigating whatever techniques you might be interested in to help you learn to be calm. I only wish I had learned this many years ago but that’s just the way things work out and I’m ok with that. After all, I can’t change any of it in the past so why obsess over it?

Daily Gratitude: I just had to add this cartoon (and I’m sorry I don’t know who did it) because it’s perfect. Happiness is right now, not “when”. “When I get a new job”, “when I lose 10 pounds”, etc (I’m sure I’ve written about that before). What happened in the last hour that you’re happy about? I’m listening to music as I write this and that makes me happy. My air conditioner is working nicely and that makes me happy. I am retired and couldn’t ask for anything more. That makes me happy. If my pace was better maybe I’d be happier. Maybe not. And I don’t see that happening with my lungs but the fact I can walk makes me very happy no matter what my pace is. What is making you feel something right now? And then what are you feeling? You know you can change that feeling don’t you? You are in charge of how you react and respond to things. So decide to be happy and then decide to devote part of a minute every hour to finding something that is making you happy. Make yourself a happy jar and put something in the jar every time you think about being happy. Maybe it will be coins or maybe you can jot down the things you think of. Watch it fill up and that will also make you happy. See how easy it is.