Friday, January 4, 2013

Lessons for Life

Last night for dinner we had steel head trout and mushroom risotto



Breakfast this morning was a bowl of oatmeal (1/3 cup oats, a scoop of chia seeds, 2/3 cup coffee/chocolate almond milk mixture, strawberries, coconut, almond butter and a chocolate in the middle).


 
 

After breakfast I began working on my thesis discussion/conclusion.  I got about 3.5 pages done before packing the papers away for the day.

Today I came across 45 lessons for life written by a 90 year old woman (Regina Brett).  You can find the full list here, but I just chose the ones that stood out to me to reflect on.

Things I need to work on:

- Get rid of anything that isn't useful.  Clutter weighs you down in many ways.
(I am not overly sentimental, but I do have stuff around that I could probably get rid of.  I also need to work on discarding one or two things for every new thing that is brought into the house).
- Get outside every day.  Miracles are waiting everywhere.
(I waste a lot of my summer not going outside.  This year that will change!)
- Don't take yourself so seriously.  No one else does.
(I am getting better with age, but I still take myself more seriously than I need to).

Things I already do:

- Pay off your credit cards every month
(I have never paid a cent of credit card interest, and I don't plan to start).
- Don't compare your life to others.  You have no idea what their journey is about.
(This one took time, but I believe I arrived at this some time in my 20s).
- Frame every so-called disaster with these words "In five years, will this matter?"
(I try to do this all the time.  It really helps to put things in perspective).

If you have a look at the full list (or even just my short lists), which things do you feel you already do?  Which do you need to work on? 

7 comments:

Why am I here??? said...

Woot woot on the thesis. I did nothing!! Thanks for the link. That was certainly refreshing. Number 40 is my favourite...the one about throwing our life problems in a pile and still choosing our own

Allysia said...

I love that you put coffee in your oats, ha ha. And 'get outside every day' is going to be a lot easier for me to apply here in Austin, and also necessary since I have no car. And high five on credit card awesomeness, I'm the same way!

Joanne said...

I love these little perspectives on life. I always pay my credit card off as well! A major point of pride. :)

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

I really believe in not comparing your life to others. You only know as much about another person's life as they will show/tell. And while I don't believe people intentionally are misleading about their lives, I don't think they are always forthcoming, and I remind myself of that when others lives/relationships/etc seem PERFECT.

Kacy said...

I need to work on the credit card thing. I go through good times and bad times with it. I'm so impressed you've never carried a balance!

Ameena said...

I am all about getting rid of clutter...it drives my family crazy but it makes me feel SO good!

Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

I think I need to print off that list and hang it somewhere! There are a few items that I could definitely put to good use in my life, especially the ones relating to forgiveness. Life is just too short to get hung up on stuff that I can't control!