Living your most authentic life is quite simple: “If you choose it, don’t bitch” (whine/complain). Most of the things that we are unhappy about are a result of a choice we’ve made but don’t feel like we can change.  We can almost always make another choice.  If you don’t like your job, your spouse your car, your commute, whatever; you can either spend your life complaining about it or you can make another choice.  Keep in mind I didn’t say easy, I said simple.  There’s a big difference.  This is one of my most important life rules that helped me find happiness when I didn’t think there was any to find.

Something else that helped me to find confidence and take risks is the simple practice of paying attention – and writing – down what I’ve done well, instead of keep inventory of all the things I didn’t accomplish.  It’s a practice that changed my life when I needed to find a way to move forward. Most of us are very good at listing all the things we didn’t do this week:  didn’t stick to my diet, didn’t exercise enough, didn’t finish the project or the presentation for work.  The list can go on and on.  Try turning it around and keep track of the things you did accomplish:  ate only half the cupcake, walked 2 days during the week, started the project/presentation.  You get the idea; wait until you see the difference it makes.

In my very darkest moments when I couldn’t find a reason to get out of bed or face another day, the thing that kept me going and got me up was just the determination to hang on and see if it gets better.  It always gets better.   I finally learned that nothing is forever, bad times pass; good times do to.  There is joy out there waiting for you to find it.  You have more to do, more to give, and probably someone who needs you.  You just don’t know it yet.  Get up one more time and make another choice and celebrate some little tiny thing you did well.  (Getting up is a good start!).  Life holds more for you.

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