12 Rules To A Better Life

#Rule 1
Count your blessings. Once you realise 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 with grace, strength, courage and confidence towards the life that you are supposed to lead.

#Rule 2
Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it for too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching and making you learn. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins all the time 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.

#Rule 3
Each day is a special gift and while life may not always be fair, you must never allow the pains, hurdles and handicaps of the moment 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. Lift your head up high and receive each day with open arms.

#Rule 4
Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as 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.

#Rule 5
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 have the power to achieve any dream by lifting up your thoughts. You can fly when you decide that you can. Never consider yourself defeated. Let the vision in your heart be in your life's blueprint. Smile!

#Rule 6
You will achieve 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, towards 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 which is to do the best you can, enjoy the day and rest satisfied with what you have accomplished.

#Rule 7
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. Merely surviving the day 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 busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave enough time and space to grow now. Now! Not tomorrow!

#Rule 8
Laugh at yourself and at life, not in the spirit of derision or 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 and worry with laughter. Laughter frees your mind to think clearly towards the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously.

#Rule 9
Live this day as if it will be your last. You will only find "tomorrow" in 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 life. 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!

#Rule 10
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.

#Rule 11
Never allow anyone to rain on your parade and thus cast a pall of gloom and defeat on the entire day. Any fool can set up a fault-finding business. No external power can have any control over you unless you permit it. Your time is too precious to be squandered combating the menial forces of hate, jealously and envy. Guard your fragile life carefully. Strengthen your life with self-confidence.

#Rule 12
Realise 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.