Quote of the Day

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

~John Lennon

Choose Your Attitude

Is the glass half full or half empty? Is the responsibility, a privilege or a duty? Is the help we've been asked to give, an opportunity or an obligation? Do we "get" to do it, or do we "have" to do it? Attitude is everything and luckily for us our attitudes are a matter of choice. We can pick the attitudes we want much as we pick our out clothes or hairstyles. Nothing or no one in the past or present can dictate our attitudes. No one else deserves credit or blame for how we choose to process reality. For better or worse, our attitudes are ours alone. We all have the same world to respond to. What we practice, we become. If we practice looking at each day as a new adventure, so it will be.

Be Yourself, Everyone Else Is Already Taken

It's quite possibly the most commonly used phrase in the history of advice: Be yourself. But it's such a vague adage. What do they really mean when they tell you to be yourself? And is it really as easy as it sounds? Steps to Find yourself. You can't be yourself if you don't know, understand, and accept yourself first.

Stop caring about how people perceive you. The fact is, it really doesn't matter. It's impossible to be yourself when you're caught up in wondering "Do they think I'm funny? Does he think I'm fat? Does she think I'm stupid?" To be yourself, you've got to let go of these concerns and just let your behavior flow, with only your consideration of others as a filter—not their consideration of you.

Be honest and open. What have you got to hide? You're an imperfect, growing, learning human being. If you feel ashamed or insecure about any aspect of yourself —and you feel you have to hide those parts of you, whether physically or emotionally —then you have to come to terms with that and learn to convert your so-called flaws into individualistic quirks. Relax. Stop worrying about the worst that could happen, especially in social situations. So what if you fall flat on your face? Or get spinach stuck in your teeth? Learn to laugh at yourself both when it happens and afterwards. Turn it into a funny story that you can share with others. It lets them know that you're not perfect and makes you feel more at ease, too. Develop and express your individuality. Whether it's your sense of style, or even your manner of speaking, if your preferred way of doing something strays from the mainstream, then be proud of it. Have a Productive Day. Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and that some days, you're the statue. People might raise eyebrows and even make fun, but as long as you can shrug and say "Hey, that's just me" and leave it at that, people will ultimately respect you for it, and you'll respect yourself.

There's a difference between being yourself and being inappropriately unrestrained. You might have your opinions, dreams, and preferences, but that doesn't mean you have to disrespect others by forcing them to acknowledge your views. If fads or trends strike your fancy, don't avoid them! Being yourself is all about reflecting who you are inside in what you do, and what you like is what you like, no matter how trendy it is (or not trendy, for that matter)! As the famous song goes, "Life's not worth a damn until you can say, I am what I am" - when you can sincerely say it, you will know that you can be yourself.