Encourage Yourself

I want to thank Larry Drain at the Hopeworks Community for this one. 

1. Find the bright spots in life.  Find the things that you do that work and do them more often.  Emulate success.  Nothing is a problem 100% of the time.  Whatever you are doing when it is not a problem do more often.
2. If a problem was solved how would you know?  What would the video-tape of the solution look like?  What can you do right now that would be part of the solution?  Do it.
3. Decide specifically what you are going to do if you want to change something.  Change is a process that without a first step doesnt have a second step.
4. Be part of something you think matters.
5. Life your life by what is important and dont be deceived by the cry of urgency.
6. Know the way you feel is important, but it is not all that is important.
7. Show other people they matter to you.
8. Find people you matter to.
9. Know that falling down teaches you how to get up, not an excuse to stay down.
10. Know where  you are going and why it is important.  A lot of things are bearable if there is a reason to persist.
11. It is hard to stop treating something as important–even if it is messing our life up– if we dont find something more important.
12. What you know in life is important but what you care about gives it direction.
13. Remember you have an endless capacity to make stupid things seem brilliant.
14. Remember you have an endless capacity to make brilliant things seem stupid.
15. Remember nothing is forever.  Good times go away, but so do bad.  Be grateful for what you have, but not crushed by what you dont.
16. The most difficult fight for most of us is realizing what there is no point in fighting about.
17. Remember courage is what you do when you are scared, not the absence of being scared.
18. Tell your story often, but listen to the story of others.  There is much to learn.
19. Life is not about you or me.  If it was it would not be about much.
20. Neither of us are God.  Thank Goodness.
21. Do things that help to make you the kind of person you want to be.
22. Practice.  It doesnt make perfect, but it does make different.
23. When you can deal with the stress of everyday life, you begin to appreciate the joy of everyday life.
24. When you try to do more than you can you end up not doing anything.
25. Appreciate small steps.
26. Be glad we dont always get our way.
27. Just because we dont see it doesnt mean things dont make sense.
28. You are more than what you are called.
29. Others are more than what you call them.
30. There are many things that make life better.  The list goes far past 30.