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Have you ever had one of those days where you just want everything to go away?  Wondering why life isn’t better for you?  Wondering if it’s something that you did wrong or if it’s just because that white corolla didn’t signal when he cut you off on the way home from work?  I mean, whose fault is it really?  The guy driving 30 down the highway on a scooter or you for being in such a hurry?

I’m talking about one of those days (or weeks, or years) where you just can’t do anything right.  Where you may be trying to please everyone, but end up pleasing no one.  What then?  You’ve wasted your life hoping, even expecting, to please others so that one day you will be happy, but it all ends up backfiring.  Can you really please everyone around you?  Is it possible?

Have you ever woken up to the same routine that you told yourself last week that you were going to leave behind?  The same thing for breakfast, the same to-do list, the same way to work, the same time for lunch and then you try and add some spice to your life by driving home a different way just because?  Yup, I know you have.  I have too.

So how have I decided to get out of this?  I’ve decided to stop tricking myself into believing that I’ll change if I keep trying to do the same thing over and over.  The definition of insanity is to repeat the same thing over and over and expect a different result.  Are we really naive to believe that hoping for change will actually effect the change?  Gandhi may have said it best, yet so simple,

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

It’s true.  You have to change before you can see the change in others.  You have to give more for others to be able to give more.  You have to be who you say you want to become for others to be who they want to become.  The cold, hard truth, is that it starts with YOU.  And you are the only one that can do it…not only that, but the only one that should do it.

Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?

If you gotta start somewhere, why not here?  If you gotta start sometime, why not now?  If we gotta start somewhere, I’ll say here.  If we gotta start sometime, I’ll say now. – Toby Mac, City On Our Knees

Man up.  Stop whining.  And please don’t wait for someone else to fix themselves or fix you.  Do something different.  Do something different today.

There aren’t any missed opportunities, only opportunities that are taken by someone else. What are you waiting to do?

I just thought I would share this as it came up the other day. I really liked it!

“Genius is seeing what everyone else sees and thinking what no-one else has thought.” – Albert Szent-Gyorgy

These kinds of quotes are the ones that get my business sided mind going and really want to go out and do what my heart desires! I really believe I can do whatever I want if I really put my mind to it. Watch THIS. I’m excited for everything that’s going on in life right now.

I’m a little behind on this considering my birthday was last month (January 14th), but I wanted to just have some fun with a little list of 23 things that I’ve learned and grown to love in my 23 years.  As you’ll be able to tell, I’ve still got lots to learn!  Considering my love for quotes in general, I have attached a quote that I’ve happened upon recently to each item.  Here we go…

• Love life and life will love you back – AKA – what goes around, comes around.  –

“Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back.” – Arthur Rubinstein

• If there are two ways to take something that a peer says or does, always choose the best one. –

“Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it.” – Anonymous

• Do what you really love, not what you’re supposed to love.  –

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”  -e.e. cummings, 1955

• Dream.  Don’t let others limitations reflect where your dreams start and stop. –

“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers.  But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, 1996

• Dreaming and wishful thinking is only the beginning, action is where dreams become reality. –

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” – Henry Ford

• The day is simply better when you take time to put the Lord first.  Reading the scriptures and praying in the morning starts the day off right. –

“At … moments of crisis and challenge, some choose to abandon faith just at the time when it most needs to be embraced.  Prayer is ignored at the very hour when it needs to be intensified.  Virtue is carelessly tossed aside when it needs to be cherished.  God is forsaken in the all-too-human yet mistaken fear that He has forsaken us.” – David S. Baxter, “Faith, Service, Constancy,” October General Conference 2006

• School and work should teach you to think, not tell you what to think.  Be careful which you choose. –

“An educated man is not one whose memory is trained to carry a few dates in history. He is one who can accomplish things. A man who cannot think is not an educated man, however many college degrees he may have acquired. Thinking is the hardest work anyone can do, which is probably the reason we have so few thinkers.” – Henry Ford

• Exercise, but do it in a way you love. –

“An hour of basketball feels like 15 minutes.  An hour on a treadmill feels like a weekend in traffic school.” – David Walters

• Stressing over inevitable things will NOT make them go away.  Simply take them as they come, one-by-one. –

“The field of consciousness is tiny.  It accepts only one problem at a time.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

• First impressions are important. –

“Everyone sees what you seem to be, but few know what you are.” – Machiavelli, The Prince

• Faith is a principle of action – nothing gets done, no matter how much you believe it, until you punch your time card and put in the work necessary. –

“Action alone is not faith in the Savior, but acting in accordance with correct principles is a central component of faith. Thus, ‘faith without works is dead’ (James 2:20).” – David A Bednar, “Ask in Faith”

• It’s easier to think, focus, and feel the Spirit when your home, car, clothes, etc. are clean. –

“Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.” – Christopher Morley

• Always serve for no other reason than because you love and want to help others. –

“You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.” – John Wooden

• Plan. –

“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” – Tom Landry

• When all of your plans fall through, laugh. –

“Laughter gives us distance.  It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.” – Bob Newhart

• Money is a means to an end.  There’s a difference in having money and counting your money.  Money is the means, NOT the point. –

“Men for the sake of getting a living, forget to live.” – Margaret Fuller

• Know your priorities, set specific goals to help with your highest priorities.  Achieving those goals bring joy and a sense of success no matter the size of the goal. –

“When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.” – Greg Anderson

• Always do what you say, when you say you will do it.  No exceptions. (See next point) –

“Promise only what you can deliver.  Then deliver more than you promise.” – Anonymous

• Legitimate excuses are few and far between.  Just do your best. –

“Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall.  Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day.  Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down.  And this is all life really means.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

• Whatever you do, do it with your whole heart and your best self. –

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius

• (Almost) Every bad thing starts with an attitude of laziness or desire to get something for nothing. –

“In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.” – Henry Miller, The Books in My Life

• Say it how it is in the most loving, honest way possible. –

“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” – Mark Twain

• If you don’t love life, you’re doing something wrong. –

“Life is good, if we live in such a way to make it so. [...] A ‘good life’ comes as a result of the way we do things, of the words we choose to say, and even of the kind of thoughts we choose to have. [...] ‘Wanting to’ is the determining factor which leads us to lay hold upon the word of God and be happy.  Perseverance in making correct decisions is what leads us to happiness.” – Benjamin de la Hoyas, “True Happiness: A Conscious Decision,” October 2005 General Conference, Saturday Afternoon Session