A Simple Guide to a Peaceful Life

By Angie Doleza.

We can all agree that life is not fair, happiness is not guaranteed and stress is inevitable. Life is no doubt, at times going to throw us many curve balls and it is up to us to choose how to deal with it. With life’s challenges, stress which is usually accompanied by anxiety, may be unavoidable yet it is manageable. Most importantly, we cannot let our worries and our stress crowd out our peace and happiness and the simple pleasures of life.

  • Own your feelings. No one can make you happy, no one can make you sad or mad. These are all feelings we each individually choose.
  • Don’t overthink it. Most of the things we worry about never happen. Worrying will not stop bad things from happening; it will only interfere with your journey.
  • Do your best. At the end of the day, feel good about what you did accomplish today instead of dwelling on what you didn’t.
  • Live in the moment. The past is done, we never know what tomorrow holds, focus on today.
  • Do not be afraid. “Do not be afraid” is written in the Bible 365 times. This is a daily reminder from God to live everyday fearless.
  • Take action. Identify your problems and take steps to solve them.
  • Put yourself on the list. Take care of yourself. Exercise and eat healthy. Making yourself a priority is not selfish, as it will make you a better spouse, mother or father, son or daughter, employee or boss and a better friend.
  • Lift up others. Be an encouraging and a positive influence on your friends and family. Make people feel good about themselves.
  • Count your blessings. Be grateful. Cherish all the blessings in your life. Take comfort in what you do have and reject all envy for what you don’t.
  • Find your self-worth from within. Seeking your self-worth from this world will only lead to disappointment.
  • Embrace the silence. Practice daily prayer and meditation. Try yoga.
  • Be financially responsible. Live within your means. Avoid debt.
  • Have something to look forward to. Plan a trip. Plan a party. Make a date with a friend.
  • Enjoy your family. Take the time to play with the kids, talk to your family and care for your elderly.
  • Avoid negativity. Stay positive in your thoughts and in your conversations.
  • Find your passion. Take up a new hobby. Do things you love.
  • You can’t save the world. Avoid today’s 24-hour news cycle.
  • Turn off the TV. Limit your exposure to back-stabbing, trash talking and unkind programming disguised as entertainment.
  • Open your mind. Learn a new skill or a new language. Seek enlightenment.
  • Tell the truth. (no further explanation needed!)
  • Have a pet. Just one loving stroke to a sweet animal can immediately lower stress levels and warm our hearts.
  • Stop and smell the roses. Go outside. Feel the sun. Hear the birds.
  • Take one step at a time. Any big task, break it down into small steps.
  • Don’t become substance dependent.  A pill or drink will not solve your problems. It will just mask the symptoms and delay the resolve.
  • Give back. Give your service to those less fortunate. Contribute to your community.
  • Spread kindness. Partake in regular random acts of kindness. Be kind to strangers.
  • Show compassion. Compassion is the very cornerstone of our humanity. A life lived without compassion will result in a bitter outcome.
  • Careful how you talk to yourself. Be gentle with your internal words. Find positive mantras to replace negative, self-deprecating thoughts.
  • Celebrate other’s successes. There is plenty of success to go around, others success takes nothing from you. This is an easy way to identify your true friends.
  • Don’t be a social media fool. Social media is not the proper place to put it all out there. It tends to give a voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless yet most of all, a platform for the foolish. Use with caution.
  • Enjoy music. Good music can soothe your most inner beast. Turn it up!
  • Sleep well. When we always strive to do the right thing, it makes sleep much easier.
  • Take a break. Stop during your busy day. Take a deep breath. Give yourself permission to relax.
  • Give your love freely. People will disappoint you, love anyway.
  • Be a force of peace. Be the level head. Don’t encourage conflict.
  • Don’t argue. Accept that not everyone thinks like you. Never argue with a fool because from a distance no one can tell the difference.
  • Let your light shine. Be a shining light in a dark world.
  • Know that you are deserving. We only receive exactly what we think we deserve.
  • Learn from your mistakes. It is only a mistake if you did not learn a lesson.
  • Be trustworthy. Keep confidences. Do what you say you are going to do.
  • Don’t be an “over-pleaser”.  You can please some of the people some of the time but rarely all of the people, all of the time.
  • Talk it out. Sometimes just saying it out load will take the sting out.
  • Seek Sanity. Stop doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
  • Be Happy! It is a choice made daily.

These 5 Decisions Define You as an Entrepreneur

As defined by Julia Tang Peters:

“Leadership is about making decisions to change the story –changing the course of events from how it will likely go if you don’t take bold action, and having a vision for how you want the story to go if you took bold action.  There are five opportunities where you make the story instead of the story making you.”

– Julia Tang Peters

Julia Tang Peters, in her new book Pivot Points, concludes that there are five pivotal decisions that propel some entrepreneurs to be gifted leaders:

  1. The launching decision
  2. The turning point decision
  3. The tipping point decision
  4. The re-commitment decision
  5. The letting go decision

An article in the Huffington Post gives you more details, or you can watch her below.