Just Do Something!
You've heard "just do it", well here's an even better one. Do you ever catch yourself frustrated that you can't do everything? Do you waste the day instead of getting something done?
If you're wanting to do more and have more in your life, consider these ideas:
- Turn off the TV. Reading or going for a walk or calling a friend or inviting a neighbor over for dinner or making your bed and cleaning your room or any number of things you've been wanting to get done will raise your self esteem and make you feel great about how you just used your day or hour or minute. Try something, anything at all, and then make a point of noticing that rewarding little feeling it gives you. This will give you the power to do it again tomorrow or in five minutes.
- Are you really doing what you want with your life? Do you even know what you want? If you can say no to either of these questions, you should try the power of pages. Also consider that it's incredibly attractive (to friends and strangers alike) to see someone who's actively pursuing their dreams.
- When was the last time you did something for someone else with no thought of being rewarded in any way? Selfless Service is one of the best ways to become great and happy and successful. Give it a chance today!
- Take better care of yourself. Whether it's eating better, exercising, reading, working, cleaning your room, or anything else you need, taking care of yourself in the first place pays out enormous divedends in every other aspect of your life.
- Give religion a chance. Statistics demonstrate that faith, however you want to implement it in your life, makes you happier and better balanced. The standard most effective ways to reap the benefits of religion include prayer, service, church attendance, fasting, obedience to God, and humility.
Adult Resignation Letter and Rejection Letter (read it!)
To Whom It May Concern:
I hereby officially tender my resignation as an adult. I have decided
I would like to accept the responsibilities of a 6 year old again.
I want to go to McDonald's and think that it's a four star restaurant.
I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make ripples with
rocks. I want to think M&Ms are better than money, because you can eat them.
I want to play kick ball during recess and paint with watercolors in
art. I want to lie under a big Oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my
friends on a hot summers' day. I want to return to a time when life was
simple. When all you knew were colors, addition tables and simple nursery
rhymes, but that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't
know and you didn't care. When all you knew was to be happy because you
didn't know all the things that should make you worried and upset.
I want to think that the world is fair, that everyone in it is honest
and good.
I want to believe that anything is possible.
Somewhere in my youth I matured and I learned too much. I learned of nuclear
weapons, war, prejudice, starvation and abused children. I learned of lies,
unhappy marriages, suffering, illness, pain and death. I learned of a world
where men left their families to go and fight for our country, and returned
only to end up living on the streets... begging for their next meal.
I learned of a world where children knew how to kill... and did!!
What happened to the time when we thought that everyone would live forever,
because we didn't grasp the concept of death? When we thought the worst
thing in the world was if someone took the jump rope from you or picked you
last for kick ball?
I want to be oblivious to the complexity of life and be overly excited by
little things once again. I want to return to the days when reading was fun
and music was clean; when television was used to report the news or for family
entertainment and not to promote sex, violence and deceit. I remember being
naive and thinking that everyone was happy because I was.
I would walk on the beach and only think of the sand between my toes and the
prettiest seashell I could find. I would spend my afternoons climbing trees
and riding my bike. I didn't worry about time, bills or where I was going to
find the money to fix my car. I used to wonder what I was going to do or be
when I grew up, not worry about what I'll do if this doesn't work out. I want
to live simple again. I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes,
mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month
than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness and loss of
loved ones.
I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice,
peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind and making angels in the snow.
I want to be 6 again.
--author unknown
To Whomever Wrote or Read the Original Resignation:
I hereby reject your resignation. While you may, as I hope to, refrain from
joining the ranks of the "grown-ups", escaping the responsibilites of an adult
cannot be allowed. You see people who need help? Help them. You see
a world that has problems? Do all you can to fix them. The magic of being
an adult is the ability to actually do something about the difficulties you have
come to recognize around you. The answer is not to return to the oblivion
of childhood; the answer is to use everything you have learned, both the
happy things and the unpleasant ones, to make a difference. The world needs
you to be an adult and commit to make a difference.
You do not have to be a "grown-up" and leave behind the enjoyments of
childhood. I go to McDonald's and get Happy Meals and am just as content
as if I had gone to four star restaurant. I play in puddles. I believe that
the world is overall a good place and the majority of people in it are honest
and good and deserving of my love. Though I see and have learned from
experience that this is not always the case, how much happier I am to hope
and work to make it so no matter how often I am told and even sometimes
think that it cannot be.
With all my heart I believe anything is possible.
I AM overly excited by little things, reading IS fun, the music I choose to
hear IS clean, and I avoid anything on television that is not the news or
family entertainment. If I was especially upset by the television programming,
I would use my power as an adult to try to change it and make a difference.
Perhaps I am naieve in thinking that because I am happy, I have the
responsibility to do all I can to make everyone else happy.
There is a place for forgetting everything and taking a break on a sandy beach
or up a tree or on a bike, for leaving behind bills and work and bad news and
illness. And when I am rested and ready to return to the fight, what can I do
to help someone else have a desperately needed moment of peace?
I DO believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace,
dreams, imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow. These things
are all realities in my life.
Much of this is simply attitude, and I choose my attitude, as do you. I choose
to retain much of the joy and excitement of childhood. I choose to have a
positive attitude. I choose to be happy. When life is hard, I choose to not
look
back and wish for the past or to focus on myself and what I want, but I choose
to look around and see who needs a hand and where I can make a difference.
I thank you for your letter because I have many times wished to return to
childhood, and your letter has helped me see that that is not really what I want.
I want to make a difference.
Thanks for listening. I have learned something new tonight and just had
to share. I leave you with a poem by Edward Everet Hale:
I am only one
But still I am one
I cannot do everything
But still I can do something
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do that something I can do
And what I can do
I ought to do
With God's help I will do.
Erin Robinson