Ray’s Daily
May 11, 2020
The most important thing is to enjoy your life — to be happy. It’s all that matters.
Audrey Hepburn
Last week I spent a lot of time reminiscing. The more I thought about my past life I again realized that the happiest moments were those I shared with others. We are sometimes told that the journey is where good things happen and they are more valuable then reaching the goal.
I think in my case that is true. We now face a new era and must learn to live in a changed world. I will do that by concentrating on my relationships with others. I will not be able to travel or spend time on new adventures. But what I can do is collect new highlights by spending time with others. It will be back to the basics, but that is a good place to be.
Here is an article that offers tips on finding your happiness.
Four Steps To Find True Happiness In Your Life
BY Paula Black
- Define happiness on your terms.
Your happiness is not the same as anyone else’s happiness. What makes me happy might not make you happy. And vice versa! So the first step in finding happiness in your life is simply defining what happiness looks like for you.
Let’s dream for a moment. Imagine that money is not an obstacle and that fear can’t hold you back. What would your life look like?
Would you travel? Where would you go? What would your family time look like? What type of work would you do? Who would you spend your time with?
Make a list of what your dream life would look like. That is a powerful clue as to what happiness looks like for you.
- Focus on what’s going right.
It’s very easy for us to get caught up in the weeds of life: the frustrations, annoyances and challenges. But the truth is, if you really stop and think about it, you’ll probably realize that there’s a whole lot to love about your life.
Take some time right now to focus on those things. What are five things you like about your professional life? What are five things you like about your life outside of work?
Pretty great, right?
We have so much to be grateful for. And it’s so important to focus on gratitude because that helps us to find happiness in our lives today, instead of getting tripped up by the little weeds that pop up and drag us down.
- Make you a priority.
As I tell my clients, if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of others, period. As flight attendants across the world instruct us, in case of emergency, put on your oxygen mask first, and then help those around you.
You have to take care of yourself. Listen to your body. Stop working and take a break when you need it. Give yourself enough time to sleep (I know, easier said than done, but sleep is so important). Get serious about nutrition. Make time for the people, places and things that energize and inspire you.
- Redefine failure.
Failure is a terrifying word for most of us. But it shouldn’t be. The fear of failure is one of the biggest things that holds us back from pursuing true happiness in our lives. Starting today, I want you to look at this through a different lens. Failure doesn’t exist! It’s just life moving you in a different direction.
Find Your Happiness I want you to find your happiness. It starts by defining what happiness looks like for you. Make a conscious effort to focus on what’s going right in your life. Take care of yourself; put your own oxygen mask on first. And finally, redefine failure so that fear can’t hold you back.
~~~
Roll with the punches and enjoy every minute of it.
Meghan Markle
~~~
She said: My husband, Michael, and I were at a restaurant with his boss, a rather stern older man. When Michael began a tale, which I was sure he had told before, I gave him a kick under the table. There was no response, so I gave him another poke. Still the story went on.
Suddenly he stopped, grinned and said, “Oh, but I’ve told you this one before, haven’t I?”
We all chuckled and changed the subject. Later, on the dance floor, I asked my husband why it had taken him so long to get my message.
“What do you mean?” he replied. “I cut the story off as soon as you kicked me.”
“But I kicked you twice and it still took you awhile to stop!”
Suddenly we realized what had happened. Sheepishly we returned to our table. The boss smiled and said, “Don’t worry. After the second one I figured it wasn’t for me, so I passed it along!”
~~~
The young man who has not wept is a savage, and the old man who will not laugh is a fool.
George Santayana
~~~
I was setting up a large, cast aluminum, decorative sundial in my yard that I had purchased from a garden catalog.
A neighbor, an old Florida fellow, was leaning on the fence watching my progress and asked, “What the heck’s that for?”
I explained, “It’s a sundial. See, the sun will hit that small triangular spike and cast a shadow on the face of the sundial. Then, as the sun moves across the sky, the shadow also moves across the calibrated dial, enabling a person to determine the correct time.”
My neighbor shook his head and muttered, “Huh, what will they think of next?!”
~~~
What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.
Yiddish proverb
~~~
Walpole had lived in his loft for six months, and by now it was filled with the paintings he had created. He worked day and night, stopping only occasionally for something to eat. He thought little about food and less about sleep. But what he thought about least of all was his rent. As a result, his landlord now stood before him, demanding the three months’ rent Walpole owed on the loft.
“Give me a couple of weeks,” Walpole pleaded. “I know I’m on the verge of making some sales.”
“Absolutely not,” the landlord said. “You gave me that story last month. You won’t get another day’s credit from me.”
“Look,” Walpole said, “think of it as an investment. Someday this loft will be famous, and you’ll be able to charge a fortune for it. In a few years, people will come into this disgusting loft and whisper, ‘Walpole used to paint here.'”
“Pay your rent now,” the landlord said, “or they’ll be able to say it tomorrow morning.”
~~~
For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press 3.
Alice Kahn
~~~
A woman rushed into the supermarket to pick up a few items. She headed for the express line where the clerk was talking on the phone with his back turned to her.
“Excuse me,” she said. “I’m in a hurry. Could you check me out, please?”
The clerk turned, stared at her for a second, looked her up and down, smiled and said, “Not bad.”
~~~
Work: It isn’t just for sleeping anymore.
~~~
My dad and I were talking the other night about love and marriage. He told me he knew as early as their wedding what marriage to my mom would be like.
It seems the minister asked my mom, “Do you take this man to be your husband?”
And she said, “I do.”
Then the minister asked my dad, “Do you take this woman to be your wife?” And my mom said, “He does.”
~~~
Life leaps like a geyser for those willing to drill through the rock of inertia.
~~~
One Sunday morning when my son was about 5, we were attending a church in our community. It was common for the preacher to invite the children to the front of the church and have a small lesson before beginning the sermon. He would bring in an item they could find around the house and relate it to a teaching from the Bible. This particular morning, the visual aid for his lesson was a smoke detector. He asked the children if anyone knew what it meant when an alarm sounded from the smoke detector. My child immediately raised his hand and said, “It means Daddy’s cooking dinner.”
~~~
“Happiness consists more in conveniences of pleasure that occur everyday than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom.”
– Benjamin Franklin
~~~
Ray Mitchell
Indianapolis, Indiana
Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.
Ray’s Daily has been sent for more than fifteen years to people who want to start their day on an upbeat. If you have system overload because of our daily clutter, let me know and I will send you the information via mental telepathy. If you have not been getting our daily you can request to be added by e-mailing me at raykiwsp@gmail.com. Back issues are posted at http://rays-daily,com/ currently there are more than 2000 readers from around the world.
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