25 Tips For an Enjoyable Life

Sep 3, 2007
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Europe
My Tennis coach this year read these to us every once in a while (one at a time), and then gave us the sheet at the end of the season. I'm pretty darn sure he wrote them, as he's an older guy, and the writing sounds a lot like him, but I'm not positive. Anyway, I think they're good rules to live by, so I thought I would post them here so everybody can see.

25 Tips for an Enjoyable Life

For Individual Betterment:

Tell the Truth: Integrity is the most important attribute a person can have. Without truthfulness in everything, there can be no trust with others and without trust there can be no meaningful relationships.

The Glass is Half Full: For some the glass is always half empty and these people are not very happy or productive. Be positive and look for the bright side of every circumstance.

Set Goals/Write Them Down: People that write down goals for their life accomplish significantly ore than people without goals and people with goals who don’t write them down. Dream; set big goals for life; and write them down at least once a year. Then develop plans to accomplish these goals and the results will be amazing.

Protect Your Reputation: This doesn’t mean doing whatever will make a person likeable. It means always doing and saying what is right in every situation. A person’s reputation is his most important asses; so protect it.

Read a Lot/ Get as Much Education as Possible: Commit to be a life long learner. Learning and reading about all types of subjects can be fun and will broaden a person’s perspective and will help him appreciate and participate in life to the fullest, as well as increasing a person’s abilities and earning power.

Use Good Taste and Common Decency: Society’s standards are very low with common usage of vulgarity, crude and rude language, tasteless humor, and disrespectful talk about others, particularly our leaders. Raise the bar individually by displaying good taste and decency in everything one does and says. If it is hurtful it is probably not tasteful.

Don’t Say, Do, Write, or E-Mail Anything Everyone Can’t Hear, See, or Read: If a person is uncomfortable with everyone reading, seeing or hearing what he writes, does or says- don’t do it- because it is likely that everyone can see, hear or read whatever a person does. Even if others don’t, if a person expects this to happen, he will be on his guard and will never be embarrassed or potentially ruined by a flippant or casual comment, a stupid act, or a thoughtless written document or correspondence.

Make a Difference in the World: Everyone should ask themselves, “What can I do to make a difference in the world?” There are many ways, even daily, to make a positive difference in the life of someone else. It could be something sensational like finding the cure for cancer, but it might be something more common, but none the less important, like teaching or helping a child. If a person can combine his talents and interests in making a difference, the effect can be magnified.

Little Things a Person Does Can Make a Big Difference: Like the “Butterfly Effect” of a butterfly flapping his wings in one part of the world that can contribute in starting a hurricane in another part, - the little things a person does can make a big difference. Small acts of kindness to help others can potentially change the life of someone which may be more significant than seemingly highly publicized acts of the rich and famous. Helping and influencing in a positive way another person could have a multiplier effect as the person helped, helps someone else.

You’ve Got to Believe: “the only thing that really matters is faith expressing itself as love”. –Galatians 5:6 Belief in a higher power changes a person’s whole perspective on life for many reasons. One of which is because a believer recognizes that God knows everything we do. Studies show that people with strong faith have happier and more content lives.

What Brings True Happiness? (The Concept comes from a Reader’s Digest I read many years ago.) Paradoxically, true happiness does not come from non-stop fun but from meaningful endeavors in life that take time, discipline, hard work, and sometimes even pain. Happiness comes from accomplishing something meaningful, whatever it might be, like building lasting relationships, getting a degree, building a career, raising kids, ect. A person knows when he has really stretched his talents and abilities to the limit for something he really wants accomplish when it makes him feel good about the result.

One Step at a Time: Really meaningful goals for a person’s life can seem overwhelming because they can seem insurmountably difficult, like climbing a giant mountain. In actual practice, if a person takes the giant task or mountain one step a time- a mountain can be climbed. Break down meaningful goals into small segments that can be done sequentially, keep at it and over time great things can be accomplished.

Compound Interests- The Eighth Wonder of the World:
Saving regularly early in life and investing wisely can turn small amounts of money in huge dollars that can make a person wealthy. The discipline and regularity of saving and investing early is more important than the amount saved.

Practice Makes Perfect:
When a person practices something repeatedly; a speech, sport, musical instrument, or vocation, they can get very good at it. The body and mind, with practice, can work together to make seemingly difficult skill seem natural and easy. If a person appreciates this, particularly at a young age, he could excel at most anything.

Play to Win: The emphasis in what a person does in life should not be on winning at all costs, but rather play to win; which means maximum preparation and effort for whatever a person does. Focusing on the winning or the end result sometimes actually makes failure more likely. A person will win sometimes and lose sometimes, but if he always plays to win he will never be disappointed or second guess himself with the what-ifs and “If I had only done this or that.”

Never Surrender: (From a song by that name.) Never give up. Perseverance and tenaciousness many times separate success and failure.

Exercise a Lot: Without health, a person doesn’t have much. To stay young and healthy, don’t smoke, don’t drink excessively, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and exercise. Vigorous exercise has several positive benefits, including: producing endorphins that make a person feel happier, helps one from becoming overweight, as well as helping a person sleep soundly and feel vibrant and energetic.

Make Every Day a Best Day: (From the movie “City Slickers”.) Every day be enthusiastic, smile, be happy, and try to make it the best day possible. Approaching each day like this, although not easy, makes the accumulation of lots of good days into a happy life. Don’t let the negativity of others steal the joy from life.
 
Sep 3, 2007
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0
Europe
Dealing With Others:

Give and It Will Come Back to You: (Luke 6:38) Sharing, giving, and helping others will make a person’s life much fuller and more satisfying. In the long run, giving benefits the giver as much, or more as, it benefits the recipient.

Be Quick to Say “I’m Sorry”: Most people will never admit their wrong. A sincere apology diffuses problems between people quickly. Even when a person cannot apologize for doing the right thing, he can apologize for how it made the other person feel or how it affected him. It takes maturity and humility to be willing to say “I’m sorry.”

Spend Lots of Time With Family/ Make Memories: I have never heard anyone say later in life that he spent too much time with his family. This is the best investment a person can make; loving, molding, and developing a person’s children and family. Part of this includes taking vacations that make lasting memories.

Don’t Hate- Instead, Forgive: Hate hurts the person who feels it, not the person hated. Hate is the opposite of love and hate makes it difficult, if not impossible, to love. Forgive others, even when it is hard and life will be easier and more enjoyable with more contentment and much less stress.

Be Slow to Judge- There are Two or More Sides to Most Everything: Most times when a person hears what someone else supposedly did or said, it is easy to jump to conclusions, to judge them, and then say or do something that further hurts that person. Recognize that many times there is another side to the story or motivation behind another person’s actions. Once a person really knows this other side, many times his opinion of the individual’s actions can be quite different.

Don’t Talk Negatively About Others: People are important. When there is a situation in which a person could speak negatively about someone, slow down and think, “Am I judging and being subjective?” If something has to be said, stay with what is factual. There is a difference between, “Bob was late for work,” (a fact), and, “Bob is a jerk.” (A negative and subjective judgment).

Commit to a Person to Love- Forever:
Life is much more enjoyable for most people if a person can find the one special person to love and share their lives together. When a person finds the right partner, commit to make it work for life. Decide and commit that splitting up is not an option, and work together; two people can make it work.


I thought this one would especially apply here and on forums all over:


Don’t Say, Do, Write, or E-Mail Anything Everyone Can’t Hear, See, or Read: If a person is uncomfortable with everyone reading, seeing or hearing what he writes, does or says- don’t do it- because it is likely that everyone can see, hear or read whatever a person does. Even if others don’t, if a person expects this to happen, he will be on his guard and will never be embarrassed or potentially ruined by a flippant or casual comment, a stupid act, or a thoughtless written document or correspondence.

I hope you enjoyed, and congrats if you read them all!
 
Sep 1, 2007
146
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Amsterdam
A book called "Think and grow rich" by Napoleon Hills talked about alot of the concepts about goals, determination, ways to achiving some of the goals step by step. a very good read.
 
Apr 8, 2008
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@ sharog: i've read that book before! amazing stuff =)

thanks for sharing that, i will definitely copy and print it out, and place it somewhere where i can look at it everyday
 
Sep 3, 2007
2,562
0
Europe
No problem. My coach also wrote the book, "Make a Million Dollars With Only 2,000". I've never read it, but supposedly it's very good. Might want to check it out.
 
Sep 3, 2007
2,562
0
Europe
No problem. But don't compliment me for it being well written; all credit goes to my tennis coach! I just typed it up and hit "Submit". By the way, if any of you want to buy his book for some reason, his name is Ed Douglas, and the book is called, "How to Make a Million Dollars With Only 2,000".
 
No problem. But don't compliment me for it being well written; all credit goes to my tennis coach! I just typed it up and hit "Submit". By the way, if any of you want to buy his book for some reason, his name is Ed Douglas, and the book is called, "How to Make a Million Dollars With Only 2,000".

I'm guessing is has to do with investing, perhaps stock?
 
Sep 1, 2007
648
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30
Canada
From what I've read on his site, he does restaurant magic. You might be over-charging a bit there Dylan. :p How many nights a week do you work?

Thanks for posting this. There's a great book called "Being the Best" by Denis Waitley too.
 
Sep 3, 2007
2,562
0
Europe
I might have to check that book out. To be honest, Avancer, I don't know what the book is about specifically, although I'm guessing Compound Interests; he talks about them all the time.
 

timsilva

Elite Member
Nov 18, 2007
404
43
California
timsilva.com
Thanks for sharing, I liked reading through those. I have had a few teachers with those types of things written on walls before, and they are always refreshing.

I do disagree with some of them, particularly the religious ones about belief, God, and biblical quotes. While some of it is interesting and based on simple ideas that make plenty of sense, I think we can be just as happy and productive without believing in a higher power. I have heard statistics that people who have strong faith in a particular God do live happier lives, but I think it isn't for the reason that people think. It has to do with group conformity and following the mass majority of a community. If 90% of the world were athiests, then everyone in that group would be happy and the statistic would flip.

Other than that stuff this is pure gold.

peace
 
Sep 3, 2007
2,562
0
Europe
Thanks for sharing, I liked reading through those. I have had a few teachers with those types of things written on walls before, and they are always refreshing.

I do disagree with some of them, particularly the religious ones about belief, God, and biblical quotes. While some of it is interesting and based on simple ideas that make plenty of sense, I think we can be just as happy and productive without believing in a higher power. I have heard statistics that people who have strong faith in a particular God do live happier lives, but I think it isn't for the reason that people think. It has to do with group conformity and following the mass majority of a community. If 90% of the world were athiests, then everyone in that group would be happy and the statistic would flip.

Other than that stuff this is pure gold.

peace

I thought the same thing when I read it. I am happy, and believe in God, but one of my best friends is athiest and is also very happy. That's just about the only one I disagree with. Ed's a really religious guy, so that's why the Bible quotes and everything were in there.
 
Mar 6, 2008
16
0
No problem. My coach also wrote the book, "Make a Million Dollars With Only 2,000". I've never read it, but supposedly it's very good. Might want to check it out.

Someone should write the book "Make 2,000 dollars with only one dollar", otherwise i got nowhere to start! :p
 
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