Top 20 Things To Live By

Just recently I came across Oprah’s Top 20 Things she knows for sure from October 2008. I had stuck the clipping in a journal with clothes I wanted to use to create a new image.

It’s interesting how things come back to you at the right moment in life. It’s like you’re tucking that little piece away until you need it. Well, I needed it in that very moment and included it in the Book Project because it made me reflect on the things that I do know for sure about life and how it will bring happiness when you know these basic principles.

Maybe you’ll find these to be just as inspirational as I did. My comments are in brackets.

1. What you put out comes back all the time, no matter what. [This is called karma. If you put good out into the universe, it comes right back to you. The same can be said for evil.]

2. You define your own life. Don’t let other people write your script.

3. Whatever someone did to you in the past has no power over the present. Only you give it power.

4. When people show you who they are, believe them the first time. (A lesson from Maya Angelou.)

5. Worrying is wasted time. Use the same energy for doing something about whatever worries you.

6. What you believe has more power than what you dream or wish or hope for. You become what you believe.

7. If the only prayer you ever say is thank you, that will be enough. (From the German theologian and humanist Meister Eckhart.)

8. The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give.

9. Failure is a signpost to turn you in another direction.

10. If you make a choice that goes against what everyone else thinks, the world will not fall apart.

11. Trust your instincts. Intuition doesn’t lie.

12. Love yourself and then learn to extend that love to others in every encounter.

13. Let passion drive your profession.

14. Find a way to get paid for doing what you love. Then every paycheck will be a bonus.

15. Love doesn’t hurt. It feels really good.

16. Every day brings a chance to start over.

17. Being a mother is the hardest job on earth. Women everywhere must declare it so.

18. Doubt means don’t. Don’t move. Don’t answer. Don’t rush forward.

19. When you don’t know what to do, get still. The answer will come.

20. “Trouble don’t last always.” (A line from a Negro spiritual, which calls to mind another favorite: This, too, shall pass.)