Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit, and you are keeping all of them in the air. You will soon understand that Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls–Family, Health, Friends and Spirit–are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.

How?

1. Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

2. Don’t set your goals by what others deem important. Only you know what is best for you.

3. Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

4. Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.

5. Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

6. Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is the fragile thread that binds us each together.

7. Don’t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

8. Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

9. Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going.

10. Don’t forget that a person’ s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.

11. Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.

12. Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.

Letting go can feel so unnatural. We work hard for a promotion, a relationship, a new car, a vacation. Then the universe has the gall to come along and mess up our plans. How dare it! And so, rather than opening ourselves to the experiences the await us, we hold on to the plans that we made for ourselves. Or we hold on to bitterness about our plans gone awry. Sometimes losing our dreams and plans for our future can hurt as much as losing a tangible thing. Sometimes accepting and releasing our broken dreams is part of accepting a loss. Let go of your expectations. The universe will do what it will. Sometimes your dreams will come true. Sometimes they won’t. Sometimes when you let go of a broken dream, another one gently takes its place. Be aware of what is, not what you would like to be, taking place.

Melody Beattie

Your life is made up of many different facets. Don’t focus on one aspect of your life so much that you can’t experience pleasure if that one area is unsettled. It can become all you think about, and it can deaden your enjoyment of everything else–things you would otherwise love.

David Niven

Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves.

Helen Keller

I thank you for dropping by today, and I would like to wish you all of the best that this world has to offer you today, as well as the awareness to recognize it when it’s with you (and it’s always with you, of course!) Yes Life Is Simply Good recognize it.