“The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters.” —Audrey Hepburn
Kids. I recently read a staggering statistic: kids smile an average 400 times a day while adults smile, well, just a mere 20 times a day! Could this happy, blissful and worry-free attitude result from kids’ general outlook to life? Their priority No. 1 seems to be to have fun playing, to make new friends, and to dream about growing up. And they spend their days doing what makes them happy.
A happy disposition, spiced with humor and laughter, is said to strengthen the immune system, boost energy, diminish pain and offer protection from the damaging effects of stress. And best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use.
What happens that we become so jaded as we grow up? Perhaps a more fundamental question is, what can we do to bring balance back and spice up our lives?
Zig Ziglar, in his book, Staying Up, Up, Up in a down, down world, cites an anonymous author’s list of ten things we could do:
- Take the time to work because it is the price of success.
- Take the time to think because it is the source of power and the key to making good choices.
- Take the time to play because it is the secret of youth, and all work does make a person dull.
- Take the time to read because it is the foundation of knowledge.
- Take the time to worship because it is the highway of reverence and washes the dust of the earth from our eyes.
- Take the time to help and enjoy friends because our friends ultimately are going to be a major source of comfort and happiness.
- Take the time to love because it is the sacrament of life that might be most important – and yet the most missed – element of our lives.
- Take the time to dream because it is the foundation upon which hope is built.
- Take the time to laugh. It has been called the music of the soul.
- Take the time to plan. It’s the secret of being able to have time for the first nine things.
I hope taking the time to do these ten things will lead you to a higher place where you live your life in a more relaxed, positive, creative, joyful, and balanced way.
Copyright ©2014 David Waweru. This post is inspired by a portion in Zig Ziglar’s book Staying Up, Up, Up in a down, down world.
