1. Never miss an opportunity to be kind

This one's a game changer baby. The kindness you give out comes back to you multiplied tenfold. But leaving karmic quid pro quo aside, did you know that expressing kindness has been shown to boost peoples' wellbeing? So, like I said, never miss an opportunity to be kind!

2. Gratitude is good for you!

Gratitude not only feels good, it is good for your health! I wrote about this HERE and I created a FREE PRINTABLE Gratitude List! It's in the members-only resources library Go check it out!

3. Progress, NOT perfection!

I let the quest for perfection stop me from achieving so many goals. Not any more baby! Get in there, give it your best (imperfect) shot, have fun, learn and grow. Thats the name of the game dahlinks!

4. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

This has been my mantra for many years. Especially during some tough years as a public interest lawyer when the scale of need was huge and overwhelming and I doubted my ability to make a difference.

Here’s the thing: EVERYTHING you do makes a difference. So get out there!

5. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

This is my mantra for 2017. When I was a crazy busy human rights lawyer I became extremely adept - out of sheer desperate necessity - at diligently enforcing boundaries and being meticulous about how I allocated my limited time. But since taking a break from legal practice I relaxed my boundaries… Until I got to the point that I realised that way too much of my time and energy was being pulled towards the wrong things. I have some big goals to achieve - and I want to have lots of time for the people who really matter to me - so the rest has to wait. It’s all about keeping the main thing the main thing baby!

6. Time is valuable currency. Spend it wisely!

When I think of my time as a form of currency, it makes me so much more careful about how I spend it! This one simple mantra motivated me to put more effort into how I schedule my week, and even how I schedule my leisure time. We don't know how many days we have left on this planet. And whilst I don't believe in being unnecessarily busy, I do believe in making the most of our days. In fact, I shared an amazing video on this very topic HERE. You have to watch it!!! No really. Go watch it now. I'll be here when you get back, m'kay?

7. Not my circus. Not my monkeys.

Another life-changer. Apparently it's an old Polish proverb. Wherever it came from, I'm claiming it for myself! This is the mantra I invoke when some mid-tier acquaintance who has never actually taken a genuine interest in my life wants to drag me into their dramas. Which more often than not involve some interpersonal trespass or another... Which needs to be endlessly rehashed...
Nope!
We all have so many competing demands on our time, and we need to have the physical and emotional bandwidth to be there for the people who really matter in our lives - our loved ones and close friends. I don't have the energy to serve as unpaid impromptu psychologist to needy-narcissist who can spot a kind heart at a thousand paces.
And neither do you chicken.
So when the drama queens start with the victim stories, consider this your permission slip to very kindly, discretely but decisively step away from the psychodrama. You can read more about this here and here.
#yourewelcome

8. Happiness is an inside job

Absolute truth!!! I used to allow other people and external circumstances dictate my mood. But as I started to develop an interest in Positive Psychology I learned that we have a lot more control o ear our happiness than we realise. Check out this interesting video by Professor Dan Gilbert on the science of happiness: