Help Me Help You!
Hi guys! I could use some help and I could use it from you!
You see, I write this blog to help teens live happy lives. I try to provide tips, tricks, advice & thoughts (I don’t confess to have all the answers) to some big questions like, “Who am I, Why am I Here, and What is Life all About Anyway?”. What’s most important to me though is providing content that’s most important to you. How can I help? What can I write about that will help you get through these teen years with grace, style and happiness? What questions can I answer? I’m not a therapist by any means (but I am a life coach) and I’m here to provide some guidance and honest answers just for you!
If you’d rather not post here you can DM me on twitter (@handbook4teens).
Your teen years really can be your best years and with a little help and guidance from the Secret Handbook, they can be even better.
Hugs to you!
Want 2 Feel Happy? Stop & Help a Turtle (or something like that)
Sometimes it’s the little things in life that can make you feel happy and it’s important to let that happiness bubble up in you and savor it for awhile. My little moment of happiness today was when I saw a turtle struggling to get up a curb after crossing the street. I pulled over to the side of the road (the opposite side of the road that I was supposed to be driving on actually) and a postal truck came rumbling around the corner and immediately beeped and the driver threw up his hands as I got out of the car. I held up my finger in a “Please wait one minute!” gesture and picked up the little turtle, put him on the grass and he toddled off on his merry way. The postal driver was now laughing and waving after he realized what I was doing and we both drove away smiling.
If it felt that good to help a turtle imagine how good it would feel to help one of your fellow human beings. What can you do to help someone today? It doesn’t have to be a big thing. Maybe you can clean up your room or do the dishes or take a minute to chat with your parents or a family member (because believe it or not they actually do like to talk to you!) Happiness truly comes from helping others and when you can make it a habit, you will see how much happier you can be in life.
Don’t believe me? Go on, dare yourself to be happy and help someone out today (or if you can, at least help a turtle). 🙂
U R What U Think So Why Not Think Yourself into a Ferrari?
The mind is everything. What you think you become. – Buddha
Every moment of every day you are thinking your way into your own reality. If you think things are going to turn out badly they probably will. If you think the world is your playground and that it will rise up to meet you in greatness, it probably will. So why are you wasting your time and energy thinking negative thoughts?
You are what you think. Or, as Buddha said it, what you think you become. I’m not suggesting that you can think your way into owning a Ferrari. No, you actually have to do the work to make the money to buy your dream car but if that really is your goal and you don’t let negative thoughts get in the way like “Oh, you’ll never own a nice car because you’ll never be successful.” then yeah, you probably will trade in that old clunker for a sporty Italian sports car.
A car is a simple and silly example of the power of your thoughts but I offer it just to help you understand that everything – literally everything and anything – is possible if you stay positive and keep your mind focused on it. Let me be clear though. This isn’t some magic power that you can just cross your fingers and wish your way into your reality but, with a positive outlook and hard work (did I mention the hard work – it’s sorta critical in all of this), you can live the life of your dreams AND live happy.
Isn’t it time to stop thinking so negatively? What thoughts are you caught up in? What dreams do you want to achieve? How have you become your own worst enemy? How can I help you live happy?
Do us a favor? Teach Adults How 2 have Fun!
Even though you’re growing up, you should never stop having fun. – Nina Dobrev
I won’t keep you here long but can you do me a favor? Actually, it’s not just me, it’s a favor for most adults. Can you remind us or maybe even re-teach us how to have fun? It’s not like we didn’t have fun once. We were just like you. We laughed with our friends. We got silly. We played the radio too loud with the windows down and just rejoiced in being alive. We chased the ice cream truck. We stomped in rain puddles and ran through sprinklers on hot days. We caught snowflakes on our tongues. We tried new things. We really were fun once. No really!
You can’t see that now though can you? You see us as boring adults who take life too seriously and who don’t know how to have fun. You might be right. It’s not that we want to be that way but we have a lot on our minds and plates. We have work to do and bills to pay and your futures to worry about. We’re tired of getting up early every day and dragging ourselves, in some cases, to jobs we don’t really like. All this kind of adds up. It makes us grumpy. And then we get grumpy with you. Sometimes I think we get grumpy with you just because you still know how to have fun and it reminds us that we don’t and we get mad. I know it doesn’t make sense but it’s the truth.
So can you help? Can you put the windows down and play us the new song that you really like? The one with the really good beat? When we tell you to turn it down can you gently remind us that we used to do this too? Be kind to us when you do it. If you snap and tell us angrily that we don’t know how to have fun anymore this will just make us sadder and madder. So be gentle with us. You may have to push and prod us a bit but our fun selves are still in there. We could just use a little push in that direction. Please try. You might be surprised to see who we were and the fun people we can still be!
Want 2 Meet the Real U?
There is a very very wise man (he’s actually a Franciscan monk but don’t let religion stop you from hearing his message) who does a pretty amazing job of explaining who we are and who we are not and how we get to meet who we really are deep inside.
His name is Father Richard Rohr and if you don’t want to take my word for how cool he is, he was also recently on Oprah which is a pretty good endorsement of his message (at least if you think Oprah has her finger on the pulse of what’s important in the universe which I think she pretty much does but I digress.)
Anyway, I’m writing about Fr. Rohr today because even though you’re a teen and most people don’t discover him until they’re older, I think he’s someone you should know about now. I don’t always immediately understand a lot of what he talks about (because it’s tough stuff that makes you think which is always a good thing) but one of his most important messages (IMHO) is about the False or Shadow Self and the True Self. It’s about who we really are deep down inside. I don’t know about you, but I think this is pretty exciting! (Terrifying, but exciting.)
Basically, the Shadow Self is this image of ourselves that we build up over the years (and this is ok, it’s a necessary part of the process) but it’s not who we really are. Our shadow self (or False Self) is all of our stuff, our accomplishments, the face we present to the world. It’s the house we build up around ourselves but it’s not the core of who we are inside. It’s not our soul or spirit and to meet your soul or spirit or True Self, you have to struggle. I’m sorry. It’s true. But understanding this now as a teen is going to save you a whole lot of angst in the future because hopefully you will recognize that dealing with your struggles is actually a gift. It’s a way of becoming the real You!
Fr. Richard sums it up nicely in one of his recent daily meditations:
“Human consciousness does not emerge at any depth except through struggling with your shadow. I wish someone had told me that when I was young. It is in facing your conflicts, criticisms, and contradictions that you grow up. You actually need to have some problems, enemies, and faults! You will remain largely unconscious as a human being until issues come into your life that you cannot fix or control and something challenges you at your present level of development, forcing you to expand and deepen. It is in the struggle with our shadow self, with failure, or with wounding, that we break into higher levels of consciousness. I doubt whether there is any other way.”
So the next time something happens that challenges you or hurts you or pushes your buttons, don’t fight it. Don’t try to avoid it. Take a deep breath and realize that struggling is actually the way to meet the real you. I don’t know about you, but I think this is pretty exciting (and certainly makes it at least a tiny bit easier to deal with the tough stuff!)
Now you tell me. Have you gotten glimpses of your True Self after going through something tough? Would you do it again?
What Do U Want 2 B When U Grow Up? Why It’s OK Not 2 Know
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. – Einstein
“What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to study in college? What major are you going to choose? What schools are you thinking about? Any idea what you want to study?”
Sigh.
I know, I know. These are the annoying persistent questions that adults like to pepper you with all the time but I hope, in most cases, we’re asking because we’re genuinely curious and excited about your futures. At least that’s why I ask. I know you understand this deep down but you do get that the world really is yours for the taking right? You get that? You can be and do whatever it is you set your mind to do as long as you really want it and work on it. You know that right?
So here’s the thing. Don’t be stressed out about college or a major or knowing (or not knowing) what you want to do with you life. It’s ok if you don’t know. In fact, I tell people all the time that I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up and I am a grown up – or at least I pretend to be. Constantly reinventing yourself to be true to yourself is ok. In fact, I think it’s a great way to live. That said, you do need to follow your instincts and what your gut is telling you in order to live this way and that means paying attention.
You know how a bloodhound gets a scent and just sticks with it until it finds what it’s looking for? That’s how you should be with your dreams.
If you’re sitting in a class and a little thought flutters through your mind about a goal or a career – follow it. If you read an article about someone who inspires you, figure out why. If you look at a problem in life (big or small) and wonder if you could come up with a solution to fix it, keep thinking about it!
Whatever you do, please please please promise me that you’re not going to do something just because your parents want you to do it (or a teacher or friend or family member). Don’t pick a school just because everyone else is going there. Don’t choose a major just because it seems like a good enough option and you have to pick something. Don’t slog through life and commute to a boring business job that you hate just because you need to earn a paycheck. It’s true that you will eventually need to earn a paycheck but you have the option to make money doing what you love if you pursue it, plan for it and pay attention to it early on.
These are exciting times in your life and ones that once they’re gone, they’re gone. So live big. Dream big. Be present to every moment of every day and keep an eye out for those wishes, hopes, desires and dreams. The fleeting thought that you brush off as just a daydream, might just be who you are supposed to become. You won’t know unless you’re open to it.
A Tool 4 School: Be Open
A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it’s not open. – Frank Zappa
With a new school year starting your mind and body are going to be inundated with lots of new experiences, people, places, opportunities and challenges. It can all sort of be overwhelming as you get pushed and pulled in so many different directions.
Here’s one tool for dealing with all this newness: Be Open.
– When you meet someone new be open to who they are and don’t judge. Don’t make a decision about someone before getting to know them based on the way they look, dress or the way others have categorized them to you. Make up your own mind. You might make a new friend or, at the very least, there will at least be another friendly face to say hi to as you move through your day.
– When you encounter a new concept in class be open to learning it and don’t shut down because it doesn’t mesh with your previous ideas of what you think you know. The greater the diversity of ideas you entertain, the more your mind grows and the more you grow as a person.
– When you’re given a new opportunity to try something new like a class, a sport, an activity or even a new way of thinking, be open to at least trying it once. So often we miss out on opportunities because the little voice in our heads tells us ahead of time that we won’t like it, we won’t be good at it or that people will laugh at us if we try and fail. How will you know any of this is true if you don’t at least try? Who knows, you may actually be an incredible basketball player but if you never pick up a ball, you’ll never know.
Never assume. Try. Be open.
I leave you with this quote to sum it up:
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.” – Isaac Asimov
Learn 2 Love Yourself in 6 Easy Steps with this new fancy infographic!
It’s true. I’m really loving these infographics for summarizing all this important stuff. I hope you’re finding them useful too!
You can also view this here too!
The 3 Things U Need to Stop Doing Right Now to Start Living
“May you live all the days of your life.” – Jonathan Swift
Ask yourself these questions and answer honestly:
Are you really living all the days of your life?
Are you truly present?
Are you making the most of the day you’ve been given?
If you answered no to any of the above then you need to stop doing these 3 things to live every day to its fullest:
1. Stop living in the past.
The past is over. If you’re reliving the past today you’re not in the present. Step back and really think about this. Why are you letting the past take up the precious opportunity you’re being given today? You can’t change the past. It’s over. So why are you so obsessed with visiting it and trying to live there? Every moment you waste reliving the past is a moment you’re missing in the present and that’s a real shame.
2. Stop living the same story.
Many of us define ourselves by the “story” of who we think we are. Maybe you were the kid who almost failed all of his classes. Maybe you were the shy kid who had trouble making friends. Maybe you were the troublemaker who always seemed to be in hot water. You do realize that you don’t have to live that story right? You are the storyteller and the author of your life and you get to choose what story you’re going to tell. Sure people may expect you to live the same story line (especially if you kept choosing it day after day and year after year) but why not surprise them and yourself by writing the story you want to live.
3. Stop making excuses.
Every day we are given a new opportunity to start over. In fact, you could stop reading this blog right now (though I hope you’ll make it to the end) and make a change in your life. Even just a small one. So why haven’t you? Is it because you’re making excuses? I’m too tired. Too out of shape. Too weak. Too scared. Too untalented. What would happen if you stopped making excuses and actually started trying to live the life you want to lead? Why not make one small change today in order to live the life you want to live? Start small but start.
Stop doing just one of the three things above today (See how easy that is! I’m not even asking you to do all three!) and watch how the day starts to look different.
Live your life today. Live it to the fullest.
And when you’re done, be grateful and get ready to live again tomorrow.
The 1 Question U Need 2 Ask Yourself in School Over & Over Again 2 Live Your Dreams
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. – Albert Einstein
Can we talk about school and your education for a moment?
I actually think I need to vent a little because I’m tired of watching people try to fit their dreams into a particular educational path or job. I see this in young people but I also see it in the people I work with every day and frankly, it’s really depressing and I believe you can do better.
You have an opportunity to do things differently and that’s why I’m going to share a really important question with you. You need to ask yourself this question throughout your entire education and even after you’re done with school if you want to live the life of your dreams.
Ready? Here’s the question:
Who do I want to be and how do I want to live my life?
This is what you need to be asking yourself as you go to your classes, read your books and take your tests. This is what you need to ask yourself when you meet with school counselors, pick your classes and think about a college major. This is what you need to ask yourself when you’re done with school and you start looking for a job.
I see so many people graduate from high school or college and go on a job search site to look for something that sounds interesting. Marketing? Hmmm, that sound interesting. Sales? I could probably do that. Program analyst. I don’t even know what that is but why not.
I’m not saying there is anything at all wrong with these jobs but you should only do them if you have a passion for them. You’re going to spend a lot of time in school so why not do something you love when you’re done? Why not use the time you spend in all these classes to start crafting the life of your dreams?
Everyone needs a basic education in things like literature, writing, history, math, science and art. In fact, it’s amazing to be given an opportunity to just be a sponge and soak it all in while you’re growing up but then what? What are you going to do with all this education? Are you just going to take some job that comes along because it pays a salary or are you going to pursue the life of your dreams?
I’m here to tell you that you can be whatever you want to be in life but you have to keep asking yourself the question above AND be willing to put in the hard work to get there. Everything you learn in school and in life is information that will help you figure out who you want to be and how you want to live your life but you have to be open to it and you need to be thinking about it – all the time!
So as you sit in classes and do your homework and take your tests remember to keep your future in mind and keep asking yourself:
Who do I want to be and how do I want to live my life?
You are the architect of your life and your dreams so don’t let someone else hand you the blueprint.
Want to Reach Your Goals? Here’s the 2 Things U Need 2 Do 2 Succeed.
Successful people are simply those with successful habits.
– Brian Tracy
Setting goals is easy but what prevents us from achieving them?
I think in many cases our road blocks are merely habits that get in the way. For example, to use a common goal, it’s easy to decide that you want to eat healthy but then you don’t give up the habit of drinking soda throughout the day. Or maybe you’ve decided that you really want to learn photography or a new hobby but then every day when you come home from school, you plop down in front of the TV and waste away the time you could be using to work on your goal.
Achieving a goal or a dream is pretty much always going to require you to sacrifice something and that something if often just a habit that you need to break. This doesn’t have to be painful (though it might be tough) but it is necessary. You can have the best intentions in the world but unless you are willing to change and give up something that isn’t serving you well, you’re not likely to achieve the change you’re looking for.
Achieving your goals requires you to do these two things:
1. Give something up.
2. Discipline yourself to do something new.
Start by doing an inventory of how you’re spending your time and identify just one habit that’s holding you back.
Do you need to get up earlier to exercise? Do you need to spend less time watching TV to get your the grades you want? Do you need to drink more water instead of soda to start living healthier? Do you need to replace your after dinner snack with something a little healthier than sweets?
Try it for yourself. Look at your goals and try to find the one habit you can change that’s in your way. Now try doing something new instead but be disciplined about it! Don’t just do it once. Do it for a week or for 21 days. You pick the number – it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that you don’t fall back into the same habit and that requires work on your part.
Break one habit and you’ll be amazed at how making a small tweak can really set things into motion.
What habit will you start to break today?
Why being grateful is like taking a happy pill.
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. ~G.K. Chesterton
Doesn’t it seem like some days there is just nothing to be grateful for? You had a fight with your friend. Your parents don’t understand you. In fact, no one understands you. You had a bad hair day. You’re bored. Niall isn’t following you on Twitter.
It’s easy to find all the reasons why we shouldn’t be happy but taking the time to think about a few things you’re grateful for, no matter how small, is like taking a happy pill. It’s an instant mood booster but don’t take my word for it.
Let me explain how being grateful makes you happy.
1. Being grateful makes you recognize all the things you take for granted. I try to be thankful for having a job, a roof over my head, running water, food in my fridge and those kind of things. So so many people in the world don’t have those things and we often don’t recognize how lucky we are to have them. Being grateful for them instantly makes you realize that life could be worse and that you actually have it pretty good.
2. Being grateful for negatives can turn them into positives. Maybe you’re unhappy that you don’t have the newest smart phone and you really want it. Be grateful you have a phone at all. Maybe you’re upset that you’re fighting with a friend. Be thankful that you have a friend. Try flipping your viewpoint of a negative by being grateful for it. All of a sudden, you feel better and realize that perhaps things are not as bad as they seem.
3. Being grateful puts life into perspective. We get so wrapped up in our own lives that we often lose perspective about what matters in life and how good we probably have it. Think about the citizens in Gaza and Israel and how they spend every waking moment worried that a bomb could drop. Think about people in Africa who are dying from Ebola. Think about people who are homeless, hungry, thirsty. Now take a look at your own life. Are your problems that bad? Be grateful that your problems are likely small compared to the things others are going through. This is not to poo poo the challenges you are facing but let’s be honest, things could probably be worse.
So stop for a minute today and be thankful for three things.
– Be thankful for one everyday thing you take for granted.
– Be thankful for a challenge or negative in your life.
– Be thankful that your problems are small ones.
Be grateful. Be happy.
Ew! Is that a giant weed growing out of your ear? 3 Easy Steps 2 Cleaning Up the Garden of Your Mind
A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind. – James Allen
While the quote above might sound kind of old fashioned I actually like that about it because it just goes to show that this concept is not new.
I was thinking about forgiveness this morning and how, by not forgiving, we create this block in our head and hearts that keeps us from being happy. Non-forgiveness looking like a nasty weed is a pretty obvious jump from there so let’s go with it in the spirit of summer, flowers and fresh veggies.
Basically, your mind is a garden that is going to grow whatever you plant in it. It’s either going to grow lovely things like flowers and veggies or it’s going to grow nasty weeds. What you can be assured of is that it’s definitely going to grow something.
So, what are you growing in the garden of your mind? What does it look like in there and how can you grow useful things and get rid of the weeds?
Here are three simple steps to cleaning up the garden of your mind:
1. Become aware of what’s growing.
Most of us don’t think too much about our thoughts because we’re too busy thinking them (and let’s not forget about that little voice sowing seeds of doubt, guilt and insecurity all the time). The first step to cleaning out your garden brain is to step back and take a look at it. Look long and hard. Look closely. Do an inventory. What’s growing there? What are you planting? Do you fill your brain with nasty weedy thoughts or do you fill it with positive flowers? You are the farmer of your brain. Start paying attention to what you’re planting or what you planted.
2. Pluck out the weeds.
Now, if you’ve had any experience with gardening at all you know that you can tear up a weed and it’s probably just going to come back. So, you need to make sure you really remove this weed. How do you do that? Focus on it. Figure out where it’s coming from. Write it down on a piece of paper. Crumple it up. Flush it down the toilet. Burn it (safely of course). Thank it for it’s weediness and wish it well. You need to make sure that it’s really gone and then you need to be vigilant about making sure it doesn’t come back. If your thoughts start going back to that weed become aware that you’re doing it and stop yourself. Remember, you are the farmer and you control the garden.
3. Plant new things.
Now that you’ve gotten rid of the weeds it’s time to fill your garden with stuff you like. These are the positive thoughts, the dreams, the goals, the things that make you smile and the things you’re grateful for (now is a good time to practice gratitude and forgiveness.) You’ll need to keep an eye out for weeds and you’ll need to fertilize the stuff you planted so it’s going to take some work but again, you’re in control of what you plant and what you grow.
Don’t get me wrong, I get that this garden example may seem a little silly and hokey but people use it as an example for a reason. The visual of giant nasty poisonous weeds versus pretty flowers helps to bring awareness to what’s going on in your brain. It reminds you that you’re in control of what gets planted and what grows there.
Maybe it’s time to work on that green thumb?
Psssst…..I’ve Discovered the Meaning of Life. Try this experiment & see for yourself!
Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.
– Marianne Williamson
Ok stop reading.
Go back and re-read the quote above really carefully. Did you catch that last part? That to experience love in ourselves in others is the meaning of life? It’s true. I talked about this more detail when I presented 5th Secret but now I want you to try a little experiment to test it out for yourself.
It’s really simple.
Starting tomorrow, for 24 hours, approach every situation you’re in and every person you meet with love.
You don’t have to speak your love aloud or say a word, just mentally wrap them up in love. Picture a beam of pink light covering them from head to toe! It doesn’t matter what it looks like to you – just send out the love.
– Stuck in traffic? Send out love to everyone in the cars around you.
– Dealing with a nasty person at your job or in line at Starbucks? Stop thinking about how annoying they are and instead quietly and mentally wrap them up in love.
– Parents annoying you? Siblings being pests? Take a deep breath and blow some love at them.
– Not getting along with a friend? Chalk it up to them having a bad day and throw some loving thoughts their way.
Don’t go into this with any expectations – that’s not how this works. But, by the end of the day, you will find that you’ve actually had a pretty awesome day and I promise, whether you know it or not, the love you sent out was received.
Love. That’s the meaning of life.
Share this experiment with others and let me know how you do!
Forgive Yourself: Let it go. Fall down. Meet the real you.
It’s hard enough to forgive others when they’ve hurt you but it’s even harder to forgive yourself. Forgiving yourself means admitting you’re not perfect, that you’re not 100% innocent and that you have some things to learn. These are tough concepts to wrestle with even on a good day never mind when you’ve actually done something wrong. And let’s face it, sometimes you just think you’ve done something wrong because sometimes we haven’t even done anything wrong but it still feels that way because we’re so tough on ourselves.
Similar to forgiving someone else, forgiving yourself doesn’t make what you did right, acceptable or ok. Forgiving yourself just means owning it. It means letting it go and accepting that it doesn’t need to define who you are or who you want to be. It means you have to look in the mirror and be honest with yourself (which your ego really really hates to do.)
It means falling down.
Here’s the thing about falling down though. When you fall down, you actually meet the foundation of who you really are. The ground, the bedrock, the bottom – that’s where your feet should be planted and forgiving yourself actually helps you to get back to this place. It helps you to meet the real you.
So how do you forgive yourself? You cry. You feel bad. You sit with it. You accept that you can’t change it. You accept that it’s in the past.
You let it go.
You meet the real you.
Thank U All So Much! Over 4,000 Twitter Followers & Readers in 30 Countries!
This note is to simply thank all of you for your support and for reading my Tweets and blog posts. (See, I’m also practicing Secret #8!) I now have readers from literally all over the world (over 30 countries) and today reached 4,000 Twitter followers. I truly and sincerely hope what I am posting is helpful and I continue to seek your advice, thoughts, comments and feedback. This site was created for and continues to be all about YOU so please publish with me, send me your feedback, Tweet me your problems and I promise I will be there for you.
My goal is to help teens live happy by sharing all of the “secrets”, tips, tools and advice that you usually don’t encounter until you’re older (and usually after many painful experiences.) I’m sharing this info with you now so you can start to think about it and put it into use today and throughout your life.
I have Secrets #9 and #10 coming soon (and #10 literally is the one that’s going to change your life) and so much more to cover with you on this journey. I’m also thinking up some additional creative ideas for how to share this info with you in a more useful and practical way so keep reading along with me!
Stay tuned for even more stuff to help you live happy!
And again, THANK YOU!
The Top 3 Things U Can Learn from a FIFA World Cup Player
The Top 3 Things U Can Learn from a FIFA World Cup Player
If you’re alive and paying attention to the world around you at all, you know that the 2014 FIFA World Cup is currently going on. As we were watching the game yesterday I realized that even though these players are clearly some of the best in the world, there are still some basic things they practice that we can also do in our own lives. Feel free to add to the list but these are the top three things that jumped out at me:
1) They take care of their bodies.
These players clearly are amazing athletes with incredible bodies but they weren’t born that way. They worked and continue to work hard every day to make sure they’re are able to do their jobs on the field. While you might not need to be in the same kind of shape as one of these players, they are a great reminder of just what our bodies are capable of if we feed them and treat them right. Take care of your body and watch what you’ll be able to do!
Help Other Teens Live Happy! Publish on My Blog & Share Your Story!
Want 2 help other teens live happy? Want to write for this blog and see your stuff published?
Ok teens, up to this point I’ve shared 7 secrets to life and lots of other tips, thoughts and tools to help you live happy. Now I want to hear from you but, more importantly, I want the rest of the world to hear from you too! I’ve decided that since this blog is really all about you that I want to publish your thoughts and experiences here. Part of this is purely selfish in that I want to know what your lives are really like and how I can be more helpful. In order to do that, I need to hear from you directly. The other bigger part of wanting to publish you is because I want all of you to learn and grown from each other. Sometimes it seems like we’re really alone in the world but in reality, there are others out there who are dealing and struggling with the exact same things. That’s why I want to use this space to connect all of you to each other and I have readership from all over the world so you will literally be making an international impact!
Teens + Cancer: Why “Knowing Yourself” Means Taking Care of Your Body as Well as Your Mind
Cancer.
Scary word right? Might make you think about a family member or someone you know who survived cancer or who maybe even died from cancer.
Let’s dig a little deeper. How about this combination of words?
Cancer + Teenagers
Got your attention?
Let’s get even a little more specific:
Cancer + YOU
How does that make you feel? Nervous? Scared? Uncomfortable? Falsely courageous like “Oh that could never happen to me. I’m young and healthy and everyone knows teenagers don’t get cancer!”
Well, I’m here to tell you that teenagers do get cancer and an important part to knowing and loving yourself is to really know your body. That means not sticking your head in the sand and ignoring a problem or brushing it off as nothing especially if deep down it seems like more than nothing.
3 Simple Steps Towards a Surefire Investment That’s Guaranteed 2 Pay Off Big
“Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you.” – Robin Sharma
So here we are at step #6 in the process of loving ourselves and it involves making an investment. Fortunately it’s one that everyone can afford regardless of how much cash you have in your piggy bank. It’s all about investing in yourself.
The List of Things You Need 2 Do 2 Love Yourself
1. Know yourself.
2. Be true to yourself.
3. Accept yourself.
4. Be gentle with yourself.
5. Value yourself.
6. Invest in yourself.
I’m not talking about buying yourself things because while that’s an investment of sorts, it’s not the kind that’s going to pay you back in the long run. That said, I’m never one to just walk by a shoe store without a little browsing so I’m not going to be a hypocrite and suggest that shopping isn’t fun too (because it is) but I want to talk bigger than just buying stuff.
The Secret Handbook 4 Teens 