A positive ‘to-do’ list for the upcoming year Borrowed and Paraphrased from the blog Marc and Angel Hack Life As Maria Robinson once said, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” Nothing could be closer to the truth.

1. Start spending time with the right people. – These are the people you enjoy, who love and appreciate you, and who encourage you to improve in healthy and exciting ways. They are the ones who make you feel more alive, and not only embrace who you are now, but also embrace and embody who you want to be, unconditionally.
2. Start facing your problems head on. – It isn’t your problems that define you, but how you react to them and recover from them.
3. Start being honest with yourself about everything. – Be honest about what’s right, as well as what needs to be changed. Be honest about what you want to achieve and who you want to become. Be honest with every aspect of your life, always.
4. Start making your own happiness a priority. – Your needs matter. If you don’t value yourself, look out for yourself, and stick up for yourself, you’re sabotaging yourself.
5. Start being yourself, genuinely and proudly. – Trying to be anyone else is a waste of the person you are.
6. Start noticing and living in the present. – stop thinking about how great things will be in the future. Stop dwelling on what did or didn’t happen in the past. Appreciate Life for the beauty that it holds, right now.
7. Start valuing the lessons your mistakes teach you. – Mistakes are okay; they’re the stepping stones of progress. If you’re not failing from time to time, you’re not trying hard enough. Take risks, stumble, fall, and then get up and try again. One of the ‘mistakes’ you fear might just be the link to your greatest achievement yet.
8. Start being more polite to yourself. – If you had a friend who spoke to you in the same way that you sometimes speak to yourself, how long would you allow that person to be your friend? The way you treat yourself sets the standard for others.
9. Start enjoying the things you already have. – The problem with many of us is that we think we’ll be happy when we reach a certain level in life. You’ll end up spending your whole life working toward something new without ever stopping to enjoy the things you have now. So take a quiet moment every morning when you first awake to appreciate where you are and what you already have.
10. Start creating your own happiness. – If you are waiting for someone else to make you happy, you’re missing out. If you look for happiness within the opportunities you have, you will eventually find it.
11. Start giving your ideas and dreams a chance.– In life, it’s rarely about getting a chance; it’s about taking a chance. You’ll never be 100% sure it will work, but you can always be 100% sure doing nothing won’t work.
12. Start believing that you’re ready for the next step. – You have everything you need right now to take the next small, realistic step forward. So embrace the opportunities that come your way, and accept the challenges – they’re gifts that will help you to grow.
13. Start entering new relationships for the right reasons. – Choose friends you are proud to know. And pay attention to what people do, because a person’s actions are much more important than their words.
14. Start giving new people you meet a chance. – As some relationships fade others will grow. Appreciate the possibility of new relationships as you naturally let go of old ones. Trust your judgment.
15. Start competing against an earlier version of yourself. – Be inspired by others, appreciate others, learn from others, but know that competing against them is a waste of time. You are in competition with one person and one person only – yourself. Be the best you can be.
16. Start cheering for other people’s victories. – Start noticing what you like about others and tell them. Be happy for those who are making progress. Cheer for their victories. Be thankful for their blessings, openly. What goes around comes around.
17. Start looking for the silver lining in tough situations. – When things are hard, and you feel down, take a few deep breaths and look for the silver lining. Remind yourself that you can and will grow stronger from these hard times. Focus on what you have, not on what you haven’t.
18. Start forgiving yourself and others. – We’ve all been hurt. While the pain of these experiences is normal, sometimes it lingers for too long. Let go of the resentment and pain, and instead choose to learn from the incident and move on with your life.
19. Start helping those around you. – Care about people. The more you help others, the more they will want to help you. Love and kindness begets love and kindness.
20. Start listening to your own inner voice. – Be true to yourself. Say what you need to say. Do what you know in your heart is right.
21. Start being attentive to your stress level and take short breaks. – Slow down. Breathe. Pause, Regroup. And move forward with clarity and purpose.
22. Start noticing the beauty of small moments. – Instead of waiting for the big things to happen – marriage, kids, big promotion, winning the lottery – find happiness in the small things that happen every day. Noticing these Small Pleasures on a daily basis makes a big difference in the quality of your life.
23. Start accepting things when they are less than perfect. – Sometimes it’s better to accept and appreciate the world as it is, and people as they are, rather than trying to make everything and everyone conform to an impossible ideal. No, you shouldn’t accept a life of mediocrity, but learn to love and value things when they are less than perfect.
24. Start working toward your goals every single day. – Remember, the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Whatever it is you dream about, start taking small, logical steps every day to make it happen. Get out there and DO something! The harder you work the luckier you will become.
25. Start being more open about how you feel. – If you’re hurting, give yourself the necessary space and time to hurt. Talk to those closest to you. The simple act of getting things off your chest and into the open is your first step toward feeling good again.
26. Start taking full accountability for your own life. – Own your choices and mistakes, and be willing to take the steps to improve upon them. You are the only one who can control the outcome of your life. And no, it won’t always be easy. Choosing not to is choosing a lifetime of mere existence.
27. Start actively nurturing your most important relationships. – Decide who these people are in your life and treat them like royalty. Remember, you don’t need a certain number of friends, just a number of friends you can be certain of.
28. Start concentrating on the things you can control. – You can’t change everything, but you can always change something. Wasting your time, talent and emotional energy on things that are beyond your control is a recipe for frustration. Invest your energy in the things you can control, and act on them now.
29. Start focusing on the possibility of positive outcomes. – You must believe you CAN do something before you are capable of actually doing it. Listen to your self-talk and replace negative thoughts with positive ones.
30. Start noticing how wealthy you are right now. – Henry David Thoreau once said, “Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” Even when times are tough, it’s always important to keep things in perspective. You didn’t go to sleep hungry last night. You didn’t have to sleep outside. You had a choice of what clothes to wear this morning. You didn’t spend a minute in fear. You have access to clean drinking water. You have access to medical care. You have access to the Internet. You can read. Some might say you are incredibly wealthy, so remember to be grateful for all the things you do have.

To read this article in it's entirety please visit the blog Marc and Angel Hack Life. Visit them at: http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/12/18/30-things-to-start-doing-for-yourself/

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