Day Ten: Sometimes Life Can Be Tough...

People love to wonder why "bad things happen to good people"...well, in truth, they happen to bad people too—we just don't care as much. Life isn't easy for any of us, but for those who have faith, it's a lot easier to take the good with the bad.

The amazing thing about life is how often so many of us take the little things for granted because we are too busy complaining about the big things. Of course that's only natural, no one likes to have his/her progress impeded by obstacles. So, we rail against those intrusions with our fists clenched tight and our voices screaming loudly to no one in particular: "WHY ME?!? WHY ME?"

Well, why not you? Who are you, specifically, to be immune to disaster? Last check there were only two mortals in the last 50-years who could profess to be even the slightest bit unnerved by life's injustice—one was named Ghandi and the other was named Mother Teresa—neither showed a penchant for complaining much.

The truth is, you aren't immune to anything. Life is going to take its best shot at you because that's what it's supposed to do. So, the real question you need to be asking instead of "why me?" is "what am I going to do about it?"

Day Two: Whose Life Are YOU Living?

You can either let others live for you or you can live your own life. Take a stand, be proud of who you are, and remember that you are your own legacy—leave something behind that you can be proud of.

It's a simple concept, really, most of us have no idea how to live our own life. We are all constantly influenced by the environment around us: people, places, commercials, television, movies, friends, colleagues, etc. There is, literally, no way of understanding where the "I" begins because it is so intertwined in the "we" of society.

So, how does one detach from the madness long enough to gain an understanding of who they actually are—minus the bull? Well, there are no hard-line answers to that question, but there is a methodology to it all that can make that act a lot easier:

1. Make a list of everything you think defines you.


2. Mark off all the items that relate to your profession, your material  possessions, and your education.


3. Now, look at that list...what's left?

If the answer is "nothing", you have a lot of work to do. However, if what you see in front of you is a list filled with possibilities, something you—the person—can build on, start from there.

The point is, no one is looking for you to lead a perfect life and, the pursuit of said perfection will never grant you the happiness that you're looking for. Stop wasting time looking for that elusive and fantasy-born ideology of a "happily ever after"—it's not there.

Start living the life that makes YOU happy and let that life make this world a better place to be present in—for you, for others, and for the legacy you haven't created yet.