The holiday season can be so stressful, and Word People are famously hard on themselves because we think everything has to be “just right.”
Charlene Burke recently published an article, “10 Things You Should Give Up Today,” and it really resonated with us. Perhaps it will with you as well.
Here are the highlights:
- Give up trying to be perfect. The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done.
- Give up comparing yourself to others. The only person you are competing against is yourself.
- Give up dwelling on the past or worrying too much about the future. Right now is the only moment guaranteed to you. Right now is life. Don’t miss it.
- Give up complaining. Do something about it.
- Give up setting small goals for yourself. Many people set small goals because they’re afraid to fail. Ironically, setting these small goals is what makes them fail.
- Give up trying to do everything by yourself. You are the sum of the people you spend the most time with. If you work together, you will be far more capable and powerful than you ever could have been alone.
- Give up buying things you don’t need. Manage your money wisely so your money does not manage you. Do not spend to impress others. Do not live life trying to fool yourself into thinking wealth is measured in material objects.
- Give up trying to avoid mistakes. The only mistake that can truly hurt you is choosing to do nothing simply because you’re too scared to make a mistake.
- Give up saying, “I can’t.” As Henry Ford put it, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.”
- Give up trying to be everything to everyone. Making one person smile can change the world. Maybe not the whole world, but their world. Start small. Start now.