Five Rules for Life – A Happy, Lovely, Joyful Life
Five Rules to Living in This Crazy World
I spent so long thinking that I just had to live the life that I have been dealt — sad, self-conscious, anxious, and lonely–that these things became the truth of who I was.
Then, they became the lens through which I saw people not emailing me back, or not including me, or bullying me. I saw the world as being out of my control, and this made me feel very vulnerable and intensely anxious.
Several years ago, a dear friend stopped talking to me. Just stopped. And even though I understood why logically, it didn’t save my heart from the pain of it. In my grief, all my losses from the past compounded that suffering. And when people leave you, you tend to blame yourself, with these loss memories came the recollection of all the idiotic things I’ve done that made people not like the big fat loser that I am.
It was overwhelming.
The months after this loss, I cried a lot. A lot. A lot. I felt like I lost part of myself. It took a while to realize the opportunity. This wound, and the opening of old wounds, was an invitation to heal this part of myself that felt unworthy of friendships. Hurt is a preparation to heal. Like the highly intense person I am, I embraced it.
Sometimes it is through this kind of desperation that you begin to search for the light. It was time that I figured out this thing called life. First, I had to focus on what I can control and let go of what I could not.
Boy, I had a lot of letting go to do! I felt the pain of all of it fully, and over time, peeled one layer off and then another. And that kernel of self-love grew and grew as I began to trust myself and find my power.
I decided that I was going to create my life – make my own rules for life,
rather than stay feeling powerless and vulnerable.
To do this, I distinguished and followed these five simple rules that I want to share in this video today.
My 5 Rules for Life
Rules to Live By
1. Practice doing hard things
2. Make people important
3. Step back
4. Take risks
5. Be creative
You are amazing and beautiful and worthy!
You deserve a good life. Don’t sit around and wait until it happens. Make it happen. Find your power and generate happiness.
What are your rules for life?
Hello Jodi,
Without a doubt, I will say that it is better to live life which risks are taken. I totally agree with the saying ‘no venture, no gain’. Only when we take risks we realize our potential. I believe we all take risks one way or the other everyday.
Sometimes our lives will experience something almost akin to that because of our determination to refuse to accept limits on what is possible for our lives. We must choose to live a life of living without limits.
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I love these 5 tips, they’re not the normal ones I come across at self-development sites. #1 is really speaking to me. I always get nervous when I learn new things. Something that I’ve tried to tame in my life recently. I just have to let fear not take control of my steering wheel. I love this saying that author Liz Gilbert said in her Big Magic podcast, it went along the lines of, “Be kind to your fear and let it know that you’ve got control of what you’re about to do. Be thankful for it trying to help you out, but let fear know that you’ve got this!”
Love this post Jodi!
I love Liz Gilbert! Learning new things bring vitality into your life! I’m so glad you have embraced it! xoxo
I had forgotten about this post. I saw it now on your page and it’s exactly what I was thinking about. My “fear of abandonment” is highly triggered lately so it brings back all the times I was abandoned whether as a baby or a child or an adult and of course the guilt and the feeling that I don’t fit in, that I am different. I’m not abandoned because I’m not worthy. I know that I am. I’m abandoned because people don’t know me or understand me. Being abandoned has always been my biggest fear
In what ways do you participate in people not knowing or understanding you?