A Better Life, Every Day

12 Better Life Commandments - 2009 Edition

Last summer, after reading Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Commandments on her The Happiness Project blog, I created my own Better Life Commandments.  After spending nearly six months following these commandments, and with the new year upon us, I decided to modify them for 2009. 

1. Be healthy
2. Spend more time with my family and friends
3. Believe in myself
4. Accept my imperfections
5. Do the right thing
6. Do it now!
7. Expand my comfort zone
8. Be persistent and consistent
9. Be a role model for my step-daughters
10. Continuously learn
11. Live within my means
12. Enjoy the little things

I will again post these Commandments in my Moleskine, and I will review them regularly to ensure that I am following them.  Having these commandments helped me live a better life in 2008, and I am convinced that my 2009 will be even better.

Have you developed your Happiness/Better Life Commandments?

Gretchen provides an excellent guide for developing your own commandments.

Have You Created Your Better Life Commandments Yet?

If not, why not?  If you have, I would love to hear what they are, so please share.

My Better Life Commandments have already helped guide me in certain situations.  I have been more aware of my responses to people and things, and I have found that I am enjoying my life more as a result. 

The past few weeks have been extremely hectic for me as I have been trying to complete wedding plans (I get married exactly one week from today), complete honeymoon plans, get the twins ready for first grade, soccer, and dance, keep up with my regular job duties at work, and do what is needed at home too.  Thankfully my fiancee is very patient with me!

The two biggest things that I have done to help keep me sane during these hectic times is I have written just about everything down in my Moleskine and I have reviewed my Better Life Commandments regularly. 

If you have not already done so, I encourage you to develop your own Better Life Commandments.

Stay tuned for why I chose the commandments I chose and how being aware them during my honeymoon worked out.

A Day at the Spray Park

Two of my Better Life commandments are "spend more time with my family and friends" and "smell the roses, hear the music".  Today was a great example of both:

My soon-to-be-step-daughters were excited about meeting a friend of theirs from school at a local park today.  Although I have been barely able to keep up with all I have going on professionally and personally, I took them to the park, and I am so glad that I did.  I had a blast!  We were shooting each other with water canons, running through sprinklers that were overhead, and running over sprinklers that shot up from the ground.  The girls and their friend had buckets that they would fill up and spill over my head when I bent down to the hear the secrets they said they needed to tell me.  The smiles on these 6-year old girls' faces were priceless.

Overall, we spent about three hours at the park, and they were the three best hours of my week.  I did not anticipate being there that long, nor did I expect to be soaked, but I wouldn't trade the time I had with the girls today for anything.