Come Unity

Have you read this one before? Emphasis mine...

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Liz Strauss - (Update: I had no clue that this is actually a blog post by Liz as I received it via Email from one of the forums/email lists that I am a member of. But thanks to Google and the Internet...Liz found this post and has brought it to my notice while thanking me for sharing it with the readers here. So, here is the link to the original blog post - http://www.successful-blog.com/1/the-top-10-ways-to-start-living-your-life/ - Her blog has a whole lot more such wonderful thoughts and inspiring write-ups! You may want to check them all out... :-))

Life — it's what we do between the time we get here and when we go. We only get one, and despite what other folks might suppose, it's ours to determine what to do with it. We don't measure life in hours and minutes. We measure life in memories and moments. What do you think of when you read this sentence? "It was the time of my life." We don't say that often enough. Life either happens to us, or we take hold of life and live it. Here are 10 ways start living your life.

1. Give yourself permission to claim your life. You're the only one who can decide you're in charge of your life. Turn off the editors, the "shoulds, have tos, and musts", and the rules that didn't come from you.
2. Define what living means to you. Picture yourself at the end of your life looking back. What words would you want to describe how you lived and who you are?
3. Stop living in the future. Every time you think "when I have time I will," stop. Ask yourself, "Why not now?" Choose your life every morning.
4. Surround yourself with people who enjoy living. They've obviously discovered how to have live. Why not hang with the pros?
5. Lay down your pain and your anger. Carrying them around makes living harder and less fun. It doesn't bring anything, and it steals a lot.
6. Let the other guy win. Don't argue about things that you don't care about. Unless there's a threat, let folks prove what they need to prove. Why waste living time trying to fix what doesn't matter?
7. Create energy. Jump to forgiveness and love, then figure things out. Most conclusions we imagine are both wrong and negative. Negative conclusions lead us to prepare a defense. Being defensive isn't living. It's hiding from life.
8. Learn the physical symptoms of when your head and heart become disconnected. We know when we're behaving badly. Key into to how it feels physically. Know the symptoms, and you can stop the behavior. Living will feel safer because you won't be shooting yourself in the foot.
9. Take small risks that push your boundaries in every way. When we stretch just a bit intellectually, physically, emotionally, we grow. Living is growing. Even our cells know that.
10. Value and protect the people and places you care about. Let the people you care about come first, and let everyone know that you do. Re-read numbers 1 and 2.

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I just went and lost my cool this morning, raised my voice and argued aggressively with a team member. It was a cumulative expression of pent up anger and frustration. But, the silly thing that I am, the timing was absolutely inappropriate....enough to perhaps make the opposite party wonder whether it is time to refer me to a good doctor. I think I do best when I have energetic and enthusiastic people around me...people who want to be the best at what they do and are extremely passionate about and have a strong sense of purpose in what they're doing. Sometimes I can perhaps be such a source - rub it off on others - but at other times it is a fuel I look forward to from others. No wonder communities are so important - communities are a realization of the fact that one person cannot perpetually create magic. Being a part of a community mostly made up of people who are capable of taking turns to create magic and supply positive energy can make all the difference in the world. Blessed are the organizations that have even one such community...!

Does that sound like an irrelevant rant in the context of this post? Could be....but some of the points above help me recover from my silly mood. :-))) The tags are going to be funny - Life and Communities - or maybe not!? :-)