Rules we live by

To enjoy a full, rich, champagne living style life, I find that I live by a set of “rules.” Don’t get me wrong, any of my friends will tell you that I’m free-spirited and ready to try new and exciting adventures, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty there are certain rules that I adhere to in order to be able to enjoy life to the fullest.

1. Get enough sleep. I’m no fun, non-productive, and get CRANKY when I don’t have enough sleep. I personally need around 7 hours or so to feel like I can face the day and get thing done.

2.  I always start my day with the same thing – coffee and  yogurt.  Weekends and travel may bring a heavier meal, but as long as I have these two I’m good. In Paris I search out the nearest Monoprix, one of the yogurt bars that have popped up around town, or I duck into one of the thousands of cafés/boulangeries/grab’n go spots that are located on just about every street.

3.  My parents taught me a motto that I live by today – Dare to be different. It keeps me from holding back when I’m faced with doing something out of my natural comfort level, allows me to push myself farther and has led me to my own personal style of living. I don’t feel like I need to conform to any one else’s rules.

Here are a few from some of our friends ~

• Jennifer Leet of The Dirty T Shirt  says that she tries to “Never complain about the things in my life that only I can change.”
• Benjamin Sander of I Pity the Blog needs to “Write it down, I would die without my white board…erasing things gives me so much satisfaction.”
• Jamie Fisher (married to my friend Nicole of Nicole’s Nickels) says – “I know what I know and what I don’t know I don’t care.”
• Ava Rogers my dearest friend and “Broad A” on The Review Broads lives by the “treat your friends better than you treat yourself – they will teach you love” motto.

4. I apologize for mistakes that I’ve made...and I’ve made a LOT OF MISTAKES (which means I’m damn good at apologizing).

5. “This too will pass.” – people often ask me how I stay calm and deal with life’s adversity. I’ve dealt with a major disability, a husband who’s illness will never get better, losing a business and all of our money, starting over & over & over & over again, yet I almost always have a smile on my face because I know that eventually things will improve (and I’ll work my butt off to make sure that they do).

6. It’s all in how you look at it. We each see people, places and things in a different perspective. I almost always (to the chagrin of Mr. S and Ben) like what I see.

I’d love to hear your personal philosophies and rules that YOU live by. Feel free to leave them in the comments below, so that we can ALL share and learn from them.