Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and It's All Small Stuff

Text in black are quotes; text in green are my notes. I sometimes write in Spanish.

• The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude. #

• There are two rules for living in harmony. #1) Don’t sweat the small stuff and #2) It’s all small stuff. Let the quote stand. #

• The need for perfection and the desire for inner tranquility conflict with each other. #

  • Nunca encontrarás la felicidad en la perfección. Si eres perfeccionista siempre estarás pensando en mejores formas de hacer las cosas, pero de una manera obsesionada. Es buena práctica analizar cómo mejorar tu alrededor, pero también es totalmente aceptable ser feliz como están las cosas.

• It’s about realizing that while there’s always a better way to do something, this doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy and appreciate the way things already are. #

• As you begin to eliminate your need for perfection in all areas of your life, you’ll begin to discover the perfection in life itself. #

• Fearful, frantic thinking takes an enormous amount of energy and drains the creativity and motivation from our lives. #

• When you have what you want (inner peace), you are less distracted by your wants, needs, desires, and concerns. It’s thus easier to concentrate, focus, achieve your goals, and to give back to others. #

  • Una buena técnica para concentrarte y enfocarte en tus proyectos es tener tu vida financiera bajo control. Cuando tienes paz mental, que puede ir de la mano con la estabilidad financiera, puedes enfocarte sin preocuparte por otras necesidades (supervivencia).
  • Tener un fondo de emergencia, ahorro, inversiones y control de gastos no solo te dará paz mental, también te permitirá trabajar mejor en tus proyectos.

• The sooner you catch yourself in the act of building your mental snowball, the easier it is to stop. #

• “We cannot do great things on this earth. We can only do small things with great love.” #

• Regardless of who you are or what you do, however, remember that nothing is more important than your own sense of happiness and inner peace and that of your loved ones. #

• Don’t Interrupt Others or Finish Their Sentences #

• Remind yourself (before a conversation begins, if possible) to be patient and wait. Tell yourself to allow the other person to finish speaking before you take your turn. #

• Do Something Nice for Someone Else—and Don’t Tell Anyone About It #

• The next time someone tells you a story or shares an accomplishment with you, notice your tendency to say something about yourself in response. #

• Your job is to try to determine what the people in your life are trying to teach you. #

• Being listened to and heard is one of the greatest desires of the human heart. And those who learn to listen are the most loved and respected. Those who are in the habit of correcting others are often resented and avoided. #

• The more patient you are, the more accepting you will be of what is, rather than insisting that life be exactly as you would like it to be. #

• Whether you’re needing to deal with children, your boss, or a difficult person or situation—if you don’t want to “sweat the small stuff,” improving your patience level is a great way to start. #

• Whenever we hold on to our anger, we turn “small stuff” into really “big stuff” in our minds. We start to believe that our positions are more important than our happiness. They are not. If you want to be a more peaceful person you must understand that being right is almost never more important than allowing yourself to be happy. #

• Our current level of stress will be exactly that of our tolerance to stress. #

  • Si puedes soportar altos niveles de estrés, estarás siempre estresado. Siempre en chinga. Tu estrés tomará tanto espacio como pueda. Si le das más espacio, se aprovechará. Reduce el umbral de tolerancia al estrés y te sentirás aliviado, pues el estrés tendrá muy poco espacio para trabajar. Y tú tendrás más.

• As you lower your tolerance to stress, you will find that you’ll have far less stress to handle, as well as creative ideas for handling the stress that is left over. #

• Imagine Yourself at Your Own Funeral #

• Repeat to Yourself, “Life Isn’t an Emergency” #

• we can solve many of life’s problems (serious and otherwise) if we feed the back burner of our mind with a list of problems, facts, and variables, and possible solutions. #

• Seek First to Understand #

• “seek first to understand” implies that you become more interested in understanding others and less in having other people understand you. #

• Effective listening is more than simply avoiding the bad habit of interrupting others while they are speaking or finishing their sentences. It’s being content to listen to the entire thought of someone rather than waiting impatiently for your chance to respond. #

• Everyone loves to talk to someone who truly listens to what they are saying. #

• If you don’t want to “sweat the small stuff,” it’s critical that you choose your battles wisely. If you do, there will come a day when you’ll rarely feel the need to do battle at all. #

• The next time you feel low, for whatever reason, remind yourself, “This too shall pass.” It will. #

• “Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty.” #

• Looking beyond behavior is easier than you might think. Try it today, and you’ll see and feel some nice results. #

• The next time (and hopefully from now on), when someone acts in a strange way, look for the innocence in his behavior. If you’re compassionate, it won’t be hard to see. #

• Choose Being Kind over Being Right #

• “If you had an hour to live and could make only one phone call—who would you call, what would you say, and why are you waiting?” #

• Most people love a person who doesn’t need to brag, a person who shares from his or her heart and not from his or her ego. #

• When we judge or criticize another person, it says nothing about that person; it merely says something about our own need to be critical. #

• I think you’ll discover that agreeing with an occasional criticism has more value than it costs. #

• The next time someone offers you an opinion, rather than judge or criticize it, see if you can find a grain of truth in what the person is saying. #

  • ¿Te ha pasado que alguien te cuenta una historia o un logro que hizo y respondes con algo sobre ti? Confieso que lo he hecho, pero cada vez me pasa menos. Me molesta hablar con gente que hace eso. No puedes compartir nada con ellos porque ellos ya lo hicieron anteriormente. O le restan importancia con una historia propia, dejando tu emoción de lado. Antes de salir con tu historia, felicita, pregunta más, alégrate de verdad por la otra persona. Ya tendrás tu turno para hablar.

• It’s absolutely true that “Wherever you go, there you are.” #

• Make a note to yourself to start thinking more about what you have than what you want. #

• “For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin—real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” #

• “Giving is its own reward.” #

• In terms of personal happiness, you cannot be peaceful while at the same time blaming others. #

• “Our limited perspective, our hopes and fears become our measure of life, and when circumstances don’t fit our ideas, they become our difficulties.” #

• Remember, life isn’t an emergency unless you make it so. #

• The idea of “not catching the ball” simply because it’s thrown to you is a powerful tool to explore. #

• Love is its own reward. #

• Give Up on the Idea that “More Is Better” #

• “Life is too important to take too seriously.” #