A view from Alabama...and a reminder from a friend.

A good friend of mine Keira Henninger posted on her blog a few things - she is really good at being positive and sending out reminders - and I thought it would be awesome to spread those words more.

Life is a gift, and you are only here once. Do not ever loose site of that. No matter what you are thinking or feeling it will move forward regardless of weather or not you want it to. It's best to live it the way you want to, and with no regrets. It is most certainly ok to make mistakes. It is most certainly ok to be afraid of making life changing decisions. Just remember to learn from mistakes, and not continually make them. To learn from regret, and do whatever it takes to get your life in the right place. Do not sacrifice your own happiness to stay comfortable or please someone else. Tomorrow you will be 70-then 95. Blink...it will be here before you know it. Will you truly be able to look back and say you have spent it with the right person? You share the same passions, and friends? You love your job? You have given everything you could to those you love. My life has changed tremendously in the last year, and I believe it's vital for me to send a message to women(and men) that life is exactly what you make of it, and no matter how bad it seems there is always a way out of your problems. I wanted to pull together some thoughts I have read in different places, and pass them along to all of you. It's never to late to make a change. Never.

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1. There comes a point in life when you get tired of chasing everyone and trying to fix everything, but it’s not giving up.  It’s realizing you don’t need certain people and things and the drama they bring.
2. If a person wants to be a part of your life they will make an obvious effort to do so.  Don’t bother reserving a space in your heart for people who do not make an effort to stay.
3. If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down – which is not always as obvious and easy as it sounds.
4. Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing.
5. Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success.  You don’t fail by falling down.  You fail by never getting back up. 
6.  Everyone basically wants the same things.  Theywant validation, love, happiness, fulfillment and hopes for a better future.  The way they pursue these desires is where things branch off, but the fundamentals are the same.  
7. The more things you own, the more your things own you.  Less truly gives you more freedom.  
8. While you’re busy looking for the perfect person, you’ll probably miss the imperfect person who could make you perfectly happy.  It’s about being exactly who you are and then finding someone who appreciates that, and shares that with you.
9. Relationships must be chosen wisely.  It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company.  There’s no need to rush.  If something is meant to be, it will happen – in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason.
10. Making a thousand friends is not a miracle.  A miracle is making one friend who will stand by your side when thousands are against you.
11. Someone will always be better looking.  Someone will always be smarter.  Someone will always be more charismatic.  But they will never be you.
12. Making progress involves risk.  Period.  You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.
13. Every morning you are faced with two choices:  You can aimlessly stumble through the day not knowing what’s going to happen and simply react to events at a moment’s notice, or you can go through the day directing your own life and making your own decisions and destiny.  
14. Everyone makes mistakes.  If you can’t forgive others, don’t expect others to forgive you. 
15. It’s okay to fall apart for a little while.  You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is ok.  
16. We sometimes do things that are permanently damaging just because we are temporarily upset.  A lot of heartache can be avoided if you learn to control your emotions.
17. Someone else doesn’t have to be wrong for you to be right.  There are many roads to what’s right.  Remember to: sometimes it's just easier to have peace that be right. 
18. Nobody is perfect, and nobody deserves to be perfect.  Nobody has it easy.  You never know what people are going through.  Every one of us has issues.  So don’t belittle yourself or anyone else.  Everybody is fighting their own unique war.
19. A smile doesn’t always mean a person is happy.  Sometimes it simply means they are strong enough to face their problems.
20. The happiest people I know keep an open mind to new ideas and ventures, use their leisure time as a means of mental development, and love good music, good books, good pictures, good company and good conversation.  
21. You can’t take things too personally.  Rarely do people do things because of you.  They do things because of them.
22. Feelings change, people change, and time keeps rolling.  You can hold on to past mistakes or you can create your own happiness.  True happiness comes from within.  Don’t make the mistake of waiting on someone or something to come along and make you happy.
23. It’s much harder to change the length of your life than it is to change the depth of it.
24. You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.
25. When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you.
26. One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you like everyone else.
27. Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things.  Read 
28. Share your life with someone who truly shares in your life. "Those that play together stay together". 
29. Everything is a life lesson.  Everyone you meet, everything you encounter, etc.  They’re all part of the learning experience we call ‘life.’  Never forget to acknowledge the lesson, especially when things don’t go your way.  If you don’t get a job that you wanted or a relationship doesn’t work, it only means something better is out there waiting.  And the lesson you just learned is the first step towards it.
30. Regardless of how filthy your past has been, your future is still spotless.  Don’t start your day with the broken pieces of yesterday.  Every day is a fresh start.   Every morning we wake up is the first day of the rest of our life.