Here is my guideline, or code (aka Cake: Rent a Goalie, one AWEsome show!), or as Gretchen calls them my [ten] personal commandments. These I devised as part of my happiness project and will be the ten criteria I will try to use daily to evaluate the many things that occur, people I encounter, situations I get involved in, etc.  It will be a work-in-progress, like me 😉

1. Sometime I am (or can be) quick to anger and judge and be rude so the first and foremost code is: Lighten up
2. Since May 2011 I have been keeping tabs on my exercise and what I eat. To date I have lost a fair bit of weight and still have a ways to go. Thus, my second code is: Exercise and eat well
3. I often overlook that I have made some pretty significant accomplishments in my life, and am still in the progress of making a couple pretty big ones too (piling things higher and deeper and finding love and happiness). To me though, there is an arrogance in this statement, i.e. look at how awesome I am, and that is not really something I like to portray myself as having/being. Nonetheless, I need to be proud of some of the things I have, and am doing while keeping it light and being my normal jokingly, sarcastically funny and charming self 😉 So: Be proud but be light
4. Although I love Nova, my family, and my close friends, there can be times, especially with family where it might not seem like I do to the extent that I do.  For instance, having a bad day and taking it out on the first person around (often my brother Joey) or just arguing for arguing sake (often Nova and my parents). I would really like to work on this part of my life, to #1, lighten up and to simply always: Love *&* respect the ones I’m with
5. I often see people surpass me in life, i.e. get married, buy houses, have (and save) money. Sometimes this affects me a great deal. Staying in university for so long, I know the end will eventually justify it all, but seeing people move up and progress while I remain arguably stagnant at times impacts the ol’ noodle a great deal and that leads to me sometimes not following #4, love and respect the ones I’m with. So, I need to learn how to simply: Be patient
6. Over the past year Nova introduced me to numerology. I often take such fuzzy things with a grain of salt as I tend to be more sciencey in my opinions. That said, it was interesting to me. Nova calculated that I am a number 6 type personality.  When I read what that was (and other descriptions as some differ however slight) I was amazed at how close it described me and my inner feelings.  So with #5, be patient, comes compromise but with compromise I must also learn to seek balance and fairness with my mental state and well being. So: Compromise *&* be fair to me (strive for balance)
7. Being seemingly always busy – although there are times I just feel busy and am not. Perhaps this means I am feeling overwhelmed? I need to make sure I make time to do all of the things I’d like to do, visit all of the people I’d like to, and need to visit, and just be me – all of the time. So, I need to learn to simply: Make the time
8. Something I’ve always struggled with is finances.  Let’s face it, those who know me well, and now I guess you reading this (now there’s accountability) know I like my little tech trinkets and music sounds and plant things and, etc. Anyways, 😉 being a student for so long (and on student loan), and partly due to my lack of #5, being patient, I have accumulated a fair deal of debt. When I look at the situation it can be daunting and I often feel like I have nothing really (tangible anyways) to show for it.  So, I am going to strive to be more aware of this and I am going to: Spend less money
9. Something I tend to do is bottle emotional things (at times, not all the time of course as sometimes I just explode!), partly due to the fact I don’t like sounding self-caring, but also I don’t like dealing with things when everyone is emotional. It may also be partly due to the numerology aspect, me being a number 6 type personality, taking on the weight (or emotion) of others with my own and often at the expense of my own well being – my whole #6: compromise and be fair to me. So I’m going to strive to: Discuss it, do not bottle it
10. One thing I really must work on is to: Follow the schedule (just do it now). Self explanatory I think 🙂

-t.Mac