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17. Where should I break the rules?If everyone kept all the rules, we'd still be practicing cherished traditions like child marriage, slavery, and public hangings. The way humans become humane is by assessing from the heart, rather than the rule book, where the justice of a situation lies. Sometimes you have to break the rules around you to keep the rules within you.
18. So say I lived in that fabulous house in Tuscany, with untold wealth, a gorgeous, adoring mate, and a full staff of servants...then what? We can get so obsessed with acquiring fabulous lives that
we forget to live. When my clients ask themselves this question, they almost always discover that their "perfect life" pastimes are already available.
Sharing joy with loved ones, spending time in nature, finding inner peace, writing your novel, plotting revenge—you can do all these things right now. Begin!
19. Are my thoughts hurting or healing? Your situation may endanger your life and limbs, but only your thoughts can endanger your happiness. Telling yourself a miserable mental story about your circumstances creates suffering.
Telling yourself a more positive and grateful story, studies show, increases happiness. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, choose thoughts that knit your heart together, rather than tear it apart.
20. Really truly: Is this what I want to be doing? It's been several seconds since you asked this. Ask it again. Not to make yourself petulant or frustrated—just to see if it's possible to choose anything, and I mean any little thing, that would make your present experience more delightful. Thus continues the revolution.
http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Martha-Beck ... r-Life_1/3
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"