Danette O'Neal, PhD

1) Stay away from people who erode your quality of life- Toxic people don’t add to your life and simply make it harder. It’s worth avoiding them to negate the cumulative effects of years of negative influence. There are plenty of toxic people and the last thing you want to do is give them more attention than the people who actually deserve it.

2) No more phone, tablet or computer before bed– I’m willing to bet that almost everyone reading this use their phone in bed. But did you know that blue light short-wavelength plays an important role in determining your mood, energy level and sleep quality?
In the morning, sunlight contains this blue light which halts production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes you feel alert.
By the evening, your brain doesn’t expect any blue light exposure and it very sensitive to it. Yet, most of our favorite evening devices like tablets, phones and laptops emit short-wavelength blue light right in your face. This exposure interferes with your ability to fall asleep, as well as the quality of your sleep once you nod off. The best thing you can do is avoid these devices for an hour before you go to bed.
3) Realize the here and now is the only thing that exists- The art of true happiness means being fully accepting and awake to what’s happening right now. Don’t think about what you don’t have. Instead, appreciate what you have right now. If you can’t appreciate what you have right now, you’ll never be able to experience the good life.

4) Realize that your perception isn’t always correct-Whenever you envy someone, or believe that the grass is greener on the other side, realize that you’re probably wrong. You’re only seeing a small slice of their life and have no idea what is going on behind closed doors.
And when something happens to you that you perceive to be bad, always remember that there may actually be a silver lining.
5) Get started, even if you might fail- The only way to achieve your goals is to get started. So many people don’t start because they’re afraid to fail. Get over your fear of perfectionism. Either you’ll learn something new or you’ll succeed. Win-win.

6) Get organized-We waste so much time by not being organized. Starting working out a schedule so that you can get the most of our day. There’s always enough time in the day, you just need to be better organized.

7) Do something that reminds you who you are- We all joke about having “me” time, but what is that, really? It’s making time for those activities that we feel most authentically ourselves doing, when all the masks are off and we can just be. Whether it’s running, painting, writing…make sure you carve out enough time during the day for you to focus on that.  (Universeinsider/the power of ideas)