Ten Ways to Keep Your Cup Half Full

Posted on by Jane Carlile Baker, Author, Editor, Teaching Consultant

We live in a world that has both joy and sorrow, health and sickness, well-being and pain, yada yada. I have noticed over the years that there are people who take it all with a grain of salt (cup half full), as my Old Daddy used to say, and others who whine their way through life (cup half empty). He gave me  advice as we went along, that I will share for the small price of nothing. However, you don’t get free shipping or Ginzu (sp)  Knives.
1.  You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. My Papa was good at idioms and this one means that if you treat them well, respect them, people will want to be around you.
2.  Don’t waste time crying over spilled milk. If you screwed up, or someone else did, deal with it the best you can, and keep going.
3.  If you don’t make mistakes in life, you aren’t doing anything, and that, in itself, is a mistake. Make the decisions, if they turn out wrong, apologize, and make another one.
4.  Do not expect to save money while you have children at home. Even if you manage to get a little socked away, an emergency will probably happen to use it all up. Just keep truckin’.
5.  Look around you at the needs of other people and meet them when you can. Lifts their spirits and yours.
6.  Spend lots of time in the outdoors, gardening, fishing, sitting around drinking beer.
7.  Stop and smell the flowers. Flowers are your family and friends. When you get to the end, you will not care how many deadlines you met, how much money you’re leaving behind or how many people it will take to do your job. You will care that the people you loved and who loved you back have heads full of memories to rely on.
8.  Every day has possibililties for a lot of fun. Live, yourself, don’t watch TV or play video games. That’s someone else living and you comatose. Instead, at breakfast talk to God about what He would like you to do today – then go out and do it with exuberance – and make somebody laugh while you’re at it.
9. Bless people with your words whenever you can. But don’t lie. Balance grace and truth. Too much of either causes trouble.
10.  And finally, Am I going to have to come in there? Get a good night’s sleep.

Published by Jane Carlile Baker, Author, Editor, Teaching Consultant

Jane has loved writing from the time she learned to hold a pencil. Her writing journey moved from that pencil to personal computers through the seventies, she edited for a hospital public relations department. The eighties found her owning a public relations business, publishing newspaper and magazine articles, and directing communications for a large church. In the nineties she published her first book and led critique groups and writers' workshops. In the twenty-first century she became a teaching consultant for the National Writing Project, published several more books, and began an editing business. Jane also loves raising chickens, dogs and alpacas, gardening, oil painting, swimming and hanging out with her family.

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