101 Really Important Things You Already Know, but Keep Forgetting

Table of Contents

Preface 1

1 You Don't Have to Know the Meaning of Life to Enjoy It Fully 3

2 Life Is Tough - But Then Again, Compared to What? 5

3 Life's a Breeze When You Work As Hard at Simplifying It As You Do at Complicating It 7

4 Happiness Doesn't Care How You Get There 9

5 Slow Down in Your Pursuit of Happiness and It's More Likely to Catch up with You 11

6 Predict Your Failures and You Will Become a Highly Successful Prophet 13

7 The Pain of Unfulfilled Dreams Can Be the Worst Ache You Will Ever Experience 15

8 If You Want to Be a Star, It's Best Not to Bother with Other Things 17

9 Do the Difficult and Uncomfortable If You Would Like an Easy and Comfortable Life 20

10 Ordinary People Attain Extraordinary Success - You Can Too! 23

11 Overnight Success Happens Only in Fairy Tales, Trashy Novels, and Bad Movies 25

12 To Know and Not to Do Is Not Yet to Know 27

13 Always Expect the Unexpected Because the Only Certainty Is Uncertainty 29

14 Too Much Safety Is Dangerous for Your Well-Being 31

15 You Can Observe a Lot Just by Watching 33

16 Don't Mess Around with Reality and Reality Won't Mess Around with You 35

17 If You Don't Want to Accomplish Something Important, Any Excuse Will Do 37

18 Self-Pity Costs Nothing and It Is Worth Just As Much 39

19 You Can Be a Victim or You Can Be Successful - You Can't Be Both, However 41

20 If Something Is Boring You, It's Probably You 43

21 All Worry Is Wasted 45

22 Procrastination Is the Art of Keeping Up with Yesterday 47

23 Don't Buy Expensive Socks If You Can Never Find Them 49

24 Book Smart Does Not Mean Life Smart 51

25 Contrary to Popular Belief, Time Is Not Money 53

26 Slow Down and the Rest of the WorldWill Slow Down for You 55

27 A Good Friend Is Much Cheaper than Therapy - and Ten Times As Helpful! 57

28 Ten Million Dollars Cannot Buy What Great Friendship Can 59

29 One True Friend Is Worth More than 10,000 Superficial Ones 61

30 If You Can Be Happy Only with Others - and Not Alone - You Are Not a Very Happy Person 63

31 People Are Only Human - If They Weren't, Life Would Be Different 65

32 It's All Too Easy to Overestimate Your Ability to Change Others 67

33 Giving Advice to Anyone Means That You Either Lose or Break Even 69

34 Don't Walk away from Negative People - Run! 71

35 If You Hang Around with a Bunch of Blunderers Long Enough, You Will Become One Yourself 73

36 There's Insanity on Both Sides of the Debate When You Argue with an Idiot 75

37 The Best Way to Impress People Is by Not Trying to Impress Them 77

38 Nice People Are Often Not Good People and Good People Are Often Not Nice People 79

39 Everyone in This World - Including You and Me - Is Selfish 81

40 When Someone Fails to Keep a Commitment, There Is a 95 Percent Chance That It Will Happen Again 83

41 Good Deeds Are Seldom Remembered; Bad Deeds Are Seldom Forgotten 85

42 The Surest Way to Failure Is Trying to Please Everyone 87

43 It's Always Easier to Stay Out of Trouble than to Get Out of Trouble 89

44 Don't Take It Personally; They Are Doing It to Everyone Else 91

45 The More Important It Is, the Less Chance That Anybody Is Going to Do It for You 93

46 Belief Is a Disease 95

47 Beware of Experts - Particularly Those with the Most Knowledge and Experience 97

48 Being Reasonable Wins Us the Booby Prize of Life 99

49 Wise People Learn More from Fools than Fools Learn from Wise People 101

50 Be Careful with Your Heroes; Don't Put Any of Them on a Pedestal 103

51 It Doesn't Cost Much to Be Kind, But It Can Be Very Costly Being Too kind 105

52 Being Right at All Costs Is like Being a Dead Hero - There Is No Payoff 107

53 The Most Creative Shortcut to Success Is to Reevaluate What Success Means to You 109

54 Instead of Criticizing Someone's Success, Why Not Learn Something Valuable from It? 111

55 Your Past Is Always Going to Be the Way It Was - So Stop Trying to Change It! 113

56 All You Can Experience Is the Now, So Why Aren't You There? 115

57 If Your House Is on Fire, Warm Yourself by It 117

58 Living Well Is the Best Revenge 119

59 You Don't Have to Watch One Minute of TV to Be Happy - and Perhaps You Shouldn't 121

60 You Are the Biggest Cause of Problems in Your Life 123

61 Many of the Things You Want Will Give You More Problems than You Can Ever Imagine 125

62 You Can Change the Quality of Your Life Instantaneously 127

63 The Severity of Your Problems Is a Matter of Perspective 129

64 You Aren't Going to Solve the Problem If You Don't Identify It Properly 131

65 No One Can Give You Wiser Advice than You Can 133

66 Take Special Care of Yourself - Because No One Else Will! 135

67 A Walk or Run in Nature Is the Best Medicine for Many of Your Ailments 137

68 The Shortcut to Being Truly Fit and Trim Is Long-Term Rigorous Action 139

69 Your Mind Needs a Good Run Too 141

70 Life Isn't Fair and It Will Continue to Be That Way 143

71 There Is No One Big Deal in Life That Will Save Your Hide 145

72 The World Doesn't Owe You or Me or Anyone else a Living 147

73 You Can't Always Get What You Want, But You Can Get a Lot More than You Think You Can 149

74 There Is More to Positive Thinking than Thinking Positive Thoughts 151

75 What Will Keep You from Getting What You Want Is Not Knowing What You Truly Want 153

76 You Aren't Going to Get Much of What You Want Unless You Ask for It 155

77 Getting Rid of Your Desire for Something Is As Good As Possessing It 157

78 Want What You Have and You Will Always Get What You Want 159

79 You Are Already a Millionaire - Your Creativity Makes It So 161

80 If Patience Is Just the Art of Concealing Your Impatience, You Better Be Very Good at It 163

81 Opportunity Knocks Often - How Often Are You Home? 165

82 To Double Your Success Rate, Just Double Your Failure Rate 167

83 Compromising Your Integrity for Money, Power, or Fame Will Come Back to Haunt You Big Time 169

84 There Are Many Fascinating Worlds Without Money 171

85 More Money Won't Bring You More Happiness - It Works the Other Way Around! 173

86 True Prosperity Is Living Easily and Happily Whether You Have Lots of Money or Not 175

87 Financial Insanity Has Its Own Big Following - Including You and Me 177

88 Spend More Money on Your Personal Development than on Your Next Hairstyle 179

89 To Have a Good Grasp of Money, Try Joyfully Parting with a Fair Portion of It! 181

90 Being a Success at Work Is Irrelevant If You Are a Failure at Home 183

91 The Work Ethic Is a Terrible Mistake 185

92 Work As Hard As You Have to for a Comfortable Living - and As Little As You Can Get Away With 187

93 It's Best to Leave Perfection for the Misfits of this World to Pursue 189

94 Most Activities Worth Doing Should Be Done in the Most Haphazardly Fashion Possible 191

95 If You Are What You Ain't, Then You Ain't What You Truly Should Be 193

96 You Can't Make a Big Difference in This World Unless You Are Different 195

97 Look Inside and You Will Find More Outside 197

98 Your Envy Is the Satisfaction and Happiness That You Think Others Are Experiencing 199

99 If the Grass on the Other Side of the Fence Is Greener, Try Watering Your Side 201

100 No Matter How Successful You Become, the Size of Your Funeral Will Still Depend upon the Weather 203

101 Be Happy While You Are Alive Because You Are a Long Time Dead 207

Additional Life Lessons

A-l Thank Your Mother a Lot While She Is Still Alive 213

A-2 Flowers, Cards, and Candy Are Not the Essence of Mother's Day 219

A-3 Fortune Resides on the Other Side of Fear 221

A-4 Forget How Old You Are - This Becomes More Important the Older You Get 223

A-5 Flat Out - Great Friends Rock! 225