self-help

55. Stop comparing yourself to other people.

If you feel that you are lacking in the success department, the problem might not be your success but how you are going about measuring that success. I find that the problem lies when you are comparing yourself to other people. Here’s a little secret that most of you already know: there is always going to be somebody who has more stuff than you. If you are always trying to keep up with the Joneses, sometimes you miss the great things you have accomplished that are all around you. When we use others as our benchmark, we set ourselves up for failure.

There is another problem; the other people who you believe are successful may be having many challenges of their own. So what you might be comparing yourself to may not be as great as it seems. We discussed earlier that happiness comes from the inside and not the outside. So why would we use external measures to determine how successful we are? We know we are hitting new levels of success when we like what we see in the mirror. As we check our blueprint every 21 days, we will be comparing ourselves to ourselves. When we are hitting the marks we have entered in our S.A.N.E. section, we know we are winning.

If we compare our wins to the wins of others, we can always find someone who can top our achievement. The nicest thing about using this Tool is when you use it, you find that you are much happier and aware of the things you do have. If you’re patient, you will often later discover that the person you wish you were more like actually isn’t as appealing anymore. If you stop comparing yourself to other people, you will become so successful in life that the person people will be wishing they were more like is you.

77. Laughter is one of the keys to life.

There is an old Japanese proverb that states, “Fortune comes to those who smile.” Laughter has been shown to possess many beneficial qualities to the human body. Laughter can lower your heart rate and reduce blood pressure. It has been shown to free up respiratory passages and harbors the ability to reduce pain by causing a release of endorphins that are 10 times more powerful than morphine. Laughter reduces stress, increases immunity, contributes to better sleep, can help with constipation, and can even lead to a better sex life!

A good laugh will burn 3.5 calories. Laughing will increase oxygen intake which invigorates cells. There is one problem though. First, people smile only 35% as much as they think they do. Also, a child laughs or smiles 400 times a day, but by the time an adult reaches 35, that number drops to 15 times a day. The bottom line, people, is that we need to start laughing a little more.

Happiness is a choice. So we can be happier by laughing more and we can laugh more by the decisions we make. For starters, when you decide to go to the movies, just pick more funny movies than you usually do. When you do watch a limited amount of TV, choose a comedy. You could probably cut your TV time in half by simply doing just that. If you have satellite radio, you can choose to turn off the news and only listen to the comedy channel. A very simple way is to go on www.youtube.com and search for your favorite comedian. If you don’t have a favorite, let me suggest Jim Gaffigan and his standup on bacon. He is one of the funniest guys on the planet. When things in our office need a boost, we throw this on to give us all a laugh.

Statistics show that people are 30 times more likely to laugh in the presence of others than just by themselves. So make your way to a comedy club. We all need to laugh a little more, but laughing more sometimes requires a little work.