Whenever I hear a statement that touches my heart – and grabs my full attention – I capture it right away, as a text note on my phone. Over the last few years, the Bulleted (BOLD) list below is my collection of these Pearls of Wisdom, along with ‘my soap-box’ (Italics) comments.

DISCLAIMER: No Copyright Infringement Intended. I wanted to share the Pearls below (NOT my words – I do not remember their origin, or where I heard them), along with my comments in Italics, for the benefit of my friends who frequent my www.ibidhilla.com Blog site.

  • Be intentional with your life

Some of us live life, one day at a time, while others have a razor-sharp focus and every day of their life is intended to achieve their goals. Ensure that your ship has a rudder and a compass to guide you to your intended destination. Life without intentions is like a floating balloon in the air. Even if your life choices are one day at a time, make sure you still stay within defined, intended boundaries.

  • Is Criticism – love or hate?

Depends. It can be either. If you care for the person you are criticizing, it has to be LOVE because you care for them. Caring criticism helps your friends/family re-align/fix any issue they may be unaware of; or blind to. When hate is involved, it is not caring criticism – it is being critical of someone with a pinch of dislike and disdain, to hurt them.

  • Take more risks than you think you should

There is a saying – “No pain, no gain”. You must push yourself and experience discomfort by taking risks, for the rewards to follow. Remember, every stumble, every failure on your journey, opens up a path to future success. Every crossroad in your life will provide new pathway/opportunity options. Just a straight path will get you to the end, without a whole lot of learning. You may perhaps miss more potential successful outcomes.

  • Don’t fear DEATH, fear wasting your life

Most faith-based belief systems focus on aligning our earthly life for the fruits of the afterlife. This has benefited society by setting basic boundaries of good and bad. This does not mean that we live our lives, fearing death. Death is an eventual outcome for every living entity. Accept it. Live within the societal boundaries and enjoy whatever life has to offer you. Living your life, fearing the eventuality of death, is WASTING your life. Remember, we only live once – free yourself of imaginary shackles and enjoy your life.

  • Respect yourself – if you don’t, no one else will

This is related to self-esteem. Having self-esteem assures self-respect and belief in yourself and your abilities. This builds up like an aura around you, and others pick up the radiating vibes and will resonate with this and respect you. If you radiate negative self-deprecating vibes, others will pick it up too, and will further reinforce this, and you will slide further into dark spaces.

  • John Lennon quotes – Everything will be OK in the end. And if it is NOT OK, it is not the end

We live in a world where everyone seeks instant gratification. Whenever one is in a difficult situation, or on a steep uphill task, and supporters around you say, “Don’t worry, all will end well,” remember John L’s saying. Believe in yourself, and just stay focused on the end goals. The end will arrive soon, and you may be in a ‘NOT OK’ zone for now. That too will end, and everything will be OK 😊

  • Just – Ask for Help

Oftentimes, we do not ask for help. This may be due to multiple reasons, such as feeling inadequate, an introverted nature, a personality trait, etc. Bottom line: if you do not ASK, no one may offer to help. Of course, a good-hearted soul may come forward to help if you are really in trouble. It is OK to ask, and everyone needs Help sometimes in their lives

  • You can do anything, but NOT everything 

We confuse these 2 terms, ‘anything’ and ‘everything’ quite often. Anything is a subset of Everything. Other than the divine being who has created everything, no one else can strive to do everything. We should carefully carve out what we can do and create our SET of anything from everything and feel satisfied when we have achieved this. Then, look for the next set of ‘anything’ to do.

  • Oftentimes, it is not what we want, BUT what we need

Again, we have 2 words ‘want’ and ‘need’ that we use all our lives very confusingly – losing our way in the search for everything we Want. Need is a subset of Want. Clearly, Need should go beyond the basic necessities of food-clothes-dwelling (in India we refer to this as roti-kapda-makaan). We do owe ourselves a good “set of Needs” with all the hard work in raising our family. Focus on this super-set of Need, and you will find fulfillment.

  • You can disagree without being disagreeable

I call this ‘caring confrontation’. This lets you disagree with what someone has said/done, without being disagreeable with them. You are upset with some of their actions/behavior, but you still care for your relationship with them. You objectively express your disagreements, without being nasty about it. You clearly communicate what you are unhappy about – for what they may have said/done, AND not them.

  • No one is promised a tomorrow – live your life fully today

You may want to believe in a tomorrow and even make detailed plans for living your tomorrow. NO ONE can assure you that tomorrow will be there when you go to bed tonight. We all know, and probably have personal experiences of close ones who, in a flash of an instant ceased to exist, and have crossed over to some distant ether space world. What you have in your hand is your TODAY. Live every moment of your life fully and do not procrastinate key desires into a bucket list – you may/will get to someday, when you have the time. Time is NOT on your side ☹