Completing a writing prompt listing the rules I should live by.
One of the ways I like Killing Time While Waiting in the Car is completing short writing prompts. When I shared this last week, I couldn't complete the prompt to write my own personal "ten commandments." Now, I'd like to share the rules of life I've considered for myself.
The Writing Prompt
I enjoy completing short writing prompts every now and then. It was an activity I enjoyed in my high school creative writing classes.
For last week's blog post where I suggested completing a short writing post while waiting in a car, I selected the following prompt at random from Susie Morgentsern's The Aspiring Writer's Journal:
Make a list of the rules you live by - a sort of personal "ten commandments."
I bought this and other writing prompt books from a Half Price Books store years ago. I usually complete writing prompts from books like this in a short amount of time. However, my mind started to wander while I sat at my car thinking about ten things I'd like to live by for the rest of my life.
I admit I still haven't come up with "ten" total, but what I came up with turned out to be an interesting creative and mental activity that lasted me a few days.
#1: Never Stop Dreaming
I have many regrets in life, and not following my creative dream is one of them. In my teens and early twenties, I dreamt of pursuing a creative lifestyle. I was a freelance artist and made decent change selling my paintings, sculptures, short stories, and poetry.
During an especially tough time in life, I gave up on the creative dream. Perhaps depression hit me hard and I couldn't think clearly or rationally for many years.
I trashed my creative supplies, sketchbooks, works-in-progress, and completed projects I had yet to sell or enter art contests.
While I could go on about the events of what led me to give up on my dreams, I'll save that story for a future blog post. I'm also not ready to dive into that depressing memory quite yet.
Despite the difficulties life presented me at the time, I wished I continued my creative path. I'd rather know for sure that it is or isn't the lifestyle for me versus now when I'm wondering, 'what if?'
From this day forward, I'll never quit dreaming no matter how ridiculous my dream may be. I'll tell myself it's possible until I convince myself or choose to believe that it's not worth pursuing.
#2: Embrace and Accept My Inner Child
As a child, I found much joy in the little things or simple things in life. Anything I could get my hands on were transformed into "toys." On long car rides when I didn't have something to keep me occupied, my daydreams allowed me to create my own movies or series within my mind.
To me, if there's something I enjoy doing, I consider it as "playing." If there are things I use to play with, I consider them as "toys." For example, I enjoy pyrography. Therefore, wood burning is a form of "playing." the tools I use to do to burn wood are the "toys."
As an adult, I do enjoy playing with actual toys. In my case, I love toy robots. I don't see why I can't have a robot or two or ten when it's something I enjoy collecting and playing with.
I enjoy watching cartoons. Yes, I watch "adult" cartoons like Family Guy and Futurama, but I also enjoy watching the cartoons I grew up with and the newer cartoons like Disney's Soul.
Speaking of Disney, I enjoy visiting Walt Disney World. It's a great place to escape to someplace full of nostalgia, escapism, and light-hearted fun.
My Dad spent my whole life convincing me to pursue happiness above all else. The things that made me happy as a child continue to make me happy as an adult, and I have no intentions of letting go of my inner child.
#3: Respect Others ALWAYS
My elementary school programmed my brain and many others to always be kind and courteous to others. We'd participate in a month-long respect program twice a year. The programs in my elementary school helped mold me into the person I am today.
My life in a multi-cultural family and military community taught me that everyone's equal no matter what. It's not even worth listing the differences because we're all human beings on the surface.
While I could go on and on about respecting other people, I also make it a point to respect other animals as well. Kindness can go a long way, although it's sometimes hard to be kind to someone or something so mean-spirited. I try my best to be respectful, and I sometimes try to make others happy.
#4: Make Others Smile When I Can
I know it's primarily an American thing to smile at strangers, but I love when I can get someone to smile or let out a laugh. It makes me feel good to think I made someone else feel good, even if just for a moment.
You often hear someone say laughter is great medicine, but I also believe it's essential for marketing and customer service.
When I worked for a community college in a military community, I often went out on location to recruit Soldiers to enroll in various educational programs. I'd crack lame jokes during my speech to keep myself, an introvert, calm because I hated public speaking. Jokes kept me from shutting down when speaking in front of hundreds or thousands of people at a time.
However, I'd have waves of Soldiers and DoD civilians come to register for classes in my programs because they thought I was funny, witty, and easy to talk to. When they attended classes, they'd often hang out in my office to chat because it made them feel relaxed before they returned to class or their companies.
Because I respected others and tried to make them smile when I could, karma came around the time I hit a low point in life. I received an overwhelming amount of support from Soldiers. Some would bring me snacks or small meals when I had to work through lunch or into the late-night hours (which was often since I was the only employee in the department). Some would volunteer their time to help me process new enrollments into my programs telling the same lame jokes I always told.
The community I was blessed to be a part of was only possible because I was respectful and tried to make others smile.
#5: Make Time for Fun
My first few jobs, including the one I referenced for #4, kept me busy for well over sixty hours a week. It felt like most of my life was focused on work followed by my parents. I was always trying to please my parents, especially my Mom. She is the one person who's been the most disappointed with the life I've lived and who I've become. I have the recorded phone conversation from two days ago where she reminded me of this.
Unfortunately, I didn't listen when my Dad told me to pursue happiness above all else. I focused on my profession, higher education, and others' happiness and well-being. I then lived in an apartment with no furniture, couldn't afford my bills and student loans most months because I used my money to help with my parent's financial problems, and skipped meals because I couldn't afford it or simply didn't have the time to eat.
Naturally, I developed minor physical health issues that continue to this day. My mental health also took a hit because I didn't worry about self-care. In my mid-thirties, I finally decided to focus on myself. I've found from personal experience that making time for fun helps relieve or eliminate a lot of mental and physical pain.
Of course, I've been scolded by some for being selfish when I started saying "no" to requests and favors asked of me. Being scolded and made to feel like I'm a selfish, uncaring human being when I want nothing more than for others to be happy is stressful. Fortunately, I'm learning to not stress much about things outside of my control.
#6: Don't Stress Much
There will always be someone unhappy with my decisions and beliefs in life. If I can't control what they think about me, even if they're making false assumptions about something, then why should I stress over it?
My Dad is the one who taught me to not stress over things outside of my control. I can only control my behavior and actions, which means I control whether I get stressed or how stressed I get over something or someone. After all, I could always walk away from a situation.
OK, so walking away is easier said than done depending on the situation. Yet, I'm learning to not stress about too much if possible. I consider the Ways I Personally De-Stress to relax when I'm feeling anything other than happy.
Because I'm trying to think of myself and well-being more now than years past, it doesn't mean I care about my loved ones any less. I'll never stop thinking about them or others in my life.
#7: Do My Best
I've felt like a failure most my life. This may come as a surprise to my friends and family that may read this last sentence.
My Mom pushed for perfection and I often got scolded when I didn't do something perfect according to her eyes. Lately, my entire life's been a failure based on our last phone conversation a couple days ago.
I've accepted that I'll never be perfect in anything, especially since I dabble in so many different things instead of mastering just one. The only thing I can do is my best in life. While that's not acceptable to everyone, my best is perfect enough for me.
#8: Appreciate My Many Blessings
When things get tough and challenging, it's easy for me to forget the good things in life. That's why I started noting a good thing each day for over a year. I remind myself every day that I'm blessed, loved, and cared for.
Sure, I have regrets in life and sad memories I can't forget, but overall, I can't complain. I have a great family, awesome friends, fantastic dogs, and kind people who've demonstrated their kindness and care for me in my past.
I have a roof over my head, a car to go wherever I need to go, food to keep me sustained, a comfortable bed to sleep in, and bills paid on time every month and year.
My parents, family, friends, dogs, and others important in my life are mostly healthy and doing well in their lives. I'm overall consistently healthy and happy, two things I couldn't say honestly a few years ago.
I could go on and on about the great things in my life, and that's mostly because I periodically make time to think about and appreciate my blessings regularly. I specifically do this when I start to feel bad like after my conversation with my Mom the other day.
My Thoughts
When I wrote down a random short writing prompt as an example for last week's blog post, I didn't think I'd put a lot of thought into completing it. However, I took a few days to consider the rules I'd like to live by for the remainder of my life.
I could only come up with eight different "commandments" for myself, and I know it'll be difficult to follow these rules when things get tough in life. However, this was a fun creative and mental activity.
I didn't have to take it seriously, but my mind wandered off into "what if" territory. I really wanted to explore this writing prompt more and felt good with what I came up with.
What's Next?
I want to keep thinking about this writing prompt and decided on what numbers nine and ten could be. I challenge you to consider completing this writing prompt for yourself.
What are your personal "ten commandments" or rules you'd like to live by? Login and Sign up to share some or all your rules with us!
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Thanks, and have a great day!
Simply Jelly Jam
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