Do One Thing Different: Ten Simple Ways to Change Your Life

Whenever you are stuck with a problem, try something new. Do something—just one thing—different. Break the pattern of the problem. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results!

Если то, что Вы делаете, не работает, действуете по-другому!

This is the paradoxical effect of service: those who do service often get as much benefit as those who are served, or more. Also paradoxically, you can't go into the performance of the service with the motive of getting personal benefit out of it; you must enter into it purely altruistically. Only then do you reap its profound personal rewards.

Mark Twain: "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."

We are all prisoners of our limited point of view and we have a tendency to think our point of view is the only correct way of seeing things, especially when we are upset. So, when you are stuck or unhappy, find another way of looking at the situ- ation. Think of it from another angle.

Some people find that dancing, sex, athletics, eating fine foods, chanting, yoga, or other body activ- ities connect them to a sense of what is beyond them.

The solution-oriented approach focuses on the present and the future and encourages people to take action and change their view- point. The past is important in the sense that it has influenced us and has brought us to where we are today, but letting it determine your future is a mistake. Instead, this approach suggests acknowledging the past and then getting on with changing things.

When you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.
—Dakota tribal saying

Вы должны стоять там, где стоите, что бы попасть туда, куда стремитесь.

Безумие - это точное повторение одного и того же действия в надежде на изменение.

Я попробовал читать книги по психологии и самореализации. Эффект оказался неожиданным: с каждой страницей я чувствовал себя все более разочарованным и несчастным.

Лично я воспринимаю позитивное мышление как попытку накрыть кучу навоза парчой и объявить ее золотом. Какое-то время все будет выглядеть отлично, пока вы не наткнетесь на эту кучу снова и не вспомните, что под позолотой скрывается обычное дерьмо.

The point is that it is easier both to understand what someone else is unhappy about and to change it when you use action talk — that is, when you talk in a way that describes what someone has done or is doing or what you want him or her to do in the future.
This bypasses the two typical communication problems in relationships: blame and vagueness.

"If you decide something is impossible, you are right. If you decided that it's possible, you're also right!"

CHANGE YOUR FOCUS FROM THINKING OR FEELING TO ACTION
Instead of focusing on your inner life, move into action.

Our culture is steeped in problem-orientation. We have an idea that when problems happen, they are caused or determined by the past and that things are just the way they are, set in concrete. If you simply do or think something different, however, many things can change. If you change your focus from problems to solutions, things can change even more quickly.

What you experience does not need to determine what you do in your life. Some people have the idea that if they have a feeling or a fantasy, it determines who they are or demands that they act on it. If I let my feelings run the show, I never would have completed this book. If I let any one part of my experience dominate, I am not including my other parts.