1.Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay him/her.

2.Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” the devil’s name is Alzheimer’s.

4. Enjoy the simple things. When the children are young, that is all that you can afford. When they are in college that is all that you can afford. When you are on retirement that is all that you can afford!

5. Laugh often, long and loud, until you gasp for breath. Laugh so much that you can be tracked by your distinctive laughter.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be alive while you are alive; don’t put out a mailbox on the highway of death and just wait in residence for your mail.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it is family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health. If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don’t take guilt trips. Go to the mall, the next county, a foreign country, but not to guilt country.

10. Tell the people you love, that you love them, at every opportunity.

And always remember — Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

The Optimist Creed

Promise yourself —

• To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

• To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.

• To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.

• To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

• To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best. (Well, it is more realistic also to prepare for the worst!)

• To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

• To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

• To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.

• To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticise others.

• To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.