(Edited to add: This post has spawned my first book! Hopefully I'll be done by end of 2012. To see my entire journey, click here.) 

Last week Danielle LaPorte wrote a post that I loved. It's 49 promo ideas and it made me think how much I would love to write 49 ways that I think people could live a kick-ass life. So I did.

1. Make a decision to love yourself.
2. Look in the mirror today and tell yourself, “I am fucking awesome”.
3. Send an email to 5 friends asking how you can support them.
4. Masturbate. Privately.
5. Tell 5 people about your secret dream.
6. If you have an addiction to anything (or anyone), get help.
7. Admit out loud that thing your gut has been telling you.
8. Know that when you love yourself, the right people will be attracted to you and show up in your life. It’s science.
9. Stop making everything about you.
10. Get rid of all clothes that don’t fit you. Too big or too small.
11. That thing that you love to do that you don’t have time for? Make time.
12. That thing that you love to do but think you’re too old, or too fat, or too whatever? Do it anyway.
13. Admit that people that don’t like you or judge you, the problem is theirs. So, now you can let it go.
14. Write down all of your values. Things that are important to you, period. Then ask yourself how alive they are in your life.
15. Dance.
16. List your non-negotiables. The things you have to have to make you, you. Make them happen.
17. Communicate effectively (see #19).
18. Admit that things don’t really happen to you.
19. Listen without thinking about what you’re going to say next.
20. Accept your sense of humor. Even if other people think you’re weird. They just don’t get you.
21. Hide updates of people that really get under your skin on Facebook. Or unfriend them.
22. Laugh.
23. Accept that you’ll never be perfect.
24. Write down everything you’ve learned from the most painful parts of your life.
25. Realize that the people that try the most to be perfect, are the people that are really suffering.
26. Write 100 things you love about yourself.
27. Accept that people’s perfect outsides are never a match of their insides.
28. Remember you are always at choice. In feelings and actions.
29. Remember that “fat” is not a feeling. That also goes with “ugly” and “stupid”.
30. That thought that you aren’t good enough? That’s your gremlin voice. Work on managing it.
31. If you’re a scanner-type person (like me); you’re not crazy or wishy-washy. You’re you. And you’re awesome.
32. Stop dieting. No matter how much they promise you’ll lose weight.
33. Remember there are very few things you have control over. And even those are questionable.
34. Take your time when you go to the bathroom. And use good TP.
35. Use the good china for PB & J’s.
36. Remember that we all have issues.
37. Don’t allow people to suck you into their drama. They love audiences. Tell them “no thank you”.
38. Admit that when you’re trying to run other people’s lives, you’re avoiding dealing with the shit in your own.
39. Remember that your body is the only house you’ll ever get. Love it daily.
40. Letting go of resentments can be one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself.
41. If you can’t figure out where your day went, get the hell off Facebook.
42. Start creating, start a revolution, just start something.
43. You’re the only one who has control over how kind and compassionate you are to you.  Set the bar for others.
44. Stop bitching and moaning. You’d be surprised how much you can change if you just ask nicely.
45. Throw a theme party.
46. Remember the only person that can destroy you, is you.
47. Close the laptop, put down the phone.
48. There is no shame in not knowing what you want to do when you grow up.
49. Really, really, really, really know that there is not another soul just like you. That knowledge deserves a party.

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Kristina Chartier Photography