My Personal Manifesto.

On Thursday I was working with a patient who was really struggling with fear and doubt.
She had found herself in a familiar scenario, one she managed to re-create over and over and over again in her life.

We got to talking about the fear and the doubt and then I asked her the question:
"What do you believe to be true about the world?"

From Susanne Conrad, I've learned that faith (belief+action) and patience are the flip side to fear and doubt. And, while there are a lucky group of people out there who maintain faith in there childhood god, there are many many of us still trying to figure it out.

If you are to figure out "who you are working for" at any given moment (Is it Faith? Or Fear?) then the question remains:

What do you believe to be true in the world?
What is your faith?

Over the weekend I was thinking about my own faith, having a hard time putting it all together.

I picked up a copy of The Happiness Project that had been sitting on my bookshelf for 6 months and I started to flip through it. At the very beginning author, Gretchen Rubin, outlines her *Manifesto*.
Her 12 Personal Commandments.

They are so great. I felt like she had it all right.

While it's not a clear summary of "what she believes to be true in the world", her guiding principles are a great start. A clear view on how she wants to live her life based on her faith.

So I decided to give it a go.
I thought it would be hard. She had already written the perfect list.
How could I write something better? More resonant?

It wasn't hard. It was easy. I put pen to paper and I wrote what I believe.
I wrote about the principles that guide my life and the principles I would like to guide my life.
Lessons I learned from my dad.
Lessons I learned on my own.

Jill's 12 Personal Commandments

1. Be Jill. (that's straight from Gretchen!)
2. See the Possibility.
3. Find a way to help.
4. Treat others as they would like to be treated.
5. Be Vulnerable.
6. Communication is everything. Everything.
7. Have Fun.
8. Judge less, understand more.
9. Everyday: find time to move and time to be quiet & still.
10. Try Hard.
11. Fail often. Enjoy it. (See #7)
12. Be the adult I want my children to become.

What are your 12 Personal Commandments?
Would find it hard to write them?