Below is the contents list from the book “Don’t sweat the small stuff and it’s all small stuff” by Richard Carlson. The list may not make a great deal of sense on their own and is not a “summary” of the book – you will need to read the book yourself.
- Don’t sweat the small stuff… and it’s all small stuff
- Don’t sweat the small stuff
- Make peace with imperfection
- Let go of the idea that gentle, relaxed people can’t be superachievers
- Be aware of the snowball effect of your thinking
- Develop your compassion
- Remind yourself that when you die, your “in basket” won’t be empty
- Don’t interrupt others or finish their sentences
- Do something nice for someone else—and don’t tell anyone about it
- Let others have the glory
- Learn to live in the present moment
- Imagine that everyone is enlightened except you
- Let others be “right” most of the time
- Become more patient
- Create “patience practice periods”
- Be the first one to act loving or reach out
- Ask yourself the question, “will this matter a year from now?”
- Surrender to the fact that life isn’t fair
- Allow yourself to be bored
- Lower your tolerance to stress
- Once a week, write a heartfelt letter
- Imagine yourself at your own funeral
- Repeat to yourself, “life isn’t an emergency”
- Experiment with your back burner
- Spend a moment every day thinking of someone to thank
- Smile at strangers, look into their eyes, and say hello
- Set aside quiet time, every day
- Imagine the people in your life as tiny infants and as one-hundred-year-old adults
- Seek first to understand
- Become a better listener
- Choose your battles wisely
- Become aware of your moods and don’t allow yourself to be fooled by the low ones
- Life is a test it is only a test
- Praise and blame are all the same
- Practice random acts of kindness
- Look beyond behavior
- See the innocence
- Choose being kind over being right
- Tell three people (today) how much you love them
- Practice humility
- When in doubt about whose turn it is to take out the trash go ahead and take it out
- Avoid weatherproofing
- Spend a moment, every day, thinking of someone to love
- Become an anthropologist
- Understand separate realities
- Develop your own helping rituals
- Every day, tell at least one person something you like, admire, or appreciate about them
- Argue for your limitations, and they’re yours
- Remember that everything has god’s fingerprints on it
- Resist the urge to criticize
- Write down your five most stubborn positions and see if you can soften them
- Just for fun, agree with criticism directed toward you (then watch it go away)
- Search for the grain of truth in other opinions
- See the glass as already broken (and everything else too)
- Understand the statement, “wherever you go, there you are”
- Breathe before you speak
- Be grateful when you’re feeling good and graceful when you’re feeling bad
- Become a less aggressive driver
- Relax
- Adopt a child through the mail
- Turn your melodrama into a mellow-drama
- Read articles and books with entirely different points of view from your own and try to learn something
- Do one thing at a time
- Count to ten
- Practice being in the “eye of the storm”
- Be flexible with changes in your plans
- Think of what you have instead of what you want
- Practice ignoring your negative thoughts
- Be willing to learn from friends and family
- Be happy where you are
- Remember that you become what you practice most
- Quiet the mind
- Take up yoga
- Make service an integral part of your life
- Do a favour and don’t ask for, or expect, one in return
- Think of your problems as potential teachers
- Get comfortable not knowing
- Acknowledge the totality of your being
- Cut yourself some slack
- Stop blaming others
- Become an early riser
- When trying to be helpful, focus on little things
- Remember, one hundred years from now, all new people
- Lighten up
- Nurture a plant
- Transform your relationship to your problems
- The next time you find yourself in an argument, rather than defend your position, see if you can see the other point of view first
- Redefine a “meaningful accomplishment”
- Listen to your feelings (they are trying to tell you something)
- If someone throws you the ball, you don’t have to catch it
- One more passing show
- Fill your life with love
- Realize the power of your own thoughts
- Give up on the idea that “more is better”
- Keep asking yourself, “what’s really important
- Trust your intuitive heart
- Be open to “what is”
- Mind you: own business
- Look for the extraordinary in the ordinary
- Schedule time for your inner work
- Live this day as if it were your last – it might be!
- Treasure yourself