Life Lessons and Deep Thoughts and Stuff

I'll admit it: I waste a lot of time on Buzzfeed and Huffington Post. Usually it's articles like "30 Corgies Who Have Been Ruined by Fame" or "27 Reasons You Should Date a Ninja Turtle". You know, really deep stuff.
Today I ran across 30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself. I'm not a glutton for self punishment and I'm generally a happy person, but some of these resonated with me. A few of them are things I'm trying to remedy in Denver. And many of them are things I recognize in other people. I've highlighted the ones that hit home for me.

What about y'all? Leave me a comment? Tell me if any of these strike you?

1. Stop spending time with the wrong people - For me, this one isn't so much about getting away from the wrong people (I genuinely don't have many of those in my life anymore), but finding more of the right people. I guess I'm glass half full. I'm hoping Denver will be full of like-minded, outdoorsy people that will bring joy and adventure to my life.
2. Stop running from your problems.
3. Stop lying to yourself - Isn't this very similar to #25? But yes, I needed to take a good, hard look at myself. There are things I need to work on, and I need to push myself to make it happen. So I suppose this move to Denver has an emotional/psychological aspect to it. Call it what you will: purge, detox, purification, starting fresh, etc.
4. Stop putting your own needs on the back burner.
5. Stop trying to be someone you’re not.
6. Stop trying to hold onto the past.
7. Stop being scared to make a mistake - I've been comfortable for a while, so it's been too easy to justify my life here. But I realized I was very afraid of the next step. I have long wavered between buying a house here, trying a new city, or selling everything and living in a windowless van (OK, not really). But ultimately, commitment was intimidating. I feared failure and the unknown. What if the house payment was too much? What if I don't like the new city? What if the van breaks down? But this summer, I reached a breaking point where the risk of failure became less scary than the risk of letting things go unchanged. The worst that can happen is I'll be cold, lonely, and bored in Denver, in which case I can always come back. But at least I can say I gave it a shot.
8. Stop berating yourself for old mistakes - Back in college, I took a class called Psych 1000. It was mostly a silly class, but it did make me very aware of my internal "locus of control". Your locus of control is where you assign blame and responsibility. For example, some one with an external local of control does not attribute his success and failures to himself, but rather to factors outside his control. These people can be very care-free, and are able to accept when things are outside their power ("shit happens" mentality, LOL). However, at their worst, they may view themselves as victims of fate or refuse to accept blame. You know the type. On the other side of the spectrum are those with an internal locus of control. These folks believe in their ability to control their lives, and can accept responsibility for every aspect of their lives. This can be very positive; these people can honestly celebrate their successes and take ownership of their mistakes. However, at their worst, these people internalize their mistakes, obsessing over them and shouldering blame. They can contort their sense of responsibility into feeling of guilt and obligation. When things happen that are outside their control (let's face it, bad things happen), it blows their little minds. I have these tendencies. I have been aware of it for years, and have worked really hard at it. By God, you should have seen me in high school - when I came out of the horse show ring, I'd promptly list off all the things I should have done better (didn't matter if I won). If I made a mistake, I felt like I'd let down my horse, my trainer, and my Mom. Haha, it made me a very daunting competitor! My Mom did a great job of pushing me to celebrate myself rather than berate myself, and I got better, but it just didn't come naturally to me. It wasn't until I took Psych 1000 as a college freshman that I identified the problem - I have an extremely internal locus of control. Nowadays, I try every day to be more realistic in my expectations of myself and to recognize when I couldn't have done any more. I also try to recognize when I'm assigning unwarranted blame or responsibility to myself.
9. Stop trying to buy happiness.
10. Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness.
11. Stop being idle.
12. Stop thinking you’re not ready.
13. Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons.
14. Stop rejecting new relationships just because old ones didn’t work.
15. Stop trying to compete against everyone else.
16. Stop being jealous of others.
17. Stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself.
18. Stop holding grudges.
19. Stop letting others bring you down to their level.
20. Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others.
21. Stop doing the same things over and over without taking a break - Bingo. Someone once told me that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, and expecting a different result.
22. Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments.
23. Stop trying to make things perfect. 
24. Stop following the path of least resistance.
25. Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn’t - I'm not afraid of confrontation or brutal honesty, but I'm also OK with the "fake it 'til you make it" mentality. Sometimes I have to let things lie and figure themselves out. And hey, if I continue living life like normal, they will gradually become normal. 60% of the time it works every time. But sometimes it doesn't work, and I'll find myself pretending that things are swell when I know damn well that the problem isn't going to fix itself. In fact, it might be getting worse - the frog is being boiled. This is the crummy part. Switching from passive mode to active mode is scary, awkward, and sometimes painful. But you gotta do what you gotta do. 
26. Stop blaming others for your troubles.
27. Stop trying to be everything to everyone.
28. Stop worrying so much
29. Stop focusing on what you don’t want to happen.
30. Stop being ungrateful.