Everything?!

I am not sure this covers the Lamborghini that I truly need. ;-) However, for everything else, I definitely like the first 2 on the list:

Open the door to infinite possibilities by helping others. You can get almost everything in life you need if you simply help enough people around you get what they need.  The most prolific work is found in the challenge of helping someone who has less than you do.  It’s one of life’s great paradoxes; when you help others you end up benefiting as much if not more than those you have helped.

If you feel stuck in your life because you have lost your direction, shift your focus from your circumstances to the circumstances of those around you.  As Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”  Instead of asking, “Why don’t I have what I need?” ask, “How can I help you get what you need?”  Find someone who could use an extra hand and make an offer they can’t refuse.

Life is a circle – what goes around, comes around eventually.  Since so many people are out to only help themselves, when you genuinely seek to help others succeed in getting what they need, they will notice your presence.  These people will in turn fight to help you succeed in getting everything you need.  What you need becomes what they want most.

Bottom line:  Live so that your life is not defined by what you have acquired, but by what you have given away… not by what is etched on a gravestone, but what is etched in the lives and hearts of those you have helped.  (Read The How of Happiness.)

Dedicate time to meaningful work.

When deprived of passion and meaningful work, human beings lose their reason for living; they get lost and go frantically mad. Thus, a fulfilling life is lived by letting your interests and passions drive you forward, and then losing yourself in the journey of taking each required step.

The same way your body responds to the right nutrients, your heart, mind and spirit also need nourishment.  You are able to get that nourishment when you indulge in meaningful work, because when you truly lose yourself in something that moves you, you will eventually find yourself there too.

So never let the reality of what is, get in the way of what is possible.  Never give up on the things that make your heart skip a beat.  A focused human being driven by passion is always more powerful than the reality of the moment.  Express your love.  Live your truth.  Share your enthusiasm. Take action towards meaningful goals.  Walk your talk.  Embrace your gifts.  Bounce to the beat of your own drum.  Work on something worth remembering.

Those two were my favorites too.

With one caveat: it is hard in this economy to find meaningful work that pays enough to live on.

It's worth pursuing, but it's not easy.

Very true. Not everyone is lucky enough to be paid for their meaningful work. They may have to do that part for free (while doing something else to pay the bills) until that time in the future when passion and paycheck can align. I think the key is to never stop pursuing what is meaningful. How did Whole Earth Catalog say it (compliments of Steve Jobs' famous commencement speech)? Stay hungry, stay foolish!

Steve Jobs commencement speech:

rich, i really like your last comment. "...until that time when passion and paycheck align."  and yes, the key is to never stop pursuing what is meaningful—which might just be helping others!

Avocation should align with vocation.

yes!  and you just taught me a new word!

From Robert Frost, "Two Tramps in Mud Time": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocation

But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For heaven and the future's sakes.

The full poem: http://www.etymonline.com/poems/tramps.htm

that poem actually got me teary-eyed.  oh, robert frost!

thank you, adam.

You're welcome Emily. That poem was very memorable to me.

so, did he hire them to chop his wood? i feel like an ultimate stanza is missing!

this one is amazing:

Good blocks of oak it was I split,
As large around as the chopping block;
And every piece I squarely hit
Fell splinterless as a cloven rock.
The blows that a life of self-control
Spares to strike for the common good,
That day, giving a loose my soul,
I spent on the unimportant wood.

You're right, that stanza is wonderful!