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Before diving into 2010 I wanted to stop and review the lessons you and I learned here at BlogHer in 2009.
1. Happiness is possible
Whether or not I win the lottery and even if sometimes I laugh to keep from crying.
2. Judge not
One helpful step on the path to happiness is learning not to judge others. Some tips: Going complaint-free, stop writing other people's stories and stepping off our moral platforms.
3. Non-attachment and getting rid of stuff
After I vowed in January to finally go through and purge all the boxes that I had moved unopened for years, I finally got around to it in October. Then I got a bit wild and contemplated getting rid of everything save the bare necessities. And while I marveled at and envied a bit those brave BlogHers who did just that, I settled for a balance of contentment and desire and realized that it's OK to want some things.
4. Can't We All Get Along?
Yes. We can learning how to share space with others graciously and having an awesome roommate experience at BlogHer can be great practice!
5. Stress
De-stressing and getting out of ruts takes effort but it is well worth it regardless of your relationship status, even if things are a bit wobbly in your life or if you've got some toxic people to handle. Also, letting up on being a control freak helps.
6. Community
When we are stressed out and dealing with toxic people we learned that we can create the community we want and need, that listening without judgment to communities outside our own can help us grow and that it's worth considering if we can help our community grow by letting someone else have the last word.
7. Resistance
This one is a ferocious beast that shows up often and in different guises for many of us. We learned lessons in combating resistance from former teen idols.
8. Action
One of the best lessons we can learn to combat many of the problem areas in our lives is to take action. Step-by-step we can build new positive habits. We can make decisions and create our lives. And although some times it feels like we take a step up and then get knocked back two, often combining optimism with action can lead to balance.
9. Ego
Sometimes our egos get in the way of learning lessons and taking action. Sometimes blogging ends up feeding those egos.
10. Learning life lessons
Taming our ego can open us up so that we can learn important lessons like self-forgiveness, creative ways to ask for and get what you want, how to trust yourself, patience and how to own your mistakes. The lessons don't always show up in the ways you expect and we don't always learn them the first time around but they are worth learning.
11. Tech life lessons
The internets offer me their own lessons like how to get the email monkey off my back, how to sign my email, how to get my blogging mojo back, and whether or not blogging is art or commerce and that it is OK to earn money for your work.
12. Facebook
I realized what an impact Facebook has had on modern life like leading you to share 25 random bits of information about yourselves, deciding how to deal with unfriending when relationships go bad and raising existential questions like do you friend dead people?
13. Creativity and Play
Another important lesson from 2009 was that even though we grow up, we can reignite our childhood creativity.
14. Resilience
Learning how to bounce back is a great lesson I'm still learning.
15. Self image
Several of the lessons of the past year were in how to deal with not allowing our self image to get in the way of our growth. I started by letting go of the old me who never was. I then discovered the folly of trying to save face for people who have passed away. Don't get guilted or shamed into paying other people's debt. I opened up my personal time capsule and learned that some things about me remain the same and in other ways I've grown and changed. I also learned that I can give myself permission to be imperfect which will be handy as I
