list for life

while blog-hopping i came across this today:

Alain de Botton's 'list for life'

Resilience

Keeping going even when things are looking dark

Empathy

The capacity to connect imaginatively with the sufferings

and unique experiences of another person

Patience

We should grow calmer and more forgiving

by being more realistic about how things actually happen

Sacrifice

We won't ever manage to raise a family, love someone else

or save the planet if we don't keep up with the art of sacrifice

Politeness

Politeness is closely linked to tolerance - the capacity to live alongside people 

whom one will never agree with, but at the same time, cannot avoid

Humour

Like anger, humour springs from disappointment,

but it is disappointment optimally channelled

Self-awareness

To know oneself is to try not to blame others for one's troubles and moods;

to have a sense of what's going on inside oneself, and what actually belongs to the world

Forgiveness

It's recognising that living with others is not possible without excusing errors

Hope

Pessimism is not necessarily deep, nor optimism shallow

Confidence

Confidence is not arrogance -

rather, it is based on a constant awareness of how short life is 

and how little we will ultimately lose from risking everything