Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.

Optimism is critical to our spiritual health. Is our creative glass half full or half empty? It's a matter of perception — and faith. For most of us, the idea that we can listen to ourselves, trust ourselves, and value ourselves is a radical leap of faith. The idea that we can tell ourselves "Hey, you are doing pretty well and so much better than you did last year" amounts to a revolution. The possibility that we can trust ourselves, our decisions, and our painstaking progress, that this trust might be enough, even admirable, requires that muster a soupcon of optimism. Optimism about ourselves and our chances is an elected attitude. We can chose to believe the best and not the worst, but to do that we must become conscious of our own negative voice-over and decide to change our mental sound track.

As artists, we know very well that something can "not be done," only until someone does it. Some artist, somewhere, decides to shove the fence back a little and extend his or her and all of our range. As artists, we must listen most carefully to our inner guidance and secondarily to our outer advisers. This isn't just spiritual law — trusting the still, small voice to guide us — it's good business practice as well. The interaction of commerce and creativity is a tricky dance, and we as artists must lead it. Show a new direction in your painting to a dealer who is being asked for more of last year's series and you may hear a worried and dispiriting "Mmmm." Do not be fooled. He cannot see what you as an artist may sense, that your direction is the new direction the market will soon be following. For an artist willing to have a learning curve, all directions lead somewhere worthy.

When you can see only two alternatives — yours and the "wrong" one — you can look for a synergistic third alternative. There's almost always a third alternative, and if you work with a Win-Win philosophy and really seek to understand, you usually can find a solution that will be better for everyone concerned.

When you talk, you repeat what you already know; when you listen, you often learn something.

Probably the most important deposit you can make into an Emotional Bank Account is just to listen, without judging or preaching or reading your own autobiography into what someone says. Just listen and seek to understand. Let him feel your concern for him, your acceptance of him as a person.

If we know how to listen to our own heart, we can listen to the heart of others.

To relate effectively with a wife, a husband, children, friends, or working associates, we must learn to listen. And this requires emotional strength. Listening involves patience, openness, and the desire to understand -- highly developed qualities of character. It's so much easier to operate from a low emotional level and to give high-level advice.

Communication is the most important skill in life. We spend most of our waking hours communicating. But consider this: you've spent years learning how to read and write, years learning how to speak. But what about listening? What training or education have you had that enables you to listen so that you really, deeply understand another human being from that individual's own frame of reference?