If you want to be happy, be. ~Leo Tolstoy

Today I realized a very important thing...That laughter is the best thing that can ever happen to any of us.  Laughing helps us to find the joy in life, and helps us to become friends with people we never expected to be friends with.  Laughing is a form of bonding and of communication between at least two people.  When we least expect it, we are friends with somebody new because we laughed about something that made our spirits jump up and down with excitement.  We can't always expect this laughter to just jump out at us, and we can't expect to have someone else make us laugh. And so we have to find the fun in life, the good fun, that is.  Laughter helps us to heal our physical and mental wounds.  It helps us to gain confidence that we can be whoever we want to be and we suddenly have this surge of confidence that is a boost to our self-esteem.  
Marjorie Pay Hinckley said:  "The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache."  We can learn to laugh at ourselves and we will have greater days that are full of greater and more happy memories.  When I stall in the car I drive at a stoplight, and there is a line of cars behind me, I can either choose to give up and cry, or I can choose to laugh at myself and just try again.  If we aren't trying anything new in our lives, and taking small risks, then we truly aren't living life.  I have to take a risk of applying for a job this summer because I want to earn money and be successful with my goals.  If I don't learn to take that small risk and apply for the job that I want, then I will never learn how to be successful in a job.  Find the adventure in your life that you always yearn for.  Not adventure by going out into the woods and living off the land for a couple months...but adventures in simple tasks that you perform every day.  Instead of sitting by yourself while waiting to be checked in at an office, start a casual conversation with someone around you and go out of your comfort zone.  There is nothing more relieving than to go out of your comfort zone, and actually being successful. Really, the only way to fail with your personal goals is to let yourself down.  Yes, other people may ruin your day, but YOU are the one choosing for them to ruin your day.  You must decide to laugh it off, and move on...There will always, always be people who seem like they are on a mission to just cause contention, but you can avoid the anger that is usually caused from this contention.  Ignore it, and think of something else.
My swim coach told me a smart way to think of something specific.  When you tell yourself to: "Don't think of (insert a thought here),"  your brain will not be able to do that.  You must give yourself something else to focus on.  When I am swimming in an event during a meet, and even during practice, I must tell my brain to think of being "smooth and fast."  I can't deviate from those thoughts, and I can't tell myself to stop thinking of something else, or else my thoughts will always stay with the deviated ones.  Focus is an important skill we must all aspire to gain.  Without focus, we cannot accomplish our goals.  Without accomplishing our goals, we cannot be happy.  
“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”

(The picture is of me and my laughing buddy, Sydney).