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I am in the process of trying to get my Excel Spreadsheet to add up and down – which I have accomplished, but I need it to subtract going across.  And, not only do I need it to subtract across, I also need it to keep a running monthly totally to subtract going across.

My eyes are crossed!!

And you would think there would be a “Youtube” out there where you could just type in what you want, and low and behold, the correct tutorial video pops up, you watch it, problem solved.

But nooooo!

You have to watch about five or six tutorials to find exactly what you’re looking for, and then it still might not be what you need.

I thought I was proficient enough in Excel to get by with what I need, but I have realized that I might need a class; which brings me to my point.  It’s that time of year when we need to take inventory of our lives.

We should think about what we want in our lives…love, peace, joy, as well as knowledge, certain purchases we might need to save up for, work ethics, or a goal to get promoted.  Such an easy thing to do, and if you know how to operate “Excel”, it’s even easier to keep track of your progress.

You might be wondering why I would list things like love, peace and joy as part of our inventory list.  We should keep track of how much of these things we have in our lives, and how much we want.

You can think about all the people who love you and state that you have 50% of love in your life, or 90%.

Whatever the percentage, most people would want more of this.  You can add more to your life by giving love away.  It’s amazing how that works.  You give away what you have, and you get back that much, or more.

Bitter, negative people never seemed to get more love.  No one wants to love someone who is bitter or negative.  It’s not healthy to hang around those types of people anyway.  Those are the people that want to pull you down right along with them.

So, it might be a good idea to take inventory of the people you have in your life that are negative or bitter, and make a point to spend less time with them.  Don’t abandon them, just keep a healthy distance if possible.  When you add joy to your life, you seem to get a lot of peace along with the joy, so we really should add a lot of joy.

Try not to watch so much news, don’t talk politics or COVID (LOL!), try to read more jokes, and watch happy stories.  It really does make a difference in your attitude, which will allow you to have more joy.

One of the top 10 things to do, to add more joy to your life, is to hang around positive people.  I love positive people, but not the ones that are so over the top positive.  The ones that tell you “now, we must stay positive” all the time.  A lot of times, those people are in “negative sheep’s clothing”.  They just like to be in control, and say condescending statements like that, to make them feel better about themselves.

Ok, enough said about negative people…It also makes a huge difference if you track things like love and joy.  You can see where you need to improve or take away, just as if you were tracking weight loss.  I know it is an added responsibility that none of us need, but seeing results is always so rewarding.  Take inventory of how much you laugh in a day.  No, Jesus did not go around laughing, but He had perfect love.

We need to help our love out with joy, so laugh a little bit!  Let 2021 be a good starting point for everything new and good in your life.

Karen Y. Stevens is Executive Director, Meals on Wheels