The 7 Essentials According to John

Steven Covey has his "Seven Habits." During the past few days I have found myself mentally organizing seven key "essentials" to do each day for an "effective" life, whatever that means. Or perhaps a meaningful life...or a healthy life in terms of mind, body and spirit. Regardless, here they are, seven essential things to do every day:

Pray
Exercise
Eat Well
Love
Work Your Passion
Read
Floss

Everything else is accessories.

There's sort of a ranking to my list, and you can feel free to rearrange or add or subtract. But my thought process here is that prayer to God as you define God sets the tone for everything else. Exercise releases the endorphins that impact everything you do and keeps you healthier and more available for all of life. Eating well addresses the latter part of the previous sentence also. Good spiritual, emotional and physical health make us more available to love--and loving someone or something, whomever or whatever it is, is a central part of being alive. Working your passion, or living out your true vocation, is a key window to sustainable joy. Reading engages and stretches the mind and ultimately sets it free.

And you just gotta floss. Good for the teeth, good for the health, good for the smile. By including floss on the list I am not being gum in cheek, by the way. Oh, that was bad.

So what's on your list of everyday "essentials?"