These wise tips hold great potential for changing our lives. Just like the seeds many of us are planting now, these tips can grow into ways of being that are gentler, simpler, and filled with more honest joy in living.

Check out the ten tips for a simpler spring–and a simpler, happier life–right here:

1. Relax your standards. A messy garden takes less work than an ultra-tidy one, but it still bears beautiful flowers and fruit.

2. Take time to figure out what you find most satisfying. Some of us like to spend the spring days washing our car, foraging for wild edibles, or lazing in a hammock. Make sure you know what your pleasure-priorities are.

3. Create time for the things you care about, whether it is a daily walk in the spring sun, or 30 minutes with a good book.

4. Enjoy what’s in front of you. Spring abounds with beauty, no matter where you live. Take time to appreciate it all.

5. There is value in having a long-range perspective on life, but there is also a value in being able to live in the moment. We don’t want to miss the beauty of the buds because we’re impatiently longing for the ripe fruit.

6. Learn to be flexible; rigidity is the hobgoblin of an unsatisfying life. We can take a lesson from the trees, which sway in the spring winds and rains and are not uprooted.

7. CHANGE. . . every once in awhile you need to shake things up and surprise everyone, including yourself. On a sunny day, grab your kids and head outside for an unexpected picnic. If your child gets grass-stains on their knees, so what? The joy of acting spontaneously is one of the greatest gifts life has to offer.

8. What activities and things are you able to live without? If you really think about this, your list will grow and grow. . . Maybe you don’t really need the latest garden gadget you were drooling over in the catalog, or that new lawn chair. . . Maybe you’d rather not make those sandwiches for that meeting because someone else could do that just as well, but only YOU can do some of the things YOU do . . .

9. Remember, you always have the capacity to make CHOICES. This year, maybe you’d rather plant strawberries than roses. Or you’d rather save for a getaway rather than buy a new stereo. It’s up to you.

10. Remember that there are no bonus points in life for suffering through what other people say you should enjoy. Only you know what really pleases you.