Posts tagged as:
I believe in animal rights, and high among them is the right to the gentle stroke of a human hand. – Robert Brault
Photo Credit: The one website I’m on at least 3 times a day, I Can Has Cheezburger.com – The only thing I’m on more than ICHC is caffeine.
Making an issue of little things is one of the surest ways to spoil happiness. One’s personal pride is felt to be vitally injured by surrender, but there is no quality of human nature so nearly royal as the ability to yield gracefully. It shows small confidence in one’s own nature to fear that compromise lessens self-control. To consider constantly the comfort and happiness of another is not a sign of weakness but of strength. – Charles Conrad
Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making his dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C’s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of these is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way. – Walt Disney
“In these times of development, the whole world runs and is hurried. But there are some who fall down on the way and have no strength to go ahead. These are the ones we must care about.” – Mother Teresa
The powerfully beautiful and beautifully powerful quote above is just one of the gems from Mother Teresa found in In the Heart of the World: Thoughts, Stories and Prayers.
Mother Teresa’s name and image will forever be associated with her kindness, gentleness, and compassion. Her selfless work with the “poorest of the poor” should be an inspiration to all of us. In the Heart of the World, written by Mother Teresa, is filled with her eloquent wisdom, motivation, and inspirational teachings. Below are a few more examples.
Be kind in your actions. Do not think that you are the only one who can do efficient work, work worth showing. This makes you harsh in your judgment of others who may not have the same talents. Do your best and trust that others do their best. And be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength shines.
We too are called to withdraw at certain intervals into deeper silence and aloneness with God, together as a community as well as personally. To be alone with him – not with our books, thoughts, and memories but completely stripped of everything – to dwell lovingly in his presence, silent, empty, expectant, and motionless. We cannot find agitation.
If we were more willing to see the good and beautiful things that surround us, we would be able to transform our families. From there, we would change our next-door neighbors and then others who live in our neighborhood or city. We would be able to bring peace and love to our world, which hungers so much for these things.
As I read this book, I lost myself in the beauty that was and is Mother Teresa. Reading her words was so incredibly peaceful and relaxing – yet, at the same time, an unrest crept up inside of me and stirred around. I realized that there is far more that I can and should do to help others in the world who are far less fortunate. While on the early pages, I kept thinking, “What the world needs right now is another Mother Teresa.” But, as I approached the final pages, I thought, “What the world needs right now if for more men and women to start caring more about people and less about possessions. It needs more hearts that are broken for the suffering of others. And more people refusing to look the other way.”
We don’t need another Mother Teresa as much as we need to learn from the one we were blessed with.
“I must be willing to give whatever it takes to do good to others. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in me and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me.” – Mother Teresa
The Mother Teresa quotes are from In the Heart of the World: Thoughts, Stories and Prayers
We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Bonus: Change is often rejuvenating, invigorating, fun….and necessary. – Lynn Povich
I’ve gotten numerous (numerous, numerous, numerous) suggestions and requests to set up a daily inspirational quotes e-mail newsletter. It seems I’m not the only person who just can’t get enough of inspirational quotes and daily shots of motivation. I consulted with my senior adviser (okay, okay, he’s actually my husband – but senior adviser sounded so high brow I had to go with it) and this is what we’ve come up with: I’ll post an outstanding inspirational quote on the blog each day – no fluff, no fury, no frills, no frou frou – just the inspirational quote in all it’s glory.
If you will subscribe to the e-mail updates, you will get this quote in your e-mail just as you would through a newsletter. Just fill in the fields below and, bada bing, you’ll get a daily dose of inspiration in your inbox. After entering your e-mail and clicking Subscribe Me!, you’ll have to enter a few letters in a box (captcha) just to confirm that you are a human being. You’ll receive an e-mail right away asking you to confirm that you are who you say you are!
After you click the confirmation link, you’re set. I’ll see you in your e-mail each and every day. I’ll be the one with chocolate in one hand and a cup of Northstar coffee in the other.
(I realize the form above looks wonky, I have no idea why, but it’s still functional!)
It is better to talk of health, progress, happiness, and success, than of the contrary things. It is better to think of the beautiful, truthful, inspiring, and ideal, than the opposite thoughts. It is better to be cheerful, confident, expectant, and enthusiastic than to indulge in destructive feelings. Knowing this, the right course is clearly open to you. Fill your daily life so full of constructive thoughts and ideals, that there will be no room for negative and depressing ideas. Confine your conversation to helpful, useful, encouraging subjects. Be generous in thought, word, act, and purpose. Make the world better for your being in it. Take a strong stand for truth and righteousness, and make every day count toward your eternal progress and happiness. - Grenville Kleiser, 1917
As Grenville Kleiser so eloquently stated in 1917, one of the keys to happiness is positive thought. Your outlook, your countenance, your mood, your relationships….. your entire life can be positively affected if you’ll make a practice of holding your thoughts accountable for themselves. Over the next few days, keep a conscious ear tuned into your thoughts. What do you spend the most time thinking about? Are these thoughts constructive or destructive? Do these thoughts make you happy to be alive and grateful for all that you have? Do they leave you feeling good about yourself? What effect do your thoughts have on your mood? Do your thoughts cause you to feel discouraged, sad, angry, bitter, or resentful?
Think about it this way. When we give our body a healthy diet of food that’s good for it, it rewards us by feeling good and operating the way it should. When we overeat or mistreat our bodies with a diet of junk food and things that aren’t healthy, we feel sluggish, out of sorts, and often have to run to the store for Pepto Bismol. Our mind and our emotions operate on the same type of system – our thoughts are the food that fuel them, for better or worse.
Give it a try. Over the coming days, force yourself to concentrate on MORE positive thoughts and fewer negative thoughts. When a negative thought creeps in, overpower it with a positive one. If your mind says, “I can’t possibly do this…“ Turn the tables on it an replace the thought with, “I can’t possibly fail!”
I’ll tell you what will happen:
If that sounds like something you can live with, get started right now. Conjure up an incredibly positive and uplifting thought and stamp it across your brain. Think about the people, animals, places, and things that make you smile. Think about how grateful you are for each of them. Think about your positive traits and how thankful you are to possess them. Think about how bright your future is and how amazing the rest of 2010 is going to be.
It’s all good, right? Baseball season, grilling out, flower beds, and bird watching are all just around the corner. What’s not to smile about?!
Continued from How to Get What You Want in Life Part 1
HOW TO MAKE YOUR DESIRES MATERIALIZE by Elsie Lincoln Benedict, 1923
A friend in Denver once told me she “wanted a new spring suit more than anything.” We were walking down Sixteenth Street a few days later and there in a front window she saw the VERY suit she was looking for – for $35. In the olden days$35 actually bought a suit good enough for anybody, you remember?
“How lovely,” I exclaimed, “and to think you have the $35 right in your purse. Let’s go right in and get it before somebody else does!”
Would she? No. She had said she wanted that suit more than anything else in the world. But she didn’t even want it as much as she wanted the $35.
She WISHED she had a new suit like this one, but what she really WANTED was the money.
“But what about the person who hasn’t the $35?” I hear you ask. And the answer is you will find is the utter truth. It is this: You can GET it, honestly, legitimately, quickly, and surely, provided YOU WANT IT.
…Decide to restrict yourself because you “can’t get the money for things you want” and the money you do get will come that much harder.
But make up your mind to MAKE ALL THE MONEY YOU NEED for the things you want – and from the hour of reaching that decision you will make five dollars easier than you now make one.
The richer you become the easier it is to make money. The less you have the more difficult it is to get more.
…. All successful men and women who are frank will admit that many good things followed in the wake of that first big effort, and followed almost without further effort.
“Nothing succeeds like success” is an old and true saying. Another not so old but equally true is that nothing fails like failure.
The world always helps you along whichever way you are going. If you are headed uphill it will help pull you up. If you are headed downhill it will give you a push. We should not complain of this, but awaken to the fact that it IS a law, and instead of fighting it put it to work for us.
If you want to go uphill you must manifest this to the people around you. They are all driving along Lif’e’s Highway too, and they see you, think of you, and get an impression of you.
If you want to go down all you have to do is to let it be known and you will have plenty of kicks and company.
The world gets one of its deepest impressions of you FROM THE DIRECTION IN WHICH YOUR CAR IS MOVING. Everything about you tells what that is. Even children and those who catch a glimpse of you for only a moment sense this and act toward you accordingly.
You never deceive them very much of very long in any way. Bluffing and pretending do not deceive anyone. These only make you resemble a man who tells you he is traveling north when at every corner possible he turns south.
All of life is a journey along the great Highway. We are always coming to crossroads. We always make our own choice. We turn or go straight ahead – as WE CHOOSE.
We come to scores of these corners every day and the world notes the turns we make. It will give you plenty of time to get to your destination in the North, and many a lift besides, provided at the crossroads you keep heading in that direction.
Another strange thing about it is that the higher up you get the MORE help the world gives you, and the lower down the harder it gets.
You can see it for yourself. If you haven’t a cent and ask the world for a quarter to keep you from starving, it will not give it to you very quickly or very graciously. It says it “cant’ encourage that kind of thing.” It is afraid you “might not deserve it.”
But if you are a millionaire, with more money than you know what to do with, people will gladly loan you millions…
To the big dinners the hungry are not invited. The guests are those already overfed.
“This is all true,” you say, “but how is one to get started in the right direction? Especially when, as you say, the whole world is busy helping us downgrade already?”
The answer is: Change the CAUSE and you also change the EFFECT.
Your present condition… is the natural and ineveitable outgrowth of the attitudes and feelings HARBORED in your subconscious mind.
Most people secretly cherish the delusion that this is not a law-ruled universe, and that somehow they will be able to get something for nothing.
Look again at the word “harbored,” for it reveals the crux of your situation.
All kinds of things come into your consciousness. You can’t help seeing and hearing and even sometimes thinking these destructive things.
But you CAN refuse to HARBOR them.
The things that get down into your subconscious mind come out in your life.
But remember, nothing can get into your subconscious mind save as you dwell upon it and encourage it.
“But how can I start forward NOW, from this very spot?,” you ask.
To begin to go uphill in life instead of down…. it is only necessary that you TURN AROUND. Other things will come later, but for today this will be enough…
To get anything you want, gently open your mind to the idea that you CAN get it, somewhere, somehow. Do not dwell upon the things which just now seem to stand in the way of your getting it.
It is a law that two things cannot occupy the same place at the same time. So, turning your attention toward the good thought drives the bad one out. Soon this becomes a habit, and then out of your subconscious will comes the ideas of HOW to get what you want.
“Almost everything you do will seem insignificant, but it is important that you do it” - Mahatma Gandhi
If you’ve read Self Help Daily or Out of Bounds for very long, you know I’m a huge fan of older writings. I often publish articles from the distant past and never fail to marvel at their relevance. When I was rounding up my favorite motivational quotes about perseverance for this post, I wasn’t totally surprised to find that one of the best showed up to the meeting straight from 1893. The first quote you’ll find below is from an 1893 play, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, written by George Bernard Shaw.
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them. – George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, 1893
There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream. – Author Unknown
Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. – Newt Gingrich
Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain. – Author Unknown
When the truly great people discover that they have been deceived by the signposts along the road of life, they just shift gears and keep going. – Nido Qubein
Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. – Harriet Beecher Stowe
Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit. – Vince Lombardi
Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. – Dale Carnegie
