Inspirational Thought Of The Day. Collected by Magic Mike Berger.  Inspirational quotes to motivate you, to make you feel happy, or better about yourself, or to help with obstacles. Some are combined with famous art or meaningful photos.

Thoughts by Siddhartha Guatama, Jesus of Nazareth, Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and Albert Einstein stay at the top. New ones are added after those.

"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world." - Siddhartha Guatama Buddha. "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Seek, and you will find.  Knock and the door will be opened to you." - Jesus of Nazareth. "To make others happy, practice compassion.  To make yourself happy, practice compassion." - His Holiness 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.

I wanted to learn how to fly when I was six years old and had many dreams of flying, so I went to the library to look for the ancient knowledge. The librarian thought I meant magic. I wish you could experience the magical, creative moments I have felt in my audiences, performing for people for 50 years, because of that. - Magic Mike Berger This is a long page with 250 photos, including famous art, that is still being loaded. I urge you to let it all load. Relax. Enjoy this page and tell friends. Come back to see updates. Use this sound controller, below, to lower volume or turn off the piano concerto.

Song

I am glad daylong for the gift of song, For time and change and sorrow; For the sunset wings and the world-end things Which hang on the edge of tomorrow.

William Stanley Braithwaite

SONG

In the depth of my soul there is a wordless song.

Kahlil Gibran

SONG

Sing a song, give your world a lift. Sing it loud, sing it proud, put a smile upon your lips. Rest your mind, relax your soul and reach for the stars. Nothing puts you in heaven quicker than when you sing a song.

Deborah Ann Smith

PETS

The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

Samuel Butler

PETS

Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.

Jeff Valdez

PETS

No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as much as the dog does."

Christopher Morley

CHANGE

To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.

Confucius

CHANGE

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.

Karen Kaiser Clark

CHANGE

Don't be afraid to give up the good for the great.

Kenny Rogers

SOUL

Some tension is necessary for the soul to grow, and we can put that tension to good use. We can look for every opportunity to give and receive love, to appreciate nature, to heal our wounds and the wounds of others, to forgive, and to serve.

Joan Borysenko

SOUL

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul.

Douglas MacArthur

SOUL

The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love. Therefore, it can never find rest nor happiness in other things. It must lose itself in love. By its very nature it must seek God, who is love.

Mechthild of Magdenburg

OPTIMISM

I am optimistic and confident in all that I do. I affirm only the best for myself and others. I am the creator of my life and my world. I meet daily challenges gracefully and with complete confidence. I fill my mind with positive, nurturing, and healing thoughts.

Alice Potter

OPTIMISM

My sun sets to rise again.

Robert Browning

OPTIMISM

Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel there is something special in them. Look at the sunny side of everything. Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger.

Christian D. Larsen

DREAMS

Nothing happens unless first a dream.

Carl Sandburg

DREAMS

Hitch your wagon to a star.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

DREAMS

Dream big dreams! Imagine that you have no limitations and then decide what's right before you decide what's possible.

Brian Tracy

ACTION

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

ACTION

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action."

Benjamin Disraeli

ACTION

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.

Joel Barker

PRAYER

Prayer may not change things for you, but it for sure changes you for things.

Samuel M. Shoemaker

Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.

John Aikman Wallace

Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your tasks.

Phillips Brooks

FRIENDSHIP

It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend his faults. So to love a man that you cannot bear to see a stain upon him, and to speak painful truth through loving words, that is friendship.

Henry Ward Beecher

A friend that you have to buy won't be worth what you pay for him, no matter what that may be.

G. D. Prentice

Remember, the greatest gift is not found in a store nor under a tree, but in the hearts of true friends.

Cindy Lew

RESENTMENT

Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.

Buddha

An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

Gandhi

Put love first. Entertain thoughts that give life. And when a thought or resentment, or hurt, or fear comes your way, have another thought that is more powerful -- a thought that is love.

Mary Morrissey

LIFE

The value of life lies, not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them: a man may live long, yet live very little. Satisfaction in life depends not on the number of your years, but on your will.

Michel de Montaigne

It is not length of life, but depth of life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.

Jawaharlal Nehru

The courageous don't live forever, but the timid don't live at all.

COURAGE

I do not ask to walk smooth paths nor bear an easy load. I pray for strength and fortitude to climb the rock strewn road. Give me such courage and I can scale the hardest peaks alone, and transform every stumbling block into a stepping stone.

Gale Brook Burket

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.

Raymond Linquist

"The greater the artist, the greater the doubt; perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize." -Robert Hughes

LEARNING

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

Henry Ford

Learning is finding out what you already know, Doing is demonstrating that you know it, Teaching is reminding others that they know it as well as you do. We are all learners, doers, and teachers.

Richard Bach

CHILDREN

What's done to children, they will do to society.

Orlando A. Battista

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.

Franklin P. Adams

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings.

Hodding Carter

AGING

You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old.

George Burns

Age does not depend upon years, but upon temperament and health. Some men are born old, and some never grow up.

Tryon Edwards

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

Les Brown

ACTS OF LOVE

If you have much give of your wealth, if you have little give of your heart.

Arab Proverb

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

Eric Hoffer

Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

THIS MOMENT

Right now, this moment, is the time to celebrate by dancing beneath the warmth of the sun.

Gary Barnes

To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every second is of infinite value.

Johann von Goethe

HEALING

Pleasant words are a honeycomb sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Proverbs 16:24

Believe and the healing will come.

Gary Barnes

Positive attitudes - optimism, high self-esteem, an outgoing nature, joyousness, and the ability to cope with stress - may be the most important bases for continued good health.

Helen Hayes

SELF

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go unto the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself.

Alan Alda

He only is a great man who can neglect the applause of the multitude and enjoy himself independent of its favor.

Joseph Addison

The last quarter of a century of my life has been pretty constantly and faithfully devoted to the study of the human race - that is to say, the study of myself, for in my individual person I am the entire human race compacted together. I have found that there is no ingredient of the race which I do not possess in either a small way or a large way.

Mark Twain

WISDOM

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.

James Oppenheim

A pint of example is worth a gallon of advice.

Unknown

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

Confucius

ENTHUSIASM

Expressing your enthusiasms can add years of creative life to your time on earth.

Marsha Sinetar

A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.

Charles Schwab

Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no mater how frightening or difficult, a new meaning. Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity but with it you can accomplish miracles.

Og Mandino

DREAMS

Nothing happens unless first a dream.

Carl Sandburg

Hitch your wagon to a star.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dream big dreams! Imagine that you have no limitations and then decide what's right before you decide what's possible.

Brian Tracy

KINDNESS

The best portion of a good man's life is in his little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.

William Wordsworth

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

Aesop

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground; but a kind word is never thrown away.

Arthur Helps

SMILES

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Leo Buscaglia

SMILES

Smile, it is the key that fits the lock of everybody's heart. Anthony J. D'Angelo GOALS

Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I'll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I'll give you a stock clerk.

J.C. Penney

Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them.

Les Brown

THREE STEPS FOR POSITIVE GOAL SETTING

As I conduct my Time Management Seminars all over, my audiences consistently tell me they want more out of life. Almost everyone I speak with has a yearning for improving several aspects of their lives. They have dreams and goals about their future as yet unrealized.

Many come to the end in life with those visions unrealized, pictures in their minds only.

Achieving goals helps us to get the "want to's in our lives. Life ought to be more than just achieving the "have to's".

I offer three important tips to help increase the probability of achieving your dreams, getting more of what you want in your life.

1. Put your goals into writing. There is something powerful about writing out what you want, getting your dream out of your head and on to a piece of paper. It then seems more realizable. It's a stonger affirmation of what you are working towards rather than having a vague, wispy notion floating around in your head.

An even stronger tool is to prepare a goal scrapbook. Nothing fancy. Get a three-ring binder and fill it with notebook paper. Then get a picture of each your goals and paste them into your new goal scrapbook. You ca go to the car dealer and get a brochure of the new car you want. Visit a travel agent and pick up brochures of your ideal vacation's destination and add that. Clip a picture of your dream house out of the newspaper's real estate section and add this as well.

Then, each night, review your goal scrapbook and see a picture of what will surely be coming to you. It's like viewing a crystal ball and seeing your future.

2. Quantify your goals. Many do not get what they truly want in their lives because they are too vague about what they want. It is not enough to say, "I want more money" or "I want to be rich". Instead, if you write, "I want $10,000", you now have a clear target to shoot for.

3.Set a deadline. Did you ever set a New Year's resolution and never achieve it? Most people have. And most people fail to achieve their dreams because they did not include a deadline with their goal. Deadlines move us to action.

When we fail to include a deadline for our goal, when we commit to achieving it "as soon as possible", the goal winds up in our "as soon as possible" pile of things I will do another day, which is probably never. Why? Because we all too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. The items that have deadlines for completion tend to bubble up in priority and importance so that we take action and achieve them.

Having written out the goal, placed a picture in our goal scrapbook, quantified it, and set a deadline, we can now break that goal down into its little component pieces so that achievement becomes realistic and manageable.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. No goal achievement is a leap across some huge canyon. Many are intimidated and driven away from going after what they really want in their lives for fear they will have to take a giant leap across that canyon and, hey, what if I don't leap far enough? Disaster.

Let's say you have a goal to get an additional $10,000 in savings two years from today. Make up a picture of your new bank statement two years from now showing the additional $10,000 in your account. The goal is in writing. It is quantified and a deadline has been set. Now you can break that goal into its little steps for achievement.

To get $10,000 over the next two years requires getting an additional $5,000 per year. A year is made up of twelve months, so that means you need to get approximately $400 per month. A month is made up of four weeks, so that's $100 per week. And a week is made of, let's say, five business days. That's $20 per day. (I have not added in interest to these calculations just for simplicity.)

I don't know about you, but the notion of going out in the world tomorrow and getting an extra $20 is a whole lot more realistic and certainly a whole more doable than getting $10,000. Getting the entire $10,000 is the leap across the canyon. It scares me. $20 is the single step. That's something I can handle. Now the goal seems realistic and is realizable.

But until you write out your goal, quantify it, and set a deadline so that you break it down to its small steps, it will forever appear to be too big a stretch and therefore unattainable. But every time you follow these three steps and break the goal down, you will always find that you have within your control what it takes to accomplish that next step. And once you begin, you are on your way!

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore Professional Speaker

You can't hit a home run unless you step up to the plate. You can't catch fish unless you put your line in the water. You can't reach your goals if you don't try.

Kathy Seligman

The superstition that all our hours of work are a minus quantity in the happiness of life, and all the hours of idleness are plus ones, is a most ludicrous and pernicious doctrine, and its greatest support comes from our not taking sufficient trouble, not making a real effort to make work as near pleasure as it can be.

Lord Balfour

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

Khalil Gibran

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.

John Ruskin

Impossibilities are merely things which we have not yet learned.

Charles W. Chesnutt

Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress.

Charles Dickens

CHALLENGES

Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.

Bernice Johnson Reagon

You have powers you never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations in what you can do except the limitations of your own mind.

Darwin P. Kingsley

COMPETITION

You must sacrifice, train, do everything possible to put yourself in a position to win. But if you consider second or third a failure, I feel sorry for you.

Joe Falcon

The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be only sustainable competitive advantage.

Arie de Geus

Enjoy the successes that you have, and don't be too hard on yourself when you don't do well. Too many times we beat up on ourselves. Just relax and enjoy it.

Patty Sheehan

Everything changes, nothing remains without change.

- Buddha

The Miracle

"The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth." - Chinese Proverb

Mystical Sensation

"The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the source of all true science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms, this knowledge, this feeling is the center of true experience."

- Albert Einstein

"All your strength is in your union, All your danger is in discord."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Things We Want To Hear...

"The things we want to hear are usually the things we don't need to hear.

The things we don't want to hear are usually the things we need to hear."

- Khalifa Abdur-Raheem

The Things We Want To Hear... Part 2 - Tales From The 'eeenyverse"

"The things we want to hear are usually the things that take us to a galaxy far, far away from God, family, friends and co-workers - inside our own 'eeenyverse.'

The things we don't want to hear are usually the things that, if we listen to them, will take us very close to God.

Our perception of what is good to listen to is mostly based on what feels good to the senses, the ego, the mind, the body, the emotions, the sex drive and the food appetite.

Rarely do we give an open ear with an open heart to information which is good for our soul's evolvement. We are mostly creatures of flesh possession with little or no interest in the needs of the soul.

Just remember that the needs of the soul require depriving the ego, the mind, the emotions and the senses of their fun fest. But, and this is a big but - When we deprive them (ego, mind, emotions, et. al.) of their rulership over our life, we automatically enter into a warp drive stream of good vibes which speeds us closer and closer to God. And the closer we get to God, the better we feel.

Goodness and mercy will find you and chase you for the rest of your life!!! :-)

There are millions of degrees of closeness to God and each one has a special feeling which more than makes up for the loss of the false temporary gratisfaction that comes from those things we are asked to give up for the good of our soul - for the good of the whole."

- Khalifa Abdur-Raheem 6-12-00

When we want to ascend past circumstances and situations, we must be willing to adjust our attitudes and our reactions to a frequency that is well beyond the limitations we face.

We must be flexible in saying, 'let me humble myself,' to be able to receive a new and fresh perspective in the middle of the unwanted difficulty. That is, if we hope to be able to escape the strangle hold it has on our life.

It's kind of like the pilot who does NOT adjust his flight path while in a nose dive. Soon enough, he will find his nose kissing the ground in a non user friendly way."

- Khalifa Abdur-Raheem

Teaching Without Words . . .

"The softest thing in the universe overcomes the hardest thing in the universe.

That without substance can enter where there is no room.

Hence I know the value of non-action.

Teaching without words and work without doing are understood by very few."

- Lao Tsu Tao Te Ching 43

"Be glad for life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to look up at the stars." - Henry Van Dyke

Worry is like a rocking chair--it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere. - Dorothy Galyean

Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey! - Barbara Hoffman

Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry. Worry never fixes anything. -Mary Hemingway

EXPECT THE BEST

Noelle came to work worried about her roommate, Jana, who didn't come home the night before and didn't call. That wasn't like Jana, and Noelle was worried.

But Noelle's worry did not benefit Jana, and it harmed Noelle. Worry put stress hormones into her bloodstream, which isn't healthy. It suppressed her immune system. If she worries a lot, it will damage the inside of her arteries, which can end in a heart attack or stroke many years hence. Needless worry is a cost without a benefit. And it's not pleasant.

If you are worrying and want to stop, first ask yourself if there's anything you're going to do about the situation. If not, then start wondering what good things might be happening. Do not try to stop worrying.

Research by Daniel Wegner, PhD, of the University of Virginia has repeatedly shown that trying to suppress thoughts only results in thinking the thought more. If you try to suppress a thought hard enough, that thought can become an obsession.

Try to stop worrying and you'll worry even more. What you want to do is give your mind a bone to chew on, but a different bone. Worrying is imagining something bad happening. Simply imagine something good happening, and there will be less room in your mind for imagining something bad happening. Your mind has its limits, like the RAM of a computer. Give it enough to do, and it won't have the free space to do anything else.

If worrying is a habit for you, it won't go away immediately. Every time you start to worry, ask yourself what good might be happening. And keep asking and wondering and then leave it at that-an open-ended possibility. Do this and something good will be happening to you: You'll feel better and you'll be healthier.

By the way, Jana had a wonderful time.

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.

Brian Tracy

If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.

Heroditus

Joy is not in things, it is in us.

Richard Wagner

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.

Leonardo Da Vinci

"Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed." -Unknown

Man's power of choice enables him to think like an angel or a devil, a king or a slave. Whatever he chooses, mind will create and manifest.

Frederick Bailes

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

Positive not Negative

Happy not Sad

Succeed not Fail

Constructive not Destructive

Freedom not Confinement

Leader not Follower

Confident not Insecure

Truth not Fiction

Embrace not Withdraw

Accepting not Judgmental

Strong not Weak

Future not Past

Build not Destroy

Forward not Backward

Fearless not Fearful

Quality not Quantity

Half Full not Half Empty

IT IS MY CHOICE - I HAVE CHOSEN!

Anne Boisvert

I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Little deeds of kindness, little words of love, help to make earth happy like the heaven above.

Julia A. Fletcher Carney

Most people live, weather physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

William James

What one has to do, usually can be done.

Eleanor Roosevelt

When people say to me: "How do you do so many things?" I often answer them, without meaning to be cruel: "How do you do so little?" It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.

Philip Adams

Robert F. Bennett

Love received and love given comprise the best form of therapy.

Gordon William Allport

When one door closes, another opens: but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the one which has opened for us.

- Alexander Graham Bell

An occasional compliment is necessary, to keep up one's self-respect. When you cannot get a compliment any other way, pay yourself one. - Mark Twain

Compassion for myself is the most powerful healer of them all. - Theodore Isaac Rubin, M.D.

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. - Booker T. Washington

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. you yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection. - Buddha

Little deeds of kindness, little words of love, help to make earth happy like the heaven above. - Julia A. Fletcher Carney

Love received and love given comprise the best form of therapy. - Gordon William Allport  

LESSEN THE STRESS

Learn to live simple, focusing on what's truly important

Don't be afraid of your passion

Don't answer the telephone during dinner

Stop trying to please everybody. Start pleasing yourself

Carve out an hour a day for solitude

Set aside one day a week for rest and renewal

For every "yes" let there be a "no"

Don't squander precious resources, time, creative energy, emotion

Allow an extra half-hour for everything you do

Always carry something interesting to read

Breathe deeply, and often

Drink pure spring water - lots of it

Always opt for comfort

Cultivate gratitude

Be instead of Do

Exchange security for serenity

Luxuriate in your senses

If you don't love it, live without it

Let Mother Nature nurture

Go to bed at 9 o'clock twice a week

Move, walk, dance, run, find a sport you enjoy

Begin and end the day with prayer, meditation, reflection

Strive for realistic deadlines

Approach problems as challenges

Nurture friendships

Honor your aspirations

Savor beauty

Cherish your dreams

Search for your Authentic self until you find it - Unknown

"Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response." -Mildred Barthel

Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. - Hans Margolius

When the doors of perception are cleansed, man will see things as they truly are, infinite. - William Blake

The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man. -Euripides

Here are 10 tips to keep yourself in balance:

1. Exercise. A well-rounded fitness routine includes strength training, aerobic conditioning, and flexibility. Critical to your success in staying balanced is to make exercise a TOP PRIORITY in your life - and staying committed to it. Being fit helps you to enjoy life. It increases mental sharpness and physical endurance. An energized body helps give you a positive outlook on life, plus you look great, feel great, and reduce your risk of disease.

2. Drink 8-10 glasses of water a day. Water helps transport vital nutrients, regulates body temperature, eases digestion, keeps joints supple, cleans out your body, keeps skin healthy and young.

Not drinking enough leads to dehydration, resulting in headaches, fatigue, dizziness, constipation, and foggy memory. Not drinking enough water can lead to excess water weight, because our bodies will store water outside our cells. That's where you feel bloaty and heavy.

Water helps the liver do its job more efficiently, namely in metabolizing fat. If you're not consuming enough water, your liver has to work overtime with its other primary function: detoxifying the body. Water helps maximizes the liver's efficiency of both jobs, so you keep your insides clean, your weight healthy, and get rid of fat.

3. Life is perfect, even if you don't think it is. God deals you a hand every day. What you get is what you get. Your job is to do the best you can with the hand you're dealt. That doesn't mean you have to "lie down and play dead." What can you do better to make your life MORE perfect? Know that you can create your dreams, no matter how difficult life can be at times.

4. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Helen Keller once said, "Life is either a series of adventures, or it is nothing." We all have this shield of armor that protects us from some aspect of life. This shield is your comfort zone. And that comfort zone is a haven for disintegration. When you take off this armor, the only thing you're risking is GROWTH, a wonderful life, high energy, and a leaner body.

5. Be a daily visionary. Visualize your goals and your dreams - every day. Take a five-minute break from your computer, stop off on the side of the road in between sales meetings, and create a motion picture on the screen of your mind of your goals, your dreams, of how you'd like your life to be. Visualize yourself already in possession of your wishes.

6. Feed your body well. Your diet can help prevent illness and disease. Some 300,000 deaths per year are a result of poor lifestyle choices, and nutrition habits is one of those poor choices. 1) Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day, 2) Eat at least 4 balanced meals a day, 3) Eat a variety of fruits and veggies - in different colors. These colors will give you a greater spectrum of valuable disease-fighting nutrients.

7. Live in the present. Yesterday's gone. Tomorrow never comes. Be fully present each moment and free yourself from the ball-and-chain of yesterday and tomorrow. Everything is always in the present moment, so live it fully.

8. Live with integrity. You talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? Being in integrity means you really are who you appear to be. How you live your life is reflected in your commitments, your values, your beliefs, your sense of right and wrong. When you live in harmony with what you believe in, you have peace and happiness flowing into your life.

9. Develop high self-esteem. You already know how you benefit from a high self-esteem. People who you care about benefit, too. Let go of your emotional baggage, treat yourself with respect. Your attitude - how you think, feel, and act - mirrors how you feel about yourself.

10. Live respectfully. You are NOT at the mercy of your circumstances. George Bernard Shaw said, "The winners in life look for the ideal circumstances, and if they cannot find them, THEY MAKE THEM." Are YOU letting your present results and circumstances control YOU? Are YOU making things happen? - Garrett J. Braunreiter, CSCS The Energy Coach

Fortunate indeed, is the man who takes exactly the right measure of himself, and holds a just balance between what he can acquire and what he can use. - Peter Mere Latham

We all make mistakes. When we say, "We are sorry", we should recognize that our behavior has caused another sorrow, and try not to repeat it. - Gary Barnes

A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life. - William Arthur Ward

There's no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man that didn't tell you all about it? - Kin Hubbard

People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to. - George Allen

Nature gave men two ends -- one to sit on, and one to think with. Ever since then man's success or failure has been dependent on the one he used most."

- Robert Bloch

5 CLASSIC STEPS TO CLEAR THE PATH IN FRONT OF YOU

You need to go. The time has come. You have decided to leave! You've been doing the same thing for so long now. It's lost its interest, vitality and doesn't seem to hold a future for you as perhaps, it once did.

You put your things together and look outside the window. There used to be a road there. Yesterday, before you decided that you wanted something more, something different, a clear path lay outside your home. Now, it's either gone or so well covered that you're going to need to be very resourceful to locate it once again.

Here are five classic steps you can take to clear the path in pursuit of your goals and objectives.

1. Establish An Interest

Yesterday, the mundane road was visible in that you could see it. Now, your interest has significantly changed and waned off somewhere else.

Generally, when we get to the cross road in our life where we want more than we are currently getting, we start to look for (viable) alternatives. Invariably, come up with ideas and ideals based upon our interests. We know we like doing certain tasks, jobs and recreational activities that lead us to thinking more around the concept of enjoyment.

What's in it for you? What are you currently lacking in your life? Is it job interest, partner/spouse, flexibility, desire to be your own boss, freedom, family, assets or a host of other possibilities?

Whatever it is you must have more than a fleeting interest in it. You are looking to enhance your life and your lifestyle. This will require all your energies. It is due to the shedding of your own skin why the path now seems to be gone. Your choice has brought about the fact that you must now deal with unfamiliarity. Your interest must be huge in that you must really go down this path and carve your preferred lifestyle for yourself.

2. Look At Your Options

For the moment the path is, at best, well covered. At any rate, you can't see it. There may be several paths out there. All aren't visible to you at first glance. You need to look long and hard to find these paths. They will all be foreign to you (unless you've been down them before). Therefore, you may not recognize them even if you stumble over them.

You must create possibilities. You need to create something from nothing. It sounds almost magical, but it's not. Create plans, contingencies and a strong nexus between yourself and each one of them. Ensure that your options are based on point number one, your interest. If it holds no interest for you then it has no foundation. Without foundation, it has almost a zero chance of getting off the ground.

It can take a while to fully examine all your options, but it is paramount to do so. When you do this some paths, in varying breadth and condition will begin to become visible. You'll need a clear view before giving the option serious consideration. If it is not clear enough then work on it some more. If clarity is still a problem then you may want to discard this option.

3. Leave Your Luggage At Home

Just as traveling at an international airport, too much luggage will slow you down, get in your way, cloud your thought, and make your trip less comfortable than it needs to.

When implementing such big decisions you need to be free of distractions and other hindrances to achieving your goals and objectives. Such hindrances could be negative vibes from family and friends. You will most likely get some of this at some point along the way. Use passive detachment and don't let it bother you.

By far the biggest and most dangerous unwanted baggage we take with us is ourself. As we put the feelers out into unchartered waters, we tend to step cautiously. It is unknown, therefore we don't know what to expect. However, the danger with this is slipping back to familiar turf. Security is something we must shake if we are going to clear a new path for us. Please be painstakingly aware that you can be your own worst enemy if you drop back to the devil you know too readily.

4. Take Necessary Tools With You

To clear the path you'll need to take along as many high quality useful tools that you can muster. A positive mental attitude and total belief in your choice is paramount. Together, they are not enough on their own, but they go a long way in giving you strength and focus as you venture out on your very own "Yellow Brick Road".

Your two big plans; i.e. your "Personal Plan" & "Business Plan" will have ideally been created as a part of Step Two (Looking At Your options). These two plans are your guides. The steps you are now taking are just a part of what you have designed for yourself in them both.

You wouldn't arrive in a foreign city without an accurate up-to-date street guide. Ensure your life plan commands the same respect and stock up on the tools of the trade.

5. Check Out The Scenery As You Go

It's very important to see what lies in front of you. The last thing you need is to find a gaping big manhole under your feet with nowhere to go, except down. Pay attention to where your choices bring you.

Check on your speed of travel. Are you accomplishing what you set out to do at the beginning in the required time frame? Is anything getting in your way? Are you actually ahead of time?

As you progress, look at the world around you. Familiarize yourself your new surroundings. Look at ways to improve performance based on what is already known to you coupled with what you pick up along the way.

This is your life. Don't ever stop developing ways to clear the path that lay before you. As you go and learn more, it becomes ever so much more enriching. You deserve the best. Make sure you settle for nothing less...EVER!!!

Ideas for success - Darren

Failing doesn't make you a failure. Giving up, accepting your failure, refusing to try again 'DOES'!  - Richard Exely

DO YOU WANT TO GIVE UP?

WE HAVE GOALS -- things we want to accomplish. And we really do want to accomplish them; we're not trying to fool anyone or pump things up. But sometimes we give up on our goals. Why?

All goals have obstacles to their achievement, things in the way. These are problems or difficulties we meet on the way to the goal that we must handle in order to achieve the goal.

What makes us give up is when it looks like we won't be able to overcome the obstacles. They seem too big or too numerous. When we feel sure we can't do it, we tend to give up.

What are the alternatives to giving up? Below are three. They are stated simply. Please do not discount them because of their brevity or simplicity. The fact that they are stated simply and briefly merely makes them easier to use and therefore more powerful, not less.

GET HELP. There are people who want to help you. Enlist their aid. The more help you get, the sooner you'll succeed.

TACKLE THE OBSTACLES ONE AT A TIME. When you try to tackle all the obstacles, or just look at all the obstacles at the same time, it can overwhelm you. The feeling of being completely outgunned can take the wind out of your sails before you even get started. Pick one obstacle -- an easy one -- and tackle that first. Don't even think about the rest of them. It's likely that after you've tackled one obstacle, you'll be in a better, stronger position to handle the next one, and so on.

GET SOME TRAINING or knowledge that will make you more able to deal with the obstacles. Read, study, practice. As you gain in ability, the obstacles shrink in comparison.

Next time you are overwhelmed by obstacles, try one, two, or all three of these alternatives to giving up. You'll find they work. Using them, you'll discover new strength and zeal to keep your dream alive and accomplish your goal.

- Adam Khan

It is my observation that being beaten is often a temporary condition, that giving up is what makes it permanent.

- Marilyn Vos Savant

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

- Confucius

The supreme value is not the future but the present. The future is a deceitful time that always says to us, "Not yet", and thus denies us. The future is not the time of love: what man truly wants he wants now. Whoever builds a house for future happiness builds a prison for the present.

- Octavio Paz

Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.

- Napoleon Hill

A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.

- H. Stanley Judd

If I had to define life in a word. It would be: Life is creation.-

Claude Bernard

The world would have you agree with its dismal dream of limitation. But the light would have you soar like the eagle of your sacred visions.

- Alan Cohen

"One isn't born one's self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people's ideas - and you have to work through it all." -V.S. Naipaul

To be on a quest is nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions.

- Sam Keen

How do you know so much about everything? was asked of a very wise and intelligent man; and the answer was 'By never being afraid or ashamed to ask questions as to anything of which I was ignorant.

-Lord Billingsley

The loftier the building the deeper the foundation must be.

- Thomas ã Kempis

Capture the moment, whover you are. None of us is here forever.

Adrian

A man's doubts and fears are his worst enemies.

- William Wrigley Jr.

All the discontented people I know are trying to be something they are not, to do something they cannot do.

- David Grayson

I exist as I am, that is enough, If no other in the world be aware, I sit content, And if each and all be aware, I sit content.

- Walt Whitman

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

- Franklin Delano Roosevelt  

We are largely the playthings of our fears. To one, fear of the dark; to another, of physical pain; to a third, of public ridicule; To a fourth, of poverty; to a fifth, of loneliness... for all of us, our particular creature waits in ambush.

- Horace Walpole

All worthwhile men have good thoughts, good ideas and good intentions, but precious few of them ever translate those into action.

- John Hancock Field

The best place to succeed is where you are with what you have.

- Charles M. Schwab

"True greatness has its seat in the heart...it must be elevated by aspiring to great things and by daring to think yourself capable of them."

- Abigail Adams

"Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night."

- Leo Aikman

That man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of a life.

- Euripides

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

- Bruce Lee

I realized that if what we call human nature can be changed, then absolutely anything is possible. And from that moment, my life changed.

- Shirley MacLaine

Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.

- Norman Vincent Peale

Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.

- Henry Van Dyke

When the archer misses the mark, he turns and looks for the fault within himself. Failure to hit the bull's eye is never the fault of the target. To improve your aim -- improve yourself.

- Gilbert Arland    

No one can defeat us unless we first defeat ourselves.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Failure is never fatal and success is never final.

- LaShawn Evans

The best to secure future happiness is to be as happy as is rightfully possible today.

- Charles W. Eliot

No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.

- Barbara De Angelis

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.

- Karen Kaiser Clark

A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition.

- William Arthur Ward

They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world. Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.

- Tom Bodett

You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments when you have really lived were the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.

- Henry Drummond

He who does not hope to win has already lost.

- Jose Joaquin Olmedo

There is no such thing as can't, only won't. If you're qualified, all it takes is a burning desire to accomplish, to make a change. Go forward, go backward. Whatever it takes! But you can't blame other people or society in general. It all comes from your mind. When we do the impossible we realize we are special people.

- Jan Ashford

Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see a bird that had the blues? One reason why birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses.

- Dale Carnegie

Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air... but only for one second without hope.

- Hal Lindsey

Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win.

- Bernadette Devlin

Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have.

- Norman Vincent Peale

Give to the world the best you have and the best will come back to you.

- Madeline Bridges

All worthwhile men have good thoughts, good ideas and good intentions, but precious few of them ever translate those into action.

- John Hancock Field

Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.

- Samuel Smiles

No man is a failure who is enjoying life.

- William Feather

Our doubts are traitors; and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.

- William Shakespeare

Believing in fate produces fate. Believing in freedom will create infinite possibilities.

- Ayn Rand

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.

- Helen Keller

Only when your consciousness is totally focused on the moment you are in can you receive whatever gift, lesson, or delight that moment has to offer.

- Barbara De Angelis

No age or time of life, no position or circumstance, has a monopoly on success. Any age is the right age to start doing!

- Gerard

Today I forgive all those who have ever offended me. I give my love to all thirsty hearts, both to those who love me and to those who do not love me.

- Paramahansa Yogananda

The action of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.

- John Locke

I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline... I firmly believe that any man's finest hour - this greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle victorious.

- Vince Lombardi

One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.

- Albert Einstein

Character is the foundation stone upon which one must build to win respect. Just as no worthy building can be erected on a weak foundation, so no lasting reputation worthy of respect can be built on a weak character. Without character, all effort to attain dignity is superficial, and results are sure to be disappointing.

- R. C. Samsel

What lies before us and what lies behind us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Fear is an insidious virus. Given a breeding place in our minds... it will eat away our spirit and block the forward path of our endeavors.

- James F. Bell

With confidence, you can reach truly amazing heights; without confidence, even the simplest accomplishments are beyond your grasp.

- Jim Loehr

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

- Albert Einstein

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

It has been said that our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength.

- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Until you make peace with who you are, you will never be content with what you have.

- Doris Mortman

The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself.

- Lao-Tzu

If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer's always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.

- Nora Roberts

Act the way you'd like to be and soon you'll be the way you act.

- George W. Crane

Your thoughts are the architects of your destiny.

- David O. McKay

The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.

- Arthur C. Clarke

Some people say I have attitude - maybe I do... but I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does - that makes you a winner right there.

- Venus Williams

Your greatness is measured by your kindness - Your education and intellect by your modesty - Your ignorance is betrayed by your suspicions and prejudices - Your real caliber is measured by the consideration and tolerance you have for others.

- William J. H. Boetcker

When you get in a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

- Harriet Beecher Stowe

You don't get to control any outcome, only every choice you make along the way.

- Stephen C Paul

Nature has been for me, for as long as I remember, a source of solace, inspiration, adventure, and delight; a home, a teacher, a companion.

- Lorraine Anderson

The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to make money nor find much fun in life.

- Charles M. Schwab

You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down. - Mary Pickford  

Rather than denying problems, focus inventively, intentionally on what solutions might look or feel like... Our mind is meant to generate ideas that help us escape circumstantial traps - if we trust it to do so.

- Marsha Sinetar

Live not one's life as though one had a thousand years, but live each day as the last.

- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.

- Napoleon Hill

Your morning thoughts may determine your conduct for the day. Optimistic thoughts will make your day bright and productive, while pessimistic thinking will make it dull and wasteful. Face each day cheerfully, smilingly and courageously, and it will naturally follow that your work will be a real pleasure and progress will be a delightful accomplishment.

- William M. Peck

Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

- Lord Chesterfield

I have to be wrong a certain number of times in order to be right a certain number of times. However, in order to be either, I must first make a decision.

- Frank N. Giampietro

Determine what specific goal you want to achieve. Then dedicate yourself to its attainment with unswerving singleness of purpose, the trenchant zeal of a crusader.

- Paul J. Meyer

Anything worth doing at all is worth doing well.

- Lord Chesterfield

The real you is not your body or your mind, not your ego or any localized experience you can have. Nor are you all these things lumped together. What is the real you, then? To find out is a great challenge, because we are all deeply convinced that the passing show of emotions, thoughts, drives, desires and bodily sensations is the real us.

- Deepak Chopra

Show yourself more human than critical and your pleasure will increase.

- Domenico Scarlatti

Our principles are the springs of our actions; our actions the springs of our happiness or misery. Too much care, therefore, cannot be taken in forming our principles.

- Philip Skelton

When looking back, usually I'm more sorry for the things I didn't do than for the things I shouldn't have done.

- Malcolm Forbes

When it is time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.

- Henry David Thoreau

The person who seeks all their applause from outside has their happiness in another's keeping.

- Claudius Claudianus

He who is humble is confident and wise. He who brags is insecure and lacking.

- Lisa Edmondson

We grow because we struggle, we learn and overcome.

- R. C. Allen

One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks.

- Jack Penn

Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.

- Louis E. Boone

Discoveries are often made by not following instructions; by going off the main road; by trying the untried.

- Frank Tyger

When you approach a problem, strip yourself of preconceived opinions and prejudice, assemble and learn the facts of the situation, make the decision which seems to you to be the most honest, then stick to it.

- Chester Bowles

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - you can blame anyone but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change, you're the one who has got to change. It's as simple as that, isn't it?

- Katherine Hepburn

Instead of being aggressive toward a difficulty, be quiet before it, and notice the new feeling.

- Vernon Howard

  Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.

- Mark Twain

THE PAST

Our past is a story existing only in our minds. Look, analyze, understand, and forgive. Then, as quickly as possible, chuck it.

- Marianne Williamson

Appreciation of life itself, becoming suddenly aware of the miracle of being alive, on this planet, can turn what we call ordinary life into a miracle. We come awake to such a realization when we recognize our connection to a spiritual dimension. - Dan Wakefield  

SIMPLE LIVING Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; judge less, love more, and all good things will be yours. - Swedish Proverb

For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it. - Ivan Panin

The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love. - Henry Miller

The only honest measure of your success is what you are doing compared to your true potential. - Paul J. Meyer

Every man is the architect of his own life. He builds it just the way he wants it. However, after he has built what he wants, he sometimes decides that he doesn't like what he has built and looks for someone or something to blame instead of changing himself. - Sidney Madwed

The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent. - Arnold Schwarzenegger

It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage. - George William Curtis

A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner. - English proverb

You may feel like dwelling on your limits or your fears. Don't do it. A perfect prescription for a squandered, unfulfilled life is to accommodate self-defeating feelings while undercutting your finest, most productive ones. - Marsha Sinetar

"I can forgive, but I cannot forget" is only another way of saying, "I will not forgive." Forgiveness ought to be like a cancel note - torn in two and burned up so that it never can be shown against one.

Henry Ward Beecher

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE

To all the things that are good about me.... And I shall from this day forward,

No longer try to be everything to everybody. Nor will I be someone I'm not.

I shall no longer use all my energies to fulfill the dreams of others while mine go unattended.

I shall use my assertive right to take charge of my life.

I shall never again know guilt, for this pain is self-chosen.

I shall fight the manipulators and their ploys by standing up for myself and my ideals.

I shall insist upon being treated with dignity and demand goodness in my life.

I shall speak the truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others.

I shall be the judge of my behavior, thoughts and emotions, and I shall be responsible for them.

I shall challenge putdowns.

I shall destroy negative thoughts and fears of rejections.

I shall not distress myself with imaginings.

I shall be gentle with myself and strive to be happy.

I shall live positively.

I SHALL BEGIN NOW!

Unknown

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes. - Hugh Downs

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. - Melody Beattie  

IMPERFECT COMPARISONS Do you bemoan the size and shape of your various body parts? Is your hair too thick or too thin or too curly or too straight? Are you too tall or too short?

Who changed the standard from 'perfect the way you were born' to 'perfect the way someone else was born' anyway? It doesn't make any kind of logical sense.

If we judge our appearance by the way someone else looks, or compare it to a standard set by society, then we're not giving our Creator enough credit for knowing what He's doing.

The next time you pass a mirror, stop and have a good long look, then repeat these words, "If it's good enough for God, it's good enough for me!"

© 2000 Terri McPherson

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher. - Thomas H. Huxleu

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to. - Kahlil Gibran  

After a while you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul, And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning and company doesn't mean security, And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't promises, And you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and your eyes open, with the grace of an adult, not the grief of a child, And you learn to build all your roads on today because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans. After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much.So plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. And you learn that you really can endure... that you really are strong, And you really do have worth. - Veronica A. Shoffstall  

Being positive is looking at every situation from the proper perspective. When we drift off into self pity, remorse, pessimism, or an angry resentful attitude towards any situation; we are no longer able to contribute to the answer. We are living in the problem rather than the answer. When we do this we are wasting good energy that could be used to be productive. Sadness and disappointment are not bad emotions. It's when we dwell in negative emotions that we become an instrument of confusion rather than an instrument of peace. - Annie

DO GOOD ANYWAY People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered - Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives - Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies - Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you - Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight - Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous - Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow - Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough - Give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God - It never was between you and them anyway. - Mother Theresa

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them. - Kahlil Gibran

Spread love everywhere you go: First of all in your own house... let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting. - Mother Teresa

We shall never have more time. We have, and have always had, all the time there is. No object is served in waiting until next week or even until tomorrow. Keep going day in and out. Concentrate on something useful. Having decided to achieve a task, achieve it at all costs. - Arnold Bennett  

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve! - Andrew Carnegie

THORNS AND ROSES

A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully. One day, as he examined it, he saw that the bud would soon blossom, but noticed thorns upon the stem. He thought........How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns? Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and before it was ready to bloom, it died.

So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The God-like qualities planted in us at birth growing amid the thorns of our faults.

Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential. Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns and find the rose within others. This is characteristic of love... to look at a person and know their true faults. Accepting that person into your life, while recognizing the nobility in their soul. Help them to realize that they can overcome their faults.

If we show them the rose, they will conquer their thorns. Only then will they blossom many times over.

"Love is a heavenly drop spilling from the chalice of life to moderate its bitterness."

"Where the heart is willing it will find a thousand ways, but where it is unwilling it will find a thousand excuses."

Unknown

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet. - James Oppenheim  

If the Creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he surely meant us to stick it out. - Arthur Koestler

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. - Helen Keller  

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it. - Jiddu Krishnamurti

We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. - Jawaharlal Nehru

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.

Moliere

Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence. - Abigail Adams  

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement. - Foster C. Mcclellan

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heart-felt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other. - Douglas Everett

If you don't like what you're doing, then don't do it. - Ray Bradbury

Almost any idea is good if a man has ability and is willing to work hard. The best idea is worthless if the creator is a loafer and ineffective. - William Feather

There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment. - Norman Vincent Peale

Our prayers are answered not when we are given what we ask, but when we are challenged to be what we can be. - Morris Adler

Always make a total effort, even when the odds are stacked against you. - Arnold Palmer

The men who build the future are those who know that greater things are yet to come, and that they themselves will help bring them about. Their minds are illuminated by the blazing sun of hope. They never stop to doubt. They haven't time. - Melvin J. Evans

Sweep away the clouds from the old year. Scrub the mildew of regret off your skin and remove the paint of disappointment from the walls of your heart.

Stand and shine.

Let the world see how wonderful you really are.

- Terri McPherson

The real power behind whatever success I have now was something I found within myself - something that's in all of us, I think, a little piece of God just waiting to be discovered. - Tina Turner

People so seldom say, "I Love You" And then it is either too late, or Love goes; So when I tell you, "I Love You" It does not mean I know you will never go, Only that I wish you did not have to. - Ken Harrington

Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use. - Emily Post

Everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room, every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person. - An Indian Proverb

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death. - Robert Fulghum

Don't worry about what other people think of you. There are many people, and many perceptions in this world. Be true to you. - Kristie Koch

People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within. - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities