#868 How does one become a linchpin?

The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following instructions, meeting spec, and being managed.

Someone can always do your job a little better or faster or cheaper than you can.
The job might be difficult, it might require skill, but it's a job.

Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people.

I call the process of doing your art 'the work.' It's possible to have a job and do the work, too. In fact, that's how you become a linchpin.

The job is not the work.  ~ Seth Godin

- How does Godin distinguish between a job and work?
- To what extent do you utilize 'your art' in the endeavors of your day?
- Where can you cultivate your personal attributes as a linchpin?

#867 Joy from cliffs of despair

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.  ~ John Keats

Joy and sorrow are inseparable. . . together they come and when one sits alone with you . . remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.  ~ Kahlil Gibran

Words are like nets - we hope they'll cover what we mean, but we know they can't possibly hold that much joy, or grief, or wonder.  ~ Jodi Picoult

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.  ~ Mother Teresa

For happiness one needs security, but joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair.  ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

- What beauty have you experienced recently which brought joy?
- How can you best balance the joys and sorrows of life?
- How can you cultivate some happiness even amidst despair?

#866 To accomplish great things

Make sure you visualize what you really want, not what someone else wants for you.  ~Jerry Gillies 

Visualization is daydreaming with a purpose.  ~Bo Bennett

Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blue print, and begin to build.   ~ Robert Collier
 
To accomplish great things we must first dream, then visualize, then plan... believe... act!..   ~ Alfred A. Montapert

See yourself confronting your fears in your mind’s eye and handling those fears like a champ.   ~Les Brown

Tags: quotes about visualize, visualizing, planning, goals, life 

- What do you really want?
- When have you used dreaming/visualization/planning/believing/acting to help accomplish goals?
- To what extent could you use visualization to help overcome one of your fears?

#865 Stretched by a new idea

One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

An idea is salvation by imagination.  ~Frank Lloyd Wright

Our best ideas come from clerks and stockboys.  ~Sam Walton

Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them.  ~Alfred North Whitehead

Getting an idea should be like sitting down on a pin; it should make you jump up and do something.   ~ E. L. Simpson 

Tags: quotes about ideas, life

- What several ideas stretched your perspectives/understanding of life?
- In what ways have several ideas been liberating for you?
- What idea(s) could motivate you to act?

#864 Growing light

I will love the light for it shows me the way. Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.  ~ Og Mandino

We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.  ~ Mary Dunbar

There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.   ~ Edith Wharton

We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.  ~Ben Sweetland

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 

- How much light do you emanate?
- What shadows lurk in your life?
- How can you cultivate the light within?




#863 A little farther up the shore

Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.  ~ Michael Caine

The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.  ~ Cicero

When I can look life in the eyes, grown calm and very coldly wise, life will have given me the truth, and taken in exchange - my youth.  ~ Sara Teasdale

I never felt settled or calm. You can't really commit to life when you feel that.  ~ Angelina Jolie

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.  ~ Willa Cather

The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore.  ~ Cyril Connolly

Tags: quotes about calm, life

- How vigorously are you paddling through life?
- What causes you some anxiety?
- To what extent do you try to seek harmony/balance through the turbulence?

#862 A new world every heart beat

In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important as remembering.  ~ William James

To be able to forget means sanity.  ~ Jack London

To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius. And easier. Because it's true. It's a new world every heart beat.  ~ Joyce Cary

Blessed are those who give without remembering and take without forgetting.  ~ Elizabeth Bibesco

- What incidents in your life are worth forgetting?
- How can forgetting past wrongs be liberating?
- In what situation(s) might you be able to give without remembering your good deeds?

#861 Be good for something

We value virtue but do not discuss it. The honest bookkeeper, the faithful wife, the earnest scholar get little of our attention compared to the embezzler, the tramp, the cheat.  ~ John Steinbeck

On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and quite all the time.  ~ George Orwell

Blushing is the color of virtue.  ~ Diogenes

The excess of virtue is a vice.  ~ Greek proverb

Virtue is its own revenge.  ~ E. Y. Harburn

Do not be too moral.  You may cheat yourself out of much of life so.  Aim above morality.  Be not simply good; be good for something.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

- How virtuous are you?
- What are your marginal vices?
- In what ways can you contribute to life in positive ways?

#860 To be alive

To be truly cultivated is to think reasonably, to live grandly, to love greatly, to shun pettiness, to condemn prejudice and cruelty. In short, to be cultivated is to be alive in the very largest sense. ~ Dorothy J. Farnan
 
When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. ~ Marcus Aurelius

Every day is a good day to be alive, whether the sun's shining or not. ~ Marty Robbins

- How would you describe a cultivated person?
- What is the most important quality for a person to possess?
- How well do you measure up?

#859 Take in Small Doses

Happiness is a small and unworthy goal for something as big and fancy as a whole lifetime, and should be taken in small doses.  ~ Russell Baker

For each ecstatic instant 
We must an anguish pay
In keen and quivering ratio
To the ecstasy.  ~ Emily Dickinson

- How much happiness have you enjoyed so far in your life?
- Why is it healthy not to expect too much of it?
- How should one journey through the sunshine and the rain?

#858 A richer culture

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.   ~ Marcus Garvey

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.  ~ Ray Bradbury

Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.  ~ Albert Camus

No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi

A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.  ~ Arthur Miller

Real popular culture is folk art - coalminers' songs and so forth.  ~ Noam Chomsky

If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.   ~Margaret Mead

Tags: quotes about culture  

- How much are you aware of your history, origins, and culture?
- What cultural initiatives could you support in your community?
- What rich human gifts have you seen by people around you, by you?

#857 When you really mean it

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.  ~ Dr. Seuss

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.  ~Joseph Addison

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.  ~ Mother Teresa

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.  ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

If you smile when you are alone, then you really mean it.  ~ Andy Rooney

Tags: quotes about smiles, life

- Whose sincere smiles have enriched you?
- How much are smiles a part of your daily journey?
- To what extent can your smiles and warmth enrich yourself as well as others?

#856 A measure of darkness

Balance is the perfect state of still water. Let that be our model. It remains quiet within and is not disturbed on the surface.  ~ Confucius
 
Don't hold on too long, but don't let go too soon. Find a balance.  ~ Morrie Swartz

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.   ~ Albert Einstein

Balance is the enemy of art.   ~ Richard Eyre

As we look deeply within, we understand our perfect balance. There is no fear of the cycle of birth, life and death. For when you stand in the present moment, you are timeless.   ~ Rodney Yee

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.  ~ Carl Jung 

Tags: quotes about balance, life 

- How balanced is your life?
- To what extent have you harmonized the cycles of life?
- In what areas of your life could you strive for more composure and control?

#855 Have nothing to do with it

The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself. ~ Publilius Syrus

Man imagines that it is death he fears, but what he fears is the unknown. ~ Saint Exupéry

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. ~ George Santayana

Be of good cheer about death and know this as a truth - that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. ~ Socrates

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. ~ Dylan Thomas
 
Against you I fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!  ~ Virginia Woolf
 
Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it. ~ W. Somerset Maugham

- How much do you fear death and the unknown?
- To what extent is your life lived an antidote to the fears?
- How should death be considered?

#854 How did it get late so soon?

Go for it now.  The future is promised to no one.  ~ Wayne Dyer

Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.  ~ Allen Saunders

The right person is the one that seizes the moment.  ~ Goethe

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

How did it get late so soon?
It's night before it's afternoon.
December is here before it's June.
My goodness how the time has flown.
How did it get so late so soon?  ~ Dr. Seuss 

-How much do you dwell on future plans?
-What opportunities have passed you by?
-How can you enrich your future days?

#853 Make Facts Live

Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get em, get em right, or they will get you wrong.  ~ Thomas Fuller

Every man has a right to be wrong in his opinions. But no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.  ~ Bernard Baruch

If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.  ~ Albert Einstein

The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion.  ~ Arnold H. Glasow
 
The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live.  ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

- In what situations are facts really important?
- When have you assembled the facts well and presented them convincingly?
- Think of a scenario where you could make facts live with vibrancy and vitality?

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Tags: quotes about facts, opinion, truth

#852 The only really effective weapon

Humanity takes itself too seriously.  It is the world's original sin.  If the cavemen had known how to laugh, history would have been different.  ~ Oscar Wilde

I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most important thing in a person.  ~ Audrey Hepburn

If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.  ~ Robert Frost

There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.  ~ Charles Dickens

Life is worth living as long as there is a laugh in it.  ~ L. M. Montgomery

The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.  ~ Mark Twain

- How important is laughter for you?
- To what extent does the world need more laughter?
- How can you cultivate more of it? 

Tags: quotes about laughter, humor, life

#851 One Rule of Practice

I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there can be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. ~ William Penn
 
Always be a little kinder than necessary. ~ James M. Barrie

Never look down on anyone unless you are helping him up.  ~ Jess Jackson
 
There is one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life - reciprocity. ~ Confucius
 
Tags: quotes about kindness, love, life 
 
- What opportunities to be kind have you missed?
- When have you felt a little better than someone else?
- How can reciprocity (treat others as you would like to be treated) serve as inspiration for you?

#850 The Greatest of the Arts

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.  ~ Aristotle

A closed mind is a dying mind.  ~ Edna Ferber

The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one. ~ Malcolm Forbes

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. ~ John Steinbeck 

- What several creative and skilful teachers helped to enlighten you?
- How accepting and open is your mind?
- How can such a mind enrich one's life?

#849 They were so delicious

Never ruin an apology with an excuse.  ~ Benjamin Franklin

A stiff apology is a second insult... The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.  ~ Guilbert K. Chesterton

An apology is the superglue of life. It can repair just about anything.  ~Lynn Johnston

The most important trip you could take in life is meeting people halfway.  ~ Henry Boye

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.  ~ William Carlos Williams 

- What is a 'cheap' apology?
- How do you address an apology which addresses the deep hurt which may have occurred?
- Where, in your relationships, could an apology provide renewal?

Tags: quotes about apology, apologizing, life

#848 The only sure road out of darkness

The true human is infinitely deeper than the merely human.  ~Blaise Pascal

If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself. ~ Henry David Thoreau 

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity. ~ Horace Mann

My first world is humanity. My second world is humanism. And, I live in the third world being merely a human.  ~ Santosh Kalwar

Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another. ~ Carl Sagan

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.  ~ George Orwell

The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that. And yes, there are certainly times when we aren't able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It's called being human.  ~ Elizabeth Edwards

The main thing in life is not to be afraid to be human.  ~ Aaron Carter

Tags: quotes about being human, humanity, life

- How would you define a 'true human'?
- What victories for humanity have, and will you pursue?
- Why is it acceptable to admit your vulnerabilities and challenges?

#847 The only sure road out of darkness

Healing comes only from that which leads the patient beyond himself and beyond his entanglements with ego. ~ Carl Jung

An egotist is a person more interested in himself than in me!  ~ Ambrose Bierce

Big egos are big shields for lots of empty space.  ~ Diana Black

Egotism is the source and summary of all faults and miseries.  ~ Thomas Carlyle

Egotism is usually subversive of sagacity. (insight)  ~ Marianne Moore

Loving is the only sure road out of darkness, the only serum known that cures self-centeredness.  ~ Roger McKuen 

Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.  Rainer Maria Rilke

Tags: quotes about ego, life 

-How entangled are you with your ego?
-From your observations about others, to what extent do you see ego as a hindrance?
-How can you resolve to show more openness in your relationships?

#846 To be believed

One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests.  ~John Stuart Mill

Man is what he believes.  ~ Anton Chekhov

If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.  ~ Malcolm X

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Some things have to be believed to be seen.  ~ Madeleine L'Engle

Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe.  ~ Mitch Albom

Tags: quotes on belief

- What are several of your core beliefs?
- To what extent do these beliefs motivate your actions and outlook on life?
- To what extent do your beliefs need some refinement and focus?

#846 Think of the possibilities

In motivating people, you've got to engage their minds and their hearts.  ~ Rupert Murdoch

Help people become more motivated by guiding them to the source of their own power.  ~ Paul G. Thomas

You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things -- to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.  ~ Sir Edmund Hillary

A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning.   ~ Pat Riley

Stop thinking in terms of limitations and start thinking in terms of possibilities.  ~Terry Josephson

Tags: quotes on motivation, motivating others, yourself 

- What several people have motivated you through an appeal of your intellect and emotions?
- What principals guide your motivation?
- What several possibilities are within your reach?

#845 The happy heart

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.  ~ Maya Angelou

The happy heart gives away the best. To know how to receive is also a most important gift, which cultivates generosity in others and keeps strong the cycle of life.  ~Dhyani Ywahoo

No one has ever become poor by giving.  ~ Anne Frank

Giving is true having.  ~ Charles Spurgeon

Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege.  ~ John D. Rockefeller

Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do. Because then they will act.  ~ Jack Welch

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.  ~ Albert Camus

For it is in giving that we receive.  ~ St. Francis of Assisi

- To what extent does giving in its many forms enrich and empower you?
- How can you cultivate its charms within you? 
- Within others?

#844 A quantum leap

Do what you love, and you will find the way to get it out to the world. ~ Judy Collins

I'm back to doing everything I used to, loving life as ever. ~ Donna Mills
 
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. ~ Peter Drucker
 
Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. ~ Theodore Roosevelt
 
Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. ~ Oprah Winfrey
 
Doing is a quantum leap from imagining. ~ Barbara Sher
 
Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things. ~ Elbert Hubbard

Tags: quotes about doing, life 

- What activities in your life do you love to do?
- How can you transform some of your tedious work into enjoyment?
- How focused are you to find pleasure in every day efforts?

#843 The person of worth

Why do you climb philosophical hills? Because they are worth climbing ... There are no hills to go down unless you start from the top.  ~ Margaret Thatcher

Worry not that no one knows of you; seek to be worth knowing.  ~ Confucius

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.  ~ Booker T. Washington

Only the person of worth can recognize the worth in others.  ~ Thomas Carlyle

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.  ~ French Proverb

Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.  ~ Thomas A. Edison 

Tags: quotes on worth, life

- Whom do you know who is worth knowing?
- What makes these individuals so special?
- How can you enrich your worth?

#842 Let things flow naturally

Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.  ~ Arthur Rubinstein

We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.  ~ Carl Jung  

Acceptance is such an important commodity, some have called it "the first law of personal growth."  ~ Peter McWilliams

Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.   ~ Chuang-tzu

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.   ~Lao Tzu

- How willing are you to accept what life brings you, both positive and challenging aspects?
- How can acceptance be an essential component to personal growth?
- When have you felt enriched by staying centered in what you were doing?

#841 Pleasure in the pathless woods

Never, no never does Nature say one thing and wisdom another.  ~Johann Christolph Frederick von Schuller

Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature for those who live according to its laws.  ~ Leonard Da Vinci

The earth has music for those who listen.  ~ George Santayana

I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again."  ~ Lewis Carroll

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.  ~ Rachel Carson

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roars:
I love not man the less, but Nature more..  ~ George Gordon Byron

- What has nature communicated to you?
- To what extent do you enjoy green and natural places?
- How can you cultivate your relationship with nature?

#840 With a musical score and laugh track

I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet, raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak.

I try to make everyone's day a little more surreal.

It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept.

Reality continues to ruin my life.

The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.

There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want.

I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep my expectations.

You can drag my body to school but my spirit refuses to go.

I thought my life would seem more interesting with a musical score and a laugh track.  

You mix a bunch of ingredients, and once in a great while, chemistry happens.  ~ all quotes by Bill Watterson, of Calvin and Hobbes fame (1985-1995)

- Which of the quotes above resonate for you?
- To what extent does a sense of humor help to smooth the bumps in the road?
- What are several of your other survival tactics?

#839 The greatest wealth

To insure good health: eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness, and maintain an interest in life.  ~William Londen

Good health and good sense are two of life's greatest blessings.  Publilius Syrus

Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your good health has vanished.  ~ Og Mandino

I believe that parents need to make nutrition education a priority in their home environment. It's crucial for good health and longevity to instill in your children sound eating habits from an early age.  ~ Cat Cora

The greatest wealth is health.  ~ Virgil

Those obsessed with health are not healthy; the first requisite of good health is a certain calculated carelessness about oneself.  ~ Syndney J. Harris

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.  ~ Mark Twain

To avoid sickness eat less; to prolong life worry less.  ~ Weng Chu Hui

The higher your energy level, the more efficient your body. The more efficient your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results.  ~ Anthony Robbins

- To what extent do you think one's perspective is an important factor in maintaining one's health?
- How diligent are you in maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle?
- What can you do to enhance your health, attitude, and productivity?

#838 The level of civilization

It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.  ~ Margaret Thatcher

There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.  ~ Washington Irving

A woman's whole life is a history of the affections.  ~ Washington Irving

What one beholds of a woman is the least part of her.  ~ Ovid

By nice women...you probably mean selfish women who have no more thought for the underprivileged, overworked women than a pussycat in a sunny window for the starving kitten in the street.  Now in that sense I am not a nice woman, for I do care.  ~ Nellie McClung

Social science affirms that a woman's place in society marks the level of civilization.  ~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton 

Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it exists principally in dealing with men.  ~ Joseph Conrad

Many of our troubles in the world today arise from an over-emphasis of the masculine, and a neglect of the feminine. This modern world is an aggressive, hyperactive, competitive, masculine world, and it needs the woman's touch as never before.  ~ Eva Burrows 

- When have you experienced/seen the resiliency and power of a woman in times of adversity?
- When have you experienced/seen the nurture of a loving mother/wife/friend/colleague?
- To what extent is our world compromised by the leadership of the masculine 'dominant sex'?

#837 Calm and storm

Keep calm and carry on.  ~ was a propaganda poster produced by the Government of the United Kingdom in 1939 during the beginning of the Second World War

I'm full of fears and I do my best to avoid difficulties and any kind of complications. I like everything around me to be clear as crystal and completely calm. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I never felt settled or calm. You can't really commit to life when you feel that.  ~ Angelina Jolie

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.  ~ Willa Cather

Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.  ~ Martin Luther

After a storm comes a calm.  ~ Matthew Henry

The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good.  Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful joys of wisdom....Calmness is power.   ~ James Allen

He who angers you, conquers you.  ~ Elizabeth Kenny

They sicken of the calm who know the storm.  ~ Dorothy Parker

- How well can you cultivate calm and manage anxiety?
- To what extent do you prefer to have some tumult in your life?
- Where can your calmness translate into some power for good and productivity?

#836 The intensity

One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum.  ~ Walter Scott

Measurement of life should be proportioned rather to the intensity of the experience than to its actual length.  ~ Thomas Hardy

Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved.  ~ D. H. Lawrence

- How active is your life?
- What does Hardy mean by the "intensity of the experience?" 
- How can you devote some of the moments in your life in fruitful and productive ways?

#835 Pay Close Attention

The little things? The little moments? They aren't little.   ~Jon Kabat-Zinn

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.  ~ Mother Teresa

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.  ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

If you take care of the small things,
the big things take care of themselves.
You can gain more control over your life by
paying closer attention to the little things.  ~ Emily Dickinson

Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you will look back and realize they were the big things.  ~Robert Bradt

You need to let the little things that would ordinarily bore you suddenly thrill you.  ~ Andy Warhol

Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
and the pleasant land.

Thus the little minutes,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages
Of eternity.  ~ Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney

- How does attention to the small things in life cultivate one's strengths?
- How can our attention to the little things help us to gain control of our lives?
- How can you enrich your life in the near term with the above quotes in mind?

#834 Stay Involved, Flexible, Committed

The dedicated life is the life worth living.  ~ Annie Dillard

The resolved mind hath no cares.  ~ George Herbert

Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it. No involvement, no commitment.  ~ Stephen R. Covey

Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek.  ~ Mario Andretti

Our future and our fate lie in our wills more than in our hands, for our hands are but the instruments of our wills.  ~ B.C. Forbes 

Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.  ~ Tom Robbins 

- How dedicated and resolved are you?
- How involved and flexible?
- What are several of your important motivations?

#833 Court Chance

It's choice - not chance - that determines your destiny.  ~ Jean Nidetch

Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The harder you work, the luckier you get.  ~ Gary Player

Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be a fish. ~ Ovid

If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances.  ~ Julia Sorel

Chance favors only those who court her.  ~ Charles Nicolle 

How can the world in all its chaos come up with so many coincidences, so many similarities and exact opposites?  ~ Amy Tan


- To what extent do you rely on choice and hard work rather than luck and chance?
- How can you accommodate more the role of chance and good fortune in your life?
- What several interesting coincidences have you experienced?

Tags: quotes/questions about chance, cause/effect, decisions, choice, destiny, life, vulnerability

#832 The turning point

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.  ~ Charles De Gaulle

I think for anyone who's gone through a crisis, there comes a turning point, an epiphany, that marks the beginning of the end.  ~ Deborah Norville

Turn your midlife crisis to your own advantage by making it a time for renewal of your body and mind, rather than stand by helplessly and watch them decline.  ~ Jane E. Brody

Conflict builds character. Crisis defines it.   ~ Steven V. Thulon

Any idiot can face a crisis, it's the day to day living that wears you out.  ~ Anton Chekhov

- How forthright are you in times of crisis?
- What epiphanies have you had in the midst of some crises?
- What do you find challenging in your daily life?

Tags: quotes/questions on crisis, decision making, character, endurance, life, success

(Sharing/recommending this blog is appreciated.)

#831 Believing in Ourselves

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.  ~ Golda Meir

It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes.   ~ Sally Field

We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch.   Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.   ~ e.e. cummings 

- What are your inner sparks which can lead to achievement?
- How sensitive are you to the judgements of other people?
- When have you affirmed and encouraged the gifts in others?

#830 A glimpse of paradise

Rice is a beautiful food. It is beautiful when it grows, precision rows of sparkling green stalks shooting up to reach the hot summer sun. It is beautiful when harvested, autumn gold sheaves piled on diked, patchwork paddies. It is beautiful when, once threshed, it enters granary bins like a (flood) of tiny seed-pearls. It is beautiful when cooked by a practiced hand, pure white and sweetly fragrant. ~ Shizuo Tsuji 

Chicken, brown rice, and veggies is a great healthy dinner option. It's full of whole grain and protein, and will keep you full for a long time. ~ Mia Hamm

Rice is great if you're really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something.  ~ Mitch Hedberg

Same old slippers, Same old rice, Same old glimpse of paradise.  ~ William James Lampton

- To what extent do you like to include rice in your diet?
- How much do you enjoy cooking and thinking about quality food preparation?
- How can you enhance your daily dining experience?

#829 Bread is king

How can a nation be great if their bread tastes like kleenex?   ~Julia Childs

‘A loaf of bread,’ the Walrus said, ‘is what we chiefly need: Pepper and vinegar besides are very good indeed.’ ~ Lewis Caroll

The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight.  ~M.F.K. Fischer

With bread all sorrows are less, Sancho Panza in Don Quixote.  ~Miguel de Cervantes

Give me yesterday’s Bread, this Day’s Flesh, and last Year’s Cider.  ~Benjamin Franklin

Peace goes into the making of a poem as flour goes into the making of bread.  ~Pablo Neruda

There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.  ~ Mahatama Gandhi

Blues is to jazz what yeast is to bread. Without it, it’s flat.  ~Carmen McRae

Bread for myself is a material question. Bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one.  ~Nikoli Berdyaev

Bread is the king of the table and all else is merely the court that surrounds the king. The countries are the soup, the meat, the vegetables, the salad, but bread is king.   ~Louis Bromfield

If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.  ~Robert Browning

Avoid those who don’t like bread and children.  ~ Swiss Proverb

With a piece of bread in your hand you’ll find paradise under a pine tree.  ~Russian Proverb

What hymns are sung.
What praises said.
For homemade miracles of bread?   ~ Louis Untermeyer

- How much do you enjoy good bread?
- To what extent are you careful about your consumption of bread for dietary reasons?
- How willing are you to share the bread of goodness with others?

#828 Walking each other home

Simply being with other people who are also seekers and who are involved in the same quest you are is very meaningful.  ~ Dan Wakefield

We're all just walking each other home.   ~Ram Dass

- When have you enjoyed being with other people who had similar interests?
- To what extent do you feel completion when spending time with others?
- How can you cultivate the enriching dynamics of a community within your life?

#827 Democracy as daily citizenship

Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right to govern himself with reason and justice.  ~ Harry S. Truman

The greatest blessing of our democracy is freedom.  But in the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves.  ~ Bernard Baruch

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.  This expresses my idea of democracy.  ~ Abraham Lincoln 

I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong.  ~Mohandas Gandhi

There cannot be daily democracy without daily citizenship.   ~Ralph Nader

The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.  ~ Gunter Grass

We talk about problems, issues, policies, but we don't talk about what democracy means — what it bestows on us — the revolutionary idea that it isn't just about the means of governance but the means of dignifying people so they become fully free to claim their moral and political agency.  ~ Bill Moyers

- How much do you value the ideals of democracy?
- In what ways do citizens need to discipline themselves?
- What are the pressing moral issues of our time?

#826 The gentle herb

I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.  ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary.  ~ Chinese proverb

Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.  ~ Ann Patchett

There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.  ~ Henry James

There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life.  ~ Lin Yutang

Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?  ~ D. T. Suzuki

Some people will tell you there is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage.  ~ Catherine Douzel

I am so fond of tea that I could write a whole dissertation on its virtues. It comforts and enlivens without the risks attendant on spirituous liquors. Gentle herb! Let the florid grape yield to thee. Thy soft influence is a more safe inspirer of social joy.  ~ James Boswell

Tea tempers the spirits and harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents drowsiness, lightens or refreshes the body, and clears the perceptive faculties.  ~ Confucius

Tea is the elixir of life.  ~ Lao Tsu

Tea to the English is really a picnic indoors.  ~ Alice Walker

- How much do you enjoy tea?
- To what extent do you think a daily tea habit might improve your health and outlook?
- How knowledgeable are you about the variety of teas, preparation, and their potential to provide pleasure?

#825 Ideas begin to move

I orchestrate my mornings to the tune of coffee.   ~Harry Mahtar 

Coffee smells like freshly ground heaven.   ~Jessi Lane Adams 

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.   ~T.S. Eliot 

Actually, this seems to be the basic need of the human heart in nearly every great crisis - a good hot cup of coffee.   ~Alexander King 

Coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical.   ~Jonathan Swift 

Only one thing is certain about coffee.... Wherever it is grown, sold, brewed, and consumed, there will be lively controversy, strong opinions, and good conversation.   ~Mark Pendergrast 

As soon as coffee is in your stomach, there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move...similes arise, the paper is covered. Coffee is your ally and writing ceases to be a struggle.    ~Honore de Balzac

The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.   ~Oliver Wendall 
Holmes.  

- How much do you value a coffee or two in the mornings?
- To what extent does coffee help to kick start your day?
- What are some of your simple pleasures?

#824 The Elusive Search

The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value.  ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
 A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.  ~ George Edward Moore

The noblest search is the search for excellence.  ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Search others for their virtue, and yourself for your vices.  ~ R. Buckminster Fuller

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.  ~ Bertrand Russell

The search for truth is more precious than its possession.  ~ Albert Einstein

- What is of greater value than gold?
- What lasting meaning may be found directly around you and not in some distant, exotic place? 
- Why is the search for truth more valuable than the discovery?

#823 The sweetest things in life

If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.  ~ Lucy Larcom

Find a need and fill it.  ~ Ruth Stafford Peale

How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it.  ~ George Elliston

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.  ~Robert Louis Stevenson

- How proactive are you in kindling warmth around you?
- What needs surround you which could be filled with your participation?
- What several daily activities could be enriched with some attention?

#822 Thyself most

Once in a while you have to take a break and visit yourself.  ~ Audrey Giorgi

Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.  ~Millicent Fenwick 

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.  ~ John Dewey

Observe all men, thyself most.   ~ Benjamin Franklin

There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.  ~ Aldous Huxley 

- What are some of your actions which help to define yourself?
- To what extent can you develop a positive mindset about your life?
- What aspect of your self may benefit from some improvement?

#821 The most beautiful thing

It began in mystery and it will end in mystery, but what a rare and beautiful country lies in between.  ~Diane Ackerman

I feel as though I have lived many lives, experienced the heights and depths of each and like the waves of the ocean, never known rest. Throughout the years, I looked always for the unusual, for the wonderful, for the mysteries at the heart of life.   ~ Leni Riefenstahl

We awake, if ever at all, to mystery. ~ Annie Dillard

The real mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, it is a reality to be experienced.  ~J.J. Van der Leeuw

We are so impressed by scientific clank that we feel we ought not to say that the sunflower turns because it knows where the sun is. It is almost second nature to us to prefer explanations . . . with a large vocabulary. We are much more comfortable when we are assured that the sunflower turns because it is heliotropic. The trouble with that kind of talk is that it tempts us to think that we know what the sunflower is up to. But we don't. The sunflower is a mystery, just as every single thing in the universe is. --Robert Farrer Capon

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.  ~ Albert Einstein

- What do you wonder about?
- How can some mystery help to enhance our lives?
- How can this wonder lead to enrichment and, perhaps, empowerment?

#820 To make life more meaningful

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.    ~ Marcus Aurelius

The quality of life is determined by its activities.  ~ Aristotle
 
I'm not naive. I realize that quality of life and income are inextricably bound together, but sooner or later we're going to have to ask ourselves whether it is possible to make life more meaningful without charging it to Visa.  ~ Daron Hicklin

It's obvious that the key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life - for 8 billion or more people - without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt.   ~ E. O. Wilson

How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working, dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain, seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality of life?   ~ Charles Lindbergh
 
No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve in quality as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing it is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them we may forget altogether to live them.  ~ Alan B. Watts
 
Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It's important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It's the way in which we ourselves grow and develop.   ~ Dorothy Height

- What, in your mind, are the criteria for a quality life?
- What hinders many people from achieving it?
- What steps could you take to enhance the quality of your days?

#819 Things that we share in the world

I don't know what you could say about a day in which you have seen four beautiful sunsets.  ~ John Glenn

After an orange cloud — formed as a result of a dust storm over the Sahara and caught up by air currents — reached the Philippines and settled there with rain, I understood that we are all sailing in the same boat.   ~Vladimir Kovalyonok (Astronaut)

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth.  I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth.  I didn't feel like a giant.  I felt very, very small.  ~ Neil Armstrong

Problems look mighty small from 150 miles up.  ~ Roger B. Chaffee

For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.   ~ Donald Williams

- When did you experience a profound love for nature?
- What has nature taught you,.. how has she affected your perspectives?
- What are the significant priorities for the survival of our planet?

#818 You have the answer

We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.  ~ Jane Austen

And remember, no matter where you go there you are.  ~ Confucius

I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart.  I am.  I am.  I am.  ~ Sylvia Plath

You have the Answer.  Just get quiet enough to hear it.  ~ Pat Obuchowski

- How much do you truly listen to yourself when making important decisions?
- How authentic are you as you live out your life?
- How can you cultivate greater personal enrichment?

#817 That single spark of divinity

The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth.  ~ Maria Montessori

The unique personality which is the real life in me, I can not gain unless I search for the real life, the spiritual quality, in others.  ~ Felix Adler

Personality is only ripe when a man has made the truth his own.  ~ Soren Kierkegaard

Part of having a strong sense of self is to be accountable for one's actions. No matter how much we explore motives or lack of motives, we are what we do.  ~ Janet Geringer Woititz

If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets you off and makes you different from every other living creature.  ~ Bruce Barton

- How would you describe your personality?
- How has observing several others helped you to understand yourself?
- How can you live out your life with vitality, utilizing your distinguishing characteristics?

#816 The splendor of a sudden thought

In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day to his figures. They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration.  ~ Ernest Newman

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.  ~ Jack London

I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning.  ~ Peter De Vries

Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.  ~ Igor Stravinsky

Inspiration may be a form of super-consciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness - I wouldn't know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.  ~ Aaron Copland

Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time... The wait is simply too long.  ~ Leonard Bernstein

Stung by the splendor of a sudden thought.  ~ Robert Browning

- When were you last inspired?
- To what extent can you develop a mindset and regimen where inspiration may happen on most days?
- How could these inspirations manifest themselves?

#815 A daily trilogy

How fit to employ all the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy!   ~Robert Browning

- To what extent could this quote be a daily mantra for you?
- What did you do yesterday which combined all three?
- What could you do today? 

(*If you like this blog, thanks for recommending it to others.*)

#814 Working or playing

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he's always doing both.   ~ James A. Michener

- How much are you tempted to categorize the different dimensions of your life?
- To what extent do the diverse aspects of your life merge in a delightful synthesis?
- How can you pursue excellence today in a comprehensive way?

#813 Catch the good

To improve the golden moments of opportunity and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of living.  ~ Samuel Johnson

- What golden moments of opportunity lie within your reach?
- What goodness?
- How can you improve upon the artistry that is your life?

#812 A fine mingling

All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on. - Henry Ellis

- What, in your mind, may need to be released?
- Held more firmly?
- What is important to you as you live out your daily life?

#811 Culture as human spirit

Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit. ~ Matthew Arnold
 
No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

One ought every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words. ~ Goethe 

- What do you value about several cultures of which you are a part?
- What song, poem, painting, words... have enriched you?
- How has culture been a source of strength and inspiration for you?
- What positive quality could you contribute to a negative culture?

#810 Windows for nurture

We seek an enlargement of our being. We want to be more than ourselves... We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own . . . We demand windows.   ~ C.S. Lewis 

- Through whose eyes have you seen?
- Through whose imaginations?
- Through whose hearts?
- What windows have, and will you enjoy?

#809 Being and becoming

We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being.  As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have, for their usefulness.   ~ Thomas Merton

Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.   ~ Myrna Loy 

- What do you do?
- Who are you as a person?
- What are you becoming?

#808 Lift your spirits

Exercise is labor without weariness.  ~ Samuel Johnson

It is exercise alone that supports the spirits, and keeps the mind in vigor.   ~ Cicero

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable!  ~ Jillian Michaels

- How much do you like to exercise?
- What forms does it take?
- How can you resolve to include more of it and enjoy the workout? 

#807 Deeds, not words

Deeds, not words shall speak me.   ~ John Fletcher
Do not be wise in words - be wise in deeds.  ~ Jewish Proverb

- How much do you 'practice what you preach'?
- Whom do you admire who lives out his/her life with vitality?
- What are several of your convictions which you would like others to see through your daily life?

#806 Piercing words

Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly -- they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.  ~ Aldous Huxley

Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.   ~ John Maynard Keynes

- How much do you like to write and wrestle with words?
- Who are several of your favorite authors?
- What several speakers left indelible impressions?

#805 The best pharmacy

Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables. They probably get jet-lagged, just like people. ~ Elizabeth Berry

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. ~Hippocrates

Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. ~Doug Larson

The best and most efficient pharmacy is within your own system. ~Robert C. Peale

It’s bizarre that the produce manager is more important to my children’s health than the pediatrician. ~Meryl Streep

- Where does most of your food come?
- How much do you try to avoid processed foods?
- How can you try to enrich your diet and your health?

#804 No wealth but life

There is no wealth but life.  ~ John Ruskin

- How much does material wealth tempt you?
- How rich is your life with the vital ingredients of a vibrant life?
- What are those life giving ingredients?

#803 The wealth of a soul

The wealth of a soul is measured by how much it can feel... its poverty by how little.  ~ Sherrilyne Kenyon

- How much do you 'feel' the experience of your daily life?
- How much do you feel for the people around you and their experiences?
- How can you nurture your feeling side a little more?

#802 Having few wants

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.  ~ Epictetus

- How content are you with your possessions?
- How many unfulfilled wants and desires do you have?
- What can you do to desire less and feel more content with your life?

#801 Rich with time

Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time.  ~Margaret Bonnano

- How much time do you have?
- How well do you prioritize your time?
- How can you enrich your life by spending some of your time more wisely?

#800 To admit it is superhuman

It is better to err on the side of daring than the side of caution.  ~ Alvin Toffler

To err is human; to forgive, divine.  ~ Alexander Pope

To err is human. To blame someone else is politics.  ~ Hubert H. Humphrey

If one is going to err, one should err on the side of liberty and freedom.  ~ Kofi Annan 

To err is human; to admit it, superhuman.  ~ Doug Larson

The road to wisdom? Well, it's plain
And simple to express:
Err
And err
And err again
But less
And less
And less.  ~ Hiet Hein

- How daring are you in the face of new challenges?
- How forgiving of others when they make mistakes?
- How honest with others about your shortcomings?

#799 Unspeakable Dawn

The purpose of life is to fight maturity. - Dick Werthimer

You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.  ~ Ogden Nash

When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable.  There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age.  ~ Victor Hugo

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.  ~ Mark Twain

The key to successful aging is to pay as little attention to it as possible.  ~ Judith Regan 

- How can one best remain youthful in perspective and outlook?
- What steps can you take to lighten up and enjoy life a little more?
- How mature are you?

#798 Barren and fruitful

Let us learn to appreciate there will be times when the trees will be bare, and look forward to the time when we may pick the fruit. ~ Anton Chekhov

- How much do you appreciate your life, both in trying and pleasing times?
- How do you try to cultivate your productivity?
- What mindset helps you through the highs and lows?

#797 We hope and know

Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it. ~ Goethe
 
- Are your branches green or barren?
- When have you experienced life in all its vibrant beauty?
- How can you cultivate the assurance that this vitality will return again?

Do you like this blog?  Please share with others. 

#796 Stay strong

Follow your honest convictions, and stay strong.  ~William Thackeray

- What are some of your closest convictions?
- When have you experienced difficulty in staying strong?
- Where can you show a little more strength in the short term?

#795 The aim of life

The aim of life is self-development.  To realize one's nature perfectly- that is what each of us is here for.  ~ Oscar Wilde

What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.   ~Hecato, Greek philosopher

Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world.   ~Miguel de Cervantes

-What factors have helped you to gain a greater understanding of yourself?
-How well do you know yourself?
-What can you do to continue your self-development?

#794 Something of worth

The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one's self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course.  ~ Michelangelo

Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have.  ~ Thomas A. Edison

- What are some of the vain promises of this world?
- What, do you think, is your true worth and value?
- What can you do to enrich your intrinsic value?

#793 Values and priorities

There is no such thing as work-life balance. I don't know about you, but I only have one life and every moment is about living my values and balancing my priorities - wherever I am.  ~ Rhoberta Shaler

- What is important for you to achieve in your 'one life'?
- What are several of your dominate values which deserve expression daily?
- What priorities need to be balanced on a daily basis?