#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?