Month: September 2017

Give Thanks

When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.

– Tecumseh

          No matter what you are going through in life, there is always something to be thankful for. It can be as simple as being grateful for being alive, for your health, or for your shelter from the cold. There should never be a moment when you feel you have no reason to give thanks. For you must always take time to step outside of your situation and really see what good still surrounds you.

How You Respond

Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.

– Walter Anderson

          You will undoubtedly face many storms in your life, but how you choose to weather the storms defines who you are. You can allow yourself to sink into despair every time something bad happens or you can choose to rise from the ashes. For it is up to you to decide your life and the gift of life in general is worth fighting for.

The World Does Not Owe You

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

– Mark Twain

           One should not go through life with an entitlement attitude. No one and nothing in this world owes you a damn thing. If you want something in this life, whether it be a job or material object, you must work hard to obtain it. If you want happiness or success, then you must create it instead of waiting for it to happen to you.

Lighten Up

Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more, and don’t get so worked up about things.

– Kenneth Branagh

          Don’t take life too seriously. Life is too short to allow yourself to get worked up over the meaningless bullshit that happens everyday. And if you allow yourself to get stressed out about every little thing, you’re going to drive yourself crazy and be miserable. So, instead, choose to smile and laugh more. You will find that you feel lighter, freer, and happier by not getting worked up about everything that happens.

Greatest Gift

My greatest beauty secret is being happy with myself. I don’t use special creams or treatments – I’ll use a little bit of everything. It’s a mistake to think you are what you put on yourself. I believe that a lot of how you look is to do with how you feel about yourself and your life. Happiness is the greatest beauty secret.

– Tina Turner

           There is no greater gift than self-love. When you truly love and embrace who you are, this radiance and happiness shows on the outside in your every move. It shows up in the way you carry yourself…Simply put, true happiness coming from within, transcends your very being.

Follow Your Path

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

– Steve Jobs

          Live your truth. Don’t get trapped by the expectations and judgment of others. Make sure that every decision you make and every step you take leads you forward down your path. Be bold, be brave, and follow your heart and intuition.

Strive for Balance

To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.

– Reba McEntire

          The key to a good and fulfilling life is balance. You need to be able to balance the seriousness of life with everlasting hope that you can achieve your dreams and with a good sense of humor that allows you to enjoy everyday life. For success in life is more than merely finishing the race but rather it’s about the memories created along the way.

Make it Happen

“Infuse your life with action. Don’t wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen… yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.”

– Bradley Whitford

          You can’t spend your entire life waiting for life to happen to you. No, if you want to change and move forward, then you must get up and make it happen. Or, you may very well spend your entire life waiting instead of living. So, decide the type of life you want and then go out there and make it a reality. The only person holding you back is you.

Believe in Yourself

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”

Norman Vincent Peale

          If you don’t have faith in yourself, then who will? So, no matter what you choose to do in this life, you must have confidence in yourself and your abilities. Believe that you are capable of achieving your goals and making your dreams a reality.

The Present

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”

― Henry David Thoreau

         At all times, you should strive to be present in the here and now. For it’s important to reflect on the past and dream of the future, but you must not forget to live in the present.