Becoming a Leader

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers,
who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt
to offer a solution everybody can understand.
- Colin Powell

Don't try to manage people;
You manage things; You lead people.
- Grace Hopper

When we step on the battlefield, I will be
The First Boots On and the Last Boots Off.
- LtG. Hal Moore

Successful leadership requires accepting responsibility,
making commitments and consistently delivering on those commitments,
and always setting an outstanding example for those you lead.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to be Successful in Business

How to Motivate Yourself

How to Share Your Thoughts With the World

Gratitude for the Journey

Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter
everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe
that change forever how we experience life and the world.
- John Milton

Everything is a miracle,
not just the beautiful and lovely things.
- Anonymous

Look at everything as though you were seeing it
either for the first or last time.
Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.
- Betty Smith

Today I offer a prayer of forgiveness:
forgive the pettiness of my ingratitude...
the absence of profound thankfulness.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Today's affirmation:
I Receive ALL of Life with Thanksgiving -
I have gratitude for EVERYTHING
that has ever occurred to bring me to this moment.
I give thanks for the joys and the sufferings,
the moments of peace and the flashes of anger,
the compassion and the indifference,
the roar of my courage and the cold sweat of my fear.
I accept gratefully the entirety of my past and my present life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:  Gratitude for All of Life

Tending the Garden of Our Lives

 Yes, YOU Can Be Happy

Gratitude

Reverence

Change

Forgiveness

Thankfulness

Journey

Bringing Peace

Let there be peace on earth.
And let it begin with me.
- Jill Jackson Miller

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
- St. Francis of Assisi

If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

What we speak becomes the house we live in.
- Hafiz

Today's affirmation:
Let me bring peace into moments of chaos.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Spirit transcends all cultural differences and embraces all creation.

Fear and Love

One World, Many Individuals

Peace

Unity

Service

Diversity

Inspiration

Fear

Inner Smile Exercise

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

Inner Smile Exercise:
1. Breath slowly, deeply, and consciously.
2. Close your eyes and set the corners of your mouth in just the slightest smile.
3. Visualize your smile growing larger and larger, and your happiness increasing.

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.
- Phyllis Diller

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

Let my soul smile through my heart
and my heart smile through my eyes,
that I may scatter rich smiles in sad hearts.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

Today's affirmation:
When the World Frowns, I Smile Back.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Emotional Releases to De-Stress

Conscious Breathing to Relieve Stress

Smile and the world smiles with you.

Smile quotes

Happiness

Heart

Being Conscious

Joy

Cheer Up
 

More Than Money

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.
- Thomas Jefferson

Money won't make you happy...
but everybody wants to find out for themselves.
- Zig Ziglar

Money has never made man happy, nor will it,
there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness.
The more of it one has the more one wants.
- Benjamin Franklin

Too many people spend money they haven't earned,
to buy things they don't want,
to impress people they don't like.
- Will Rogers

There is nothing wrong with money. Having money, spending money, earning money, and even wanting more money are all well and good up to a point. It is obsession with money, fear of lack of money, and an unlimited desire for more money that are at the root of much modern misery.

Further reading: Six Ways to End Bickering About Money
 
Quotes about Wealth and Power

Tips for Saving Money while Living Well

The simple gifts of life

The Things Divine

Simple Living

Appreciation

Enjoying Life

Simplicity

Serenity

Money

The Mysterious

 

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.
- Neil Armstrong

The possession of knowledge does not
kill the sense of wonder and mystery.
There is always more mystery.
- Anais Nin

Bringing a childlike wonder
and a beginner's mind to life
maximizes both success and joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The world is incomprehensible.
We won't ever understand it;
we won't ever unravel its secrets.
Thus we must treat the world as it is:
a sheer mystery.
- Carlos Castaneda

Be thankful that life is a mystery. There is so much we can never know. Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing. There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.

Further reading: Assumptions

Question Your Questions

Truth isn't True. Reality isn't Real.

Mystery

Wonder

Knowledge

Secrets

Understanding

Thoughts to Live By

Don't Borrow Trouble

Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.
- George Washington

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.
- Benjamin Franklin

If you see ten troubles coming down the road,
you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.
- Calvin Coolidge

Man only likes to count his troubles,
but he does not count his joys.
- Fyodor Dostoevsky

Count your blessings - not your troubles.
- Dale Carnegie

It is good to be prepared, but not to be paranoid. And it is wonderful to enjoy, and be thankful for, each day we are given.

Further reading: How to Stop Worrying

Zero-Based Gratitude

Staying Positive Around Negative People

Troubles

Worry

Joys

Trouble

Gratitude

Challenges

Repetition

Any idea, plan, or purpose {whether noble or evil - jlh}
may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.
- Napoleon Hill

It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief.
And once that belief becomes a deep conviction,
things begin to happen.
- Muhammad Ali

Repeat anything often enough
and it will start to become you.
- Tom Hopkins

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth,
so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind.
To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again.
To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over
the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
- Henry David Thoreau

Life repeats itself mindlessly -
unless you become mindful, it will go on repeating like a wheel.
- Osho

Further reading: Repetition

We are what we repeatedly do

Practice makes perfect - sometimes

Affirmations (jlh)

Path

Habit

Wheel

Habits

Persistence

Being Big - Standing Tall

We should be too big to take offense
and too noble to give it.
- Abraham Lincoln

Little minds have little worries,
big minds have no time for worries.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

No man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child.
- Abraham Lincoln (attributed)

When people get caught up with that which is right
and they are willing to sacrifice for it,
there is no stopping point short of victory.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

To leave the world a better place,
to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived,
this is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Further reading: Think Big

How to Choose Your Life Purpose

Be Brave and Chase Your Dreams
     

Ego versus Self Respect

A man's pride shall bring him low,
but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit.
- Proverbs 29:23

The ego lives by comparisons...
The ego cannot survive without judgment.
- A Course in Miracles

You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak.
- George Clooney

We take refuge in pride because we are afraid to tell the truth to ourselves.
- Kakuzo Okakura

Self-respect is often mistaken for arrogance
when in reality it is the opposite.
When we can recognize all our good qualities
as well as or faults with neutrality,
we can start to appreciate ourselves
as we would a dear friend
and experience the comfortable inner glow of respect.
To embrace the journey towards our full potential
we need to become our own loving teacher and coach.
Spurring ourselves on to become better human beings,
we develop true regard for ourselves,
and our life will become sacred.
- Osho

Further reading: my thoughts on ego

Comparison

On importance - read this first - then this

One More Mile

When you get into a tight place
and everything goes against you,
till it seems you cannot hold on a minute longer,
never give up then, for that is just
the place and time the tide will turn.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

Achievement seems to be connected with action.
Successful men and women keep moving.
They make mistakes, but they don't quit.
- Conrad Hilton

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
- John Quincy Adams

Circumstances don't defeat you -
you defeat yourself when you give up.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Affirmation:
Even when I am afraid or unsure,
I choose to move in the direction of my goal.
Whenever I fall, I stand up,
brush myself off, and keep moving.


Further reading: Choose Your Habits, Choose Your Life

How to Think Positive

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

Live With Passion

Don't die with your music still inside you.
Listen to your intuitive inner voice
and find what passion stirs your soul.
- Wayne Dyer

Prevail over adversity.
Persevere in the midst of turmoil.
Passionately act upon your convictions.
Purposely walk into the day.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

There is no passion to be found playing small -
in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
- Nelson Mandela

I Dream with Powerful Intention.
Opening my mind to Spirit, I trust my intuition
to deliver powerful visions of my inspired future,
and I empower my intent to transform those visions into reality.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Take Charge of Your Life

How to Think Positive

Keep Going

Enthusiasm

Intuition

Perseverance

Purpose

Music

Passion

Commonplace

The invariable mark of wisdom is to
see the miraculous in the common.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is beauty and adventure in the commonplace
for those with eyes to see beyond.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Little minds are interested in the extraordinary;
great minds in the commonplace.
- Elbert Hubbard

Most remarks that are worth making are commonplace remarks.
The things that makes them worth saying is that we really mean them.
- Robert Lynd

Today's affirmation:
I find joy and inspiration in the commonplace
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:  Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Daily Renewal

Tending the Garden of Our Lives

Simple

Beauty

Adventure

Extraordinary

Mind

Sincerity

Youth

Youth is a quality, not a matter of circumstances.
- Frank Lloyd Wright

The young do not know enough to be prudent,
and therefore they attempt the impossible -
and achieve it,
generation after generation.
- Pearl S. Buck

The youth gets together his materials
to build a bridge to the moon,
or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth,
and, at length, the middle-aged man
concludes to build a woodshed with them.
- Henry David Thoreau

Everyone who got where he is,
had to begin where he was.
- Richard L. Evans

Further reading:  How to Stay Young

Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

Be Brave and Chase Your Dreams

Aging With Grace

Youth

Young

Growth

Quality

Circumstances

Achievement

Acceptance Is Not Resignation

Acceptance of one's life has nothing to do with resignation;
it does not mean running away from the struggle.
On the contrary, it means accepting it as it comes,
with all the handicaps of heredity, of suffering,
of psychological complexes and injustices.
- Paul Tournier

Fill your heart with the creative power
to accept the past,
decorate the present
and transform the future.
- Osho

You have to accept whatever comes
and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage
and with the best that you have to give.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

You don't have the power to make life "fair,"
but you do have the power to make life joyful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Non-Resistance (Serenity Prayer)

Love All of Life

When You Have Been Wronged

Accept

Acceptance

Struggle

Suffering

Power

Joy

Encourage Others

Flatter me, and I may not believe you.
Criticize me, and I may not like you.
Ignore me, and I may not forgive you.
Encourage me, and I will not forget you.
- William Arthur Ward

A friend encourages your dreams and offers advice - but when you don't follow it, they still respect and love you.
- Doris Wild Helmering

Being human, we are imperfect.
That's why we need each other.
To catch each other when we falter.
To encourage each other when we lose heart.
Some may lead; others may follow;
but none of us can go it alone.
- Hillary Clinton

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us
to be what we know we could be.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Support and encourage others to live their lives joyfully in their own ways;
but don't try to make their choices for them.

Further reading: Pay It Forward

Meddling - 5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice

Our Children Need Encouragement

Encouragement quotes

Friend

Helping Others

Advice

Support

Family

How Much Is Enough?

Be Satisfied With Enough

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
- Epicurus

He who can give thanks for little
will always find he has enough.
- Anonymous

Work Enough

We can do anything we want to
if we stick to it long enough.
- Helen Keller

It isn't enough to talk about peace.
One must believe in it.
And it isn't enough to believe in it.
One must work at it.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

and Play Enough

Take some time in a quiet place to contemplate
the balance between being of service -
both to this generation and to generations yet unborn -
and renewing your vitality with play and celebration.
Without play, one becomes old and dry.
Without service, life becomes meaningless.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A List of Gratitudes

Comparisons are Odious

Abundance or Scarcity?

How to Balance Your Life

Quotes about Being Content

Enough

Balance

Work

Play

Gratitude

Have Patience

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

A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else.
- George Savile

The key to everything is patience.
You get the chicken by hatching the egg,
not by smashing it open.
- Arnold H. Glasgow

If you are patient in one moment of anger,
you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
- Chinese Proverb

Today's Affirmation:
I will not be governed by the tyranny of immediacy.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: 12 Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Overwhelm

Go With the Flow

Patience quotes

Nature

Secrets

Time

Urgency

Self Control

Epictetus

Epictetus was a 1st century Greek philosopher who was born into slavery.

No one is free who is not master of himself.
- Epictetus

People are not disturbed by things,
but by the view they take of them.
- Epictetus

All religions must be tolerated...
for every man must get to heaven in his own way.
- Epictetus

If thy brother wrongs thee,
remember not so much his wrong-doing,
but more than ever that he is thy brother.
- Epictetus

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

We cannot choose our external circumstances,
but we can always choose how to respond to them.
- Epictetus

Further reading: Joy Blooms Where Minds and Hearts are Open

What`s in a Name?

Honor (Self Respect)

Epictetus quotes

Self Mastery

Perspective

Tolerance

Forgiveness

Simple Living

When Life Looks Hopeless

There are no hopeless situations;
there are only men who have grown hopeless about them.
- Clare Boothe Luce

Sometimes good things fall apart
so better things can fall together.
- Marilyn Monroe

When you say a situation or a person is hopeless,
you are slamming the door in the face of God.
- Charles L. Allen

A little more persistence,
a little more effort, and
what seemed hopeless failure
may turn to glorious success.
- Elbert Hubbard

You have to accept whatever comes
and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage
and with the best that you have to give.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Life only appears to be rushing toward us.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Perhaps life is not as threatening as it appears.
Perhaps the greatest threat to our serenity
is our fear of the future - our fear of the unknown.
Perhaps, as Franklin D. Roosevelt said,
"The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself."

Further reading: How to Stop Worrying

Stop Anger Before it Stops You

Maybe So, Maybe Not.

Trust in the Light

Hope

Patience

Encouraging Thoughts

Keep Going

Courage

Strength Quotes

Choosing Happiness

Laugh when you can,
apologize when you should,
and let go of what you can't change.
Life's too short to be anything... but happy.
- Anonymous

Happiness is not something ready made.
It comes from your own actions.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you
shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
- Helen Keller

Happiness is a choice.
- Anonymous

Today's affirmation:
I become happy when I choose to accept and love all of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

The Secret of Happiness

Joy is a Choice - but Not an Easy Choice

Quotes about Being Happy

Happiness

Choice

Dance

Laugh

Worry

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

The best way to gain self-confidence
is to do what you are afraid to do.
- Anonymous

You're braver than you believe,
and stronger than you seem,
and smarter than you think.
- A. A. Milne

Stand Tall, Stand Proud.
Know that you are unique and magnificent.
You do not need the approval of others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Honor Thyself

Need for Approval

How to Feel Better About Yourself

Demands

To know what you prefer
instead of humbly saying Amen
to what the world tells you you ought to prefer,
is to have kept your soul alive.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Is freedom anything else than the right
to live as we wish? Nothing else.
- Epictetus

There is no passion to be found playing small -
in settling for a life that is less
than the one you are capable of living.
- Nelson Mandela

There is nothing I ever need to have.
There is nothing I ever need to do.
I say NO to the demands of the world.
I say YES to the longings of my own heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We disrespect ourselves and our free-will
whenever we say that we NEED to do something.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Joy is a Choice - but Not an Easy Choice

Appreciate the Unexpected

Expectations are demands

Question Every Assumption and Expectation

Demands

Choice

Obligation

Freedom

Quotes about Expectation

Disrespect

Good Works

Good works are links that form a chain of love.
- Mother Teresa

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

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

As we work to create light for others,
we naturally light our own way.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Today's affirmation:
I Resist the Temptation to Judge Others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Leave the world a bit better

Offering Comfort

My thoughts on Kindness, Charity, and Religion

Compassion

Mother Teresa Quotes

Service

Generosity

Light

Finding Yourself

Rejection

I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear
to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.
- Sylvester Stallone

A rejection is nothing more than a necessary step in the pursuit of success.
- Bo Bennett

Many people allow their need
for other people's approval to control their lives.
They spend their lives worrying about what others think of them.
- Rick Warren

Don't take rejection personally.
Don't let someone else's bad day spoil your day.
As long as you never reject yourself, you'll be fine.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Deal with Rejection

How To Not Care What Others Think

Need For Approval

Quotes about Approval

Don't Take Anything Personally

Self Esteem

Opinions

Rejection

Confidence

An Anchor And A Sail

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children
One is roots, the other is wings.
- Hodding Carter

A ship in port is safe,
but that's not what ships are built for.
Sail out to sea and do new things.
- Grace Hopper

Anchoring in soft mud is dangerous.
Anchor thyself to the rocks of Faith, Compassion, and Service.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Greatness is not in where we stand,
but in what direction we are moving.
We must sail sometimes with the wind
and sometimes against it -
but sail we must,
and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Cast your cares on God; that anchor holds.
- Frank Moore Colby

Further reading:  Tending the Garden of Our Lives

A ship in harbor

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

Anchor Quotes

Sail Quotes

Roots

Wings

Inspiration

Balance

Another Day

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Start living now.
Stop saving the good china
for that special occasion.
Stop withholding your love
until that special person materializes.
Every day you are alive is a special occasion.
Every minute, every breath, is a gift from God.
- Mary Manin Morrissey

Every day brings new choices.
- Martha Beck

I've developed a new philosophy...
I only dread one day at a time.
- the character Charlie Brown in Charles M. Schulz' Peanuts comic

Let every day be the first day
of the rest of your life,
but especially let today be a new beginning.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Move On and Let Go

How to Choose Your Life Purpose

How to Deal with Rejection

New Beginning Quotes

New Day Quotes

Sunrise Quotes

Moving On Quotes

Letting Go Quotes

Life Lessons Quotes

Living Your Inspired Life

The darkest night is often the bridge to the brightest tomorrow.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life was meant to be lived,
and curiosity must be kept alive.
One must never, for whatever reason,
turn his back on life.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak.
Strong convictions precede great actions.
- Louisa May Alcott

To know even one life has
breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

One thing I know: the only ones among you
who will be really happy are those
who will have sought and found how to serve.
- Albert Schweitzer

Please share my short video Living Your Inspired Life with your friends. The short URL is jlhuie.com/v1

Further reading:  How good things really are

Enjoy the journey

Rattlesnake of the Mind

Being Strong Quotes

Compassion Quotes

Encouraging Quotes

Quotes about Being of Service

Quotes about Success

My Quotes about Life

Unconditional Love

If we have no peace,
it is because we have forgotten
that we belong to each other.
- Mother Teresa

Do all things with love.
- Og Mandino

Love is the absence of judgment.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Love is the only force capable of
transforming an enemy into friend.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Where love is, there God is also.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Further reading: Love One Another

Unity (with Spirit and All Creation)

Where There is Love, Nothing is Missing - a Parable

Quotes about Unconditional Love

We are all one (quotes)

Quotes about Love

Quotes about Friends

Quotes about Generosity

Quotes on Forgiveness

April Fool

Perhaps April Fool's Day (April 1) is a day to take ourselves less seriously.

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs.
It's jolted by every pebble on the road.
- Henry Ward Beecher

The moment you start seeing life
as non-serious, a playfulness,
all the burden on your heart disappears.
All the fear of death, of life,
of love - everything disappears.
- Osho

Through humor, you can soften some
of the worst blows that life delivers.
And once you find laughter,
no matter how painful your situation might be,
you can survive it.
- Bill Cosby

Today is your day to laugh at life,
laugh at what's funny - laugh at what's sad,
laugh loud - laugh often,
laugh at me - laugh at you - laugh at life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Celebrate Whimsey Today

Live a Happier Life

Quotes about Balance

Fool Quotes

Quotes about Humor

Quotes about Laughter

Quotes about Play

Funny Quotes