Doing My Best

Simply do your best, and you will avoid
self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
- John Wooden

Whatever your life's work is, do it well.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Give the world the best you have
and it may never be enough.
Give the world your best anyway.
- Kent Keith (frequently attributed to Mother Teresa)

Success comes from knowing that
you did your best to become the best
that you are capable of becoming.
- John Wooden

Today's affirmation:
I do my best...
and then relax in the knowing
that I have done all I could.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Get Over Regrets and Resentments

Play to Win, but be a Good Loser
 
The Cost of Regret

How to Forgive and Move On 

Simple Yet Divine

These are the things I hold divine:
A trusting child's hand laid in mine,
Rich brown earth and wind-tossed trees,
The taste of grapes and the drone of bees,
A rhythmic gallop, long June days,
A rose-hedged lane and lovers' lays,
The welcome smile on neighbors' faces,
Cool, wide hills and open places,
Breeze-blown fields of silver rye,
The wild, sweet note of the plover's cry,
Fresh spring showers and scent of box,
The soft, pale tint of the garden phlox,
Lilacs blooming, a drowsy noon,
A flight of geese and an autumn moon,
Rolling meadows and storm-washed heights,
A fountain murmur on summer nights,
A dappled fawn in the forest hush,
Simple words and the song of a thrush,
Rose-red dawns and a mate to share
With comrade soul my gypsy fare,
A waiting fire when the twilight ends,
A gallant heart and the voice of friends.
- Jean Brooks Burt

The spark divine dwells in thee: let it grow.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Today's affirmation:
I view the Divine, and All of Life,
from the perspective of Celebration.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Stop Worrying

Rejoice in the way things are

The Secret of Happiness

Inner Peace

Contented Living

My Quotes about Simplicity

My Quotes about Values

Courage to Take Action

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for.
- John A. Shedd

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered,
you will never grow.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but the moments that take our breath away.
- Anonymous

The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.
- Oprah Winfrey

A life lived in fear is a life half lived.
- Anonymous

Further reading: My thoughts on "safety" versus living full-out

Fear of the Unknown

You Need Courage

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

Success Tip: Drive Change

What Can Christopher Columbus Teach Us Today?

Choose to Follow Your Heart

Everyone should carefully observe
which way his heart draws him,
and then choose that way with all his strength.
- Hasidic Proverb

All that is real is seen with the heart.
- Vivian Greene

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition -
they somehow already know what you truly want to become.
- Steve Jobs

The most beautiful things in the world
cannot be seen or even touched,
they must be felt with the heart.
- Helen Keller

The key to forgiveness is to forgive from the heart -
not from the mind.
- Sheri Rosenthal

Say NO to the demands of the world.
Say YES to the longings of your own heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Follow Your Heart

Love in My Heart

How to Be Yourself

Changing Your Heart

Listen To Your Heart

Bad Habits

Bad habits are like a comfortable bed,
easy to get into, but hard to get out of.
- Anonymous

Are your habits moving you toward your life goals?
Or are they keeping you stuck in place?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Correcting bad habits cannot be done by forbidding or punishment.
- Robert Baden-Powell (the founder of scouting)

The freedom we are looking for is the freedom to be ourselves,
to express ourselves. But if we look at our lives we will see that
most of the time we do things just to please others ...
The worst part is that most of us are not even aware that we are not free.
-Don Miguel Ruiz

Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make,
both consciously and unconsciously.
If you can control the process of choosing,
you can take control of all aspects of your life.
You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.
- Robert Foster Bennett

Is today the day to stop doing what doesn't inspire you, but has become a habit?

Is today the day to begin new projects and a new way of life that truly inspires you?

Further reading: 5 Secrets For Breaking Your Bad Habits

Running in Circles

Our Habits

Self Discipline

Habits - Like Water to a Fish

Are You a Prisoner?

Never Try To Stop The Music

You can't stop the music, nobody can stop the music.
- Village People

Progress is impossible without change,
and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
- George Bernard Shaw

The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.
- Charles Kettering
(Kettering's many inventions included the electric automobile starter)

You've gotta find a way to get out of your own way,
so you can progress in life.
- Steve Carlton

The important work of moving the world forward
does not wait to be done by perfect men.
- George Eliot

Cheer progress and never try to stop the music. Read more here...

Further reading:  New Ideas

Moving Forward

Progress of the Human Mind

Everything Happens In Its Own Time

March On

Attitude toward Gratitude

When a person doesn't have gratitude,
something is missing in his or her humanity.
A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.
- Elie Wiesel

Thank you, God, for this good life
and forgive us if we do not love it enough.
- Garrison Keillor

Gratitude in advance is the most powerful
creative force in the universe.
- Neale Donald Walsch

None is more impoverished than the one who has no gratitude.
Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves,
and spend without fear of bankruptcy.
- Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

Keep a grateful journal. Every night,
list five things you are grateful for.
- Oprah Winfrey

Gratitude and greed are directly opposite states of human existence.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Humility: a Prime Virtue

Gratitude for a Helping Hand

Rejoice and Be Thankful

A Thankful Heart

Feeling Blessed

More Quotes about Gratitude

God Grant Me The Wisdom

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr (Serenity Prayer)

He who knows others is wise.
He who knows himself is enlightened.
- Lao Tzu

Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three
universally recognized moral qualities of men.
- Confucius

Common sense in an uncommon degree
is what the world calls wisdom.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Please, register to vote TODAY, and VOTE on election day.
Voting for the kind of America you believe in
is one of the greatest gifts you can give your grandchildren.
Make a difference.

Create the legacy of a better world.
Leave this world a better place than you found it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Serenity in Times of Crisis

Eye Of The Storm

Antidotes for Worry

Love and Wisdom

Being Observant

Thinking for Yourself

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends,
of most of the people you see every day,
is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
- Theodore H. White

Every human has four endowments:
self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination.
These give us the ultimate human freedom...
The power to choose, to respond, to change.
- Stephen Covey

When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves
and our own self-preservation,
we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.
- Joseph Campbell

Life is a sum of all your choices.
- Albert Camus

Today's thought: Don't play "follow the leader."
Think FOR yourself, but not always ABOUT yourself.

Further reading: The Trouble with Conformity

Doing What You Know Is Right

Try Being Outrageous

Embrace Change

Making a Decision

Life as Currency

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
- Henry David Thoreau

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
- Steve Jobs

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Don't compromise yourself.
You are all you've got.
- Janis Joplin

Be alert. The most important things in life are seldom the most obvious.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Choose Your Priorities

Your To-Do List

Question Your Questions

The Main Thing

Your Relationship with Time

Box of Chocolates

Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates.
You never know what you're gonna get.
- the movie Forrest Gump

Keep your eyes open to your mercies.
The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Unexpected events can set you back or set you up.
It's all a matter of - perspective.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't
come as a result of getting something we don't have,
but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.
- Frederick Koenig

Mostly, it is human to dislike surprises -
often with great intensity.
Be open to new ways;
sometimes newness just knocks on your door;
welcome it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Appreciate the Unexpected

Getting Better

Overcoming Fear

Life Really Is Good

The Edge of All We Know

Addicted to safety?

Equanimity/Composure

Equanimity (or composure) is the state of being calm, balanced, and in control of one's emotions, even under stress or in the midst of difficulty.

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.
It is far better take things as they come along
with patience and equanimity.
- Carl Jung

Without accepting the fact that everything changes,
we cannot find perfect composure.
But unfortunately, although it is true,
it is difficult for us to accept it.
Because we cannot accept the truth of transience,
we suffer.
- Shunryu Suzuki

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity
opinions which differ from
the prejudices of their social environment.
Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
- Albert Einstein

Affirmation:
I choose to respond to life's provocations,
not with anger, resentment, or regret,
but with equanimity and a focus on positive action.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Ancient Wisdom about Uncertain Times

Complaining Creates Unhappiness

Restraint

Staying Positive

Stillness

Luck

Everything is God

Everything is God.
- don Miguel Ruiz

God makes everything out of Itself by becoming the thing it makes.
- Ernest Holmes

We can never be the better for our religion
if our neighbor is the worse for it.
- Anonymous

You hold onto religion,
you know, rules, regulations, traditions.
I think what God is interested in
is people's hearts, and that's hard enough.
- Bono

What is a miracle? To some, it is an act of God.
To others, something amazing, extraordinary, or unexpected.
To me, Life is a miracle.
Everything that happens is a miracle.
There is no reason for me to exist as I do -
no reason for humanity, the universe, or the laws of Nature.
Energy, mass, gravity and the rest of existence
are all so improbable.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Doing God's Work

Belief in Miracles

Creating The World That Could Be

The Power of Unconditional Love

Love Your Neighbor

A Common Denominator of All Religions

Beyond Your Worries

Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow...
but only empties today of its strength.
- C. H. Spurgeon

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

If I could tell the world just one thing
it would be we're all okay,
and not to worry cause worry is wasteful
and useless in times like these.
I won't be made useless.
I won't be idle with despair,
I will gather myself around my faith.
Light does the darkness most fear.
- Jewel 

When you feel worried and depressed,
consciously form a smile on your face and act upbeat
until the happy feeling becomes genuine.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation:
I gather strength from life's storms.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:  Ways to De-Stress Your Life

Feeling Down? Help Someone Else

Count Your Blessings - Not Your Troubles

Feeling Depressed?

Times of Trial and Suffering

Feeling Sorry for Yourself?

The Darkest Night

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

When you find your path, you must not be afraid.
You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes.
Disappointment, defeat, and despair are
the tools God uses to show us the way.
- Paulo Coelho

Fear defeats more people than
any other one thing in the world.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Further reading: Dark Days

Again Tomorrow

Endings and Beginnings

Beyond the Cloud

Every Tomorrow

Natural Goodness

Think Big, Act Big

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

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.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, Begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it, Begin it now.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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: Being Big - Standing Tall

Live Your Greatest Life

Wanting is Not Enough

Find Your Passion

Love All, Judge None

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
- Mother Teresa

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

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

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

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

Further reading: The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Ending Hatred

Peace IS the Way

Doing God's Work

Dream of Peace

Believe in People; Believe in Yourself

Conscious Learning

I'm not afraid of storms for I'm learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott

Develop a passion for learning.
If you do, you will never cease to grow.
- Anthony J. D'Angelo

If you put yourself in a position where
you have to stretch outside your comfort zone,
then you are forced to expand your consciousness.
- Les Brown

Intellectual growth should commence at birth
and cease only at death.
- Albert Einstein

Cultivate a 'learning consciousness,'
in which your experiences, knowledge,
and attitudes expand over time;
in contrast to a 'fixed consciousness,'
in which one stagnates and fails to progress.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Lifelong Learning

How We Learn

How Life Teaches

Learning From History

Renewing Yourself

Question Your Questions

The Miracle of Gratitude

The miracle of gratitude is that it shifts your perception
to such an extent that it changes the world you see.
- Robert Holden

We can only be said to be truly alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
- Thornton Wilder

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

The more you praise and celebrate your life,
the more there is in life to celebrate.
- Oprah Winfrey

The path to happiness is forgiveness of everyone
and gratitude for everything.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Zero-Based Gratitude

Feeling Blessed

Celebrating Rainbows and Butterflies - the Small Miracles of Our Life

A List of Gratitudes

A Thankful Heart

An Attitude of Gratitude

Good Times - Sad Times

Write your Sad times in Sand,
Write your Good times in Stone.
- George Bernard Shaw

Instead of dwelling on negative thoughts,
cause your mind to dwell on peace and joy.
- Ernest Holmes

If only the people who worry about their liabilities
would think about the riches they do possess,
they would stop worrying.
- Dale Carnegie

He who spends time regretting the past,
loses the present and risks the future.
- Quevedo

Further reading: 12 Life Lessons I Learned From My Cat

Feeling Depressed?

When It's Darkest

Count Your Blessings - Not Your Troubles

Overcoming Anxiety

Five Questions to Ask Yourself When You Feel Sad for No Apparent Reason

Inner Peace in a World at War

You're only here for a short visit.
Don't hurry. Don't worry.
And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.
- Walter Hagen

The key to happiness is inner peace.
The greatest obstacles to inner peace are disturbing emotions
such as anger, attachment, fear and suspicion,
while love and compassion and a sense of universal responsibility
are the sources of peace and happiness.
- Dalai Lama

The greatest weapon against stress
is our ability to choose one thought over another.
- William James

Forgiveness is not always easy.
At times, it feels more painful
than the wound we suffered,
to forgive the one that inflicted it.
And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.
- Marianne Williamson

Further reading: Five 30-Second Emotional Releases to De-Stress

Choose Not To Stress

Your Relationship with Time

Stop Fighting Against Yourself

Choose Inner Peace and a Less Stressful Life

The Illusion of Knowledge

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -
it is the illusion of knowledge.
- Daniel J. Boorstin

What people believe prevails over the truth.
- Sophocles

Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories
by which we categorize and dismiss each other need
to be excavated from the inside.
- Dorothy Allison

There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.
When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Truth is not defined by
how many people believe something.
Ask. Question. Think.
Decide - for yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Nature of Belief

Assumptions

Expectations - Demands

What`s in a Name?

Who am I to Judge?

Labels

Living in the Present

If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.
- Lao Tzu

Yesterday is ashes.
Tomorrow is green wood.
Only today does the fire burn brightly.
- Eskimo Saying

Yesterday is history,
tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That is why it is called Present.
- Anonymous

If you aren't in the moment,
you are either looking forward to uncertainty,
or back to pain and regret.
- Jim Carrey

Further reading: Cherish This Moment

Don't Wait - Begin Today

Mastering Time

Live Fully

Living in Harmony

Breathe In, Breathe Out

Blaze Your Own Trail

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions;
it is easy in solitude to live after your own;
but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.
- Elbert Hubbard

For those men who, sooner or later,
are lucky enough to break away from the pack,
the most intoxicating moment comes
when they cease being bodies in other men's command
and find that they control their own time,
when they learn their own voice and authority.
- Theodore H. White

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

Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Resilience is about believing in yourself,
and trusting your own wisdom
rather than being swayed by the opinions of others.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Only Your Own Approval

Independence - Liberty - Freedom

Be Yourself

Have Confidence in Yourself

Mark Twain: the really great ...

Your Point of View

Your point of view sets you up well in advance
for how you view the events as they unfold.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

The beauty does not live out there; the beauty's in my eyes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
- John Lubbock

Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
- Franz Kafka

You have a choice about the perspective you take on life.
See tragedy, and the world is tragic -
see beauty, and the world is beautiful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: What You See

Finding Beauty

Beauty is Everywhere

Point of View

Perspective

Lifelong Learning

Unity with Spirit and All Creation

We are all connected to everyone and everything in the universe.
Therefore, everything one does as an individual affects the whole.
All thoughts, words, images, prayers, blessings, and deeds
are listened to by all that is.
- Serge Kahili King

Kindness is the light that dissolves
all walls between souls, families, and nations.
- Paramahansa Yogananda

He who experiences the unity of life
sees his own Self in all beings,
and all beings in his own Self.
- The Buddha

An "enemy" is a mirage -
an image of self reflected on the sands of Hell.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation:
I Am One With Spirit and All Creation -
I give thanks for the unity of all creation
and for everything that has brought me to this moment.
I release my entire being to the gentle nurture of Spirit.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading:  Condemn None

One World

Perspective on Diversity

Respecting All Others

UNITY - the eighth Point of Simply An Inspired Life

The World is My Family

Confidence and Action

Those who believe they can do something
and those who believe they can't
are both right.
- Henry Ford

The most difficult thing is the decision to act,
the rest is merely tenacity.
The fears are paper tigers.
You can do anything you decide to do.
You can act to change and control your life;
and the procedure, the process is its own reward.
- Amelia Earhart

All our dreams can come true,
if we have the courage to pursue them.
- Walt Disney

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.
Live the life you have imagined.
- Henry David Thoreau

Today's affirmation:
I am unstoppable.

Whether the challenge is reaching the moon, sailing around the world, hitting a home run, acing a job interview, or walking again after a stroke, we can usually accomplish what we believe we can. But once we doubt ourselves, success slips beyond our grasp.

Further reading: Power of Thought

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams

Intentional Living

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

The Edge of All We Know

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing

Tears and Laughter

Tears and laughter cleanse the heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

There is a sacredness in tears.
They are not the mark of weakness,
but of power.
They speak more eloquently
than ten thousand tongues.
They are messengers of
overwhelming grief ...
and unspeakable love.
- Washington Irving

Those who don't know how to weep
with their whole heart,
don't know how to laugh either
- Golda Meir

Are you holding back long-suppressed emotions? Let your feelings flow, right now.

While some of us wear our emotions on our sleeve, others keep feelings bottled up for decades. Strike a balance. If you are suffering with unexpressed frustration or grief, let the tears flow. Then find a friend to laugh with. Laughter, however artificial it feels, lightens the saddest moments and bonds us to family and friends.

Further reading: How To Cope With Loss, Grief and the Fear Of Your Own Mortality

Celebrate endings - for they precede new beginnings

Coping with Heartbreak 

Life is magnificent - just as it comes

Life's burdens are lighter when I laugh at myself

Grief

Feelings

Why is This Happening?

"Why?" is the most useless question in the universe.
The only question with any meaning is "What?"
Asking "Why is this happening?" can only disempower you.
Asking "What do I want to make of this?" does exactly the opposite.
- Neale Donald Walsch

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The less I take the difficulties of my life as personal affront,
and the more I use them as an opportunity to learn and grow...
the easier I sleep at night.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

I am determined to be cheerful and happy
in whatever situation I may find myself.
For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness
is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.
- Martha Washington

There is a secret wisdom-of-the-ages
that holds the key to breaking our cycle of self-imposed suffering.
The secret wisdom is, "Life is not supposed to be fair."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Not Fair, But Joyful

A Hard Life

My thoughts on "Life is not supposed to be fair." 

Do not rail against life

Serenity in Times of Crisis

What is Defeat?

Labor

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance
and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The world is moved along, not only
by the mighty shoves of its heroes,
but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes
of each honest worker.
- Helen Keller

There is no labor a person does that is undignified;
if they do it right.
- Bill Cosby

Everything that is really great and inspiring
is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.
- Albert Einstein

Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose.
- Leonardo da Vinci

Further reading: A Balanced Life

Called to be a Street Sweeper

Your Life Purpose

Helen Keller

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bill Cosby